Friday, November 29, 2002

Politicians and God's law
I say to David Wells: Amen. I am happy to see a self-described religious person take a stand for the Constitution and against theocrats like Rob Portman and George Bush.
I am off on a vacation. Blogging will be light or non-existent, depending on my access to the Internet.

Thursday, November 28, 2002

Singer 'postponed flight because of flu'
Church is scheduled to appear at the USB Arena on Dec 3 as part of "A Royal Christmas." This illness might drop her from the show. The event also includes Julie Andrews, who can carry it by herself anyway, and Christopher Plummer.
Menorah, cross kept off square
No mention of the ACLU involvement in the case. The City got a break for its annual holiday kickoff on Fountain Square tomorrow. The KKK is not going to be allowed to post a cross on the square this season. I wonder why they don't try it at any other time of the year? I would encourage as many people as possible tomorrow to dress up as Santa Claus or Mrs. Claus and head on down to the square for the party.
Happy Turkey Day!

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

Ruling Opens Door For Another Klan Christmas Cross
Greenwood won the case, and he gets the blame for any Klan cross that appears. This case has two odd parts. I agree with banning all religious displays on the square, but the "Christmas Tree" is in my opinion a secular symbol related to a religiously based holiday. The Christmas tree is based on a Pagan religious tradition and it is not part of any of the religious dogma of Christianity. The cross, on the other hand, is clearly a religious symbol along with the menorah.

I think another element of the case covered banning a man from dressing as Santa Claus and handing out information about a homeless shelter. This in my opinion is clearly a protected freedom of expression. WCPO's version of the story.

Follow-up: Dan Horn from the Enquirer responded to my inquiry regarding his article in my post below. He is not sure, nor I am, as to whether this lawsuit was supported and/or paid for by the ACLU. The impression Greenwood gave yesterday on WLW was that it the ACLU was at least supporting it. Since the local homeless group was added, I would imagine that the ACLU was on board with Greenwood’s actions.

UPDATE: The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stay on the ruling in this case, keeping the City Ordinance in effect.

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

CityBeat: Political Irritants
The protestors should be pleased at this outcome. Most of the protestors at Bush's speech back in October were white, yet the Police still treated them with force, just like black protestors. Equal treatment is what protestors and boycotters both seek. Equal treatment is what the protestors received with the pepper spray. Progress is a good thing; take all progress you can get. I hope I don't hear any boycotters pissed about this. I bet they liked it. As long as it wasn't blacks being sprayed with chemicals the CJC, BUF, and the clown posse et al will not care what happens to a group of progressive populists. They might have even gotten a little chuckle out of it, in private of course.
CityBeat: Porkopolis "Turn the Mall Into an Anti-War Rally" (near bottom)
Greg Flannery writes about an anti-war protest slated for December 21, 2002 where "activists plan to invade shopping malls across the country to disallow business as usual and tell consumers, ‘Stop the buying! Stop the dying!’" Their goals include making some insane leap that the US over consumption leads to international violence. Under consumption could lead to just the same international violence. In reality international violence is going to happen no matter what the US does or does not do. This group is just another bunch of fringe anti-capitalist transnational progressives, or in other words, modern communists.

I call them modern communists because they use the same rhetoric as a Stalinist would use, but they seem to embrace small-scale capitalism. They like a small coffee shop, or vegan cafe, but they hate corporations of any type. City Beat gives these kids too much attention. City Beat is not void of capitalism, and if these kids were to understand anything about simple capitalism, they would not cry about it so much. I understand why they don't trust corporations and Bush's whoring for said corporations, but they are so far out of touch that they go off the deep end with their ideas and their rhetoric. Yes, the Iraq conflict is partially about Oil and economic interests. Every war is about that to some degree. WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Gulf War I, and even Kosovo had at least economic overtones to them. One of the National interests of the US is the economic interests of Americans. Money, wealth, and power matter to life. Giving up money, praying to Buddha, and becoming vegan will not stop bad things happening in the world. There will always be someone who is poor. Will it be their fault they are poor? Sometimes yes, sometimes partially yes, and sometimes no.
Snow Comes And Goes Tuesday
The Cincinnati Area gets a reprieve from the WHITE DEATH.
Fountain holiday displays on trial
Funny thing missing from this article: where isn't the ACLU mentioned? Scott Greenwood, the attorney representing the plaintiffs who are challenging the City ordinance is the lead local lawyer for the ACLU. The ACLU may not officially endorse this case, but I thought Greenwood generally only took cases that would be supported by the ACLU. Greenwood was on WLW today with Cunningham about the Adams county 10 commandments lawsuit. Willie's callers seem to be dumber than even Adams county dirt. It was like hearing a Green Stamp trading convention keynote speaker. Greenwood mentioned this lawsuit, so I assume it has the full support of the ACLU. The terms he spoke of regarding the merits of the Fountain Square lawsuit sounded like generally traditional ACLU stances. I am still perplexed as to why the ACLU involvement would not be mentioned in the Enquirer Article. I will email the reporter and ask.

UPDATE: WCPO's story on this issue does not tie Greenwood to his ACLU position, but mentions the KKK-Fountain Square case was made by the ACLU, which in fact was Greenwood's case.
Enquirer gets new editor
My first suggest to Tom Callinan would be to put the editorial content of the Enquirer on the website just like his old newspaper. It lists the editorials, columns, and letters to the editor. I guess Peter Bronson was scared to put his paper's opinions online when he was editorial page editor. Since Wells is only the associate editorial page editor, he must not have the power to drop Bronson's prior structure. Mr. Callinan, just think of all of the web traffic your site would generate by my blogging alone.

(cough, cough, couch »» I guess I need to see a doctor for this "cough")
U.S. Rep. Lucas considers switch to Republican party
When Jim Jeffords left the GOP and became an independent, the Republicans wanted to crucify him for doing so less than 6 months after being reelected. Many demanded he pay back money to the GOP and some even considered going to court to get back the GOP money. Now the same political party, the GOP, is wooing Ken Lucas less than a month after the Democratic Party helped get Lucas elected. If Lucas does switch not only will he look bad, but the hypocrite GOP will also have to lie for months while claiming to be the "religious" folk they are. They seem to be missing the meaning of golden rule, or they have a waiver from their "god", since they are battling their self-described "Satan."

Monday, November 25, 2002

2 Gannett Newspaper Editors Switch Jobs
Interesting development. How will this affect editorial coverage? How will it affect news coverage? I will have to check out the Arizona newspaper and check out its content and layout. I don't know what brought about the change, but it will be an interesting event to observe.
Chris Anderson asks everyone to pick a religon using this test. For the record I have no religion by definition, but my test results were as follows:

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (92%)
3. Nontheist (84%)
4. Theravada Buddhism (71%)
5. Liberal Quakers (68%)
6. Neo-Pagan (59%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (53%)
8. Taoism (41%)
9. New Age (40%)
10. Reform Judaism (38%)
11. Mahayana Buddhism (29%)
12. New Thought (26%)
13. Scientology (26%)
14. Orthodox Quaker (22%)
15. Sikhism (22%)
16. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (19%)
17. Bahá'í Faith (15%)
18. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (15%)
19. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (12%)
20. Eastern Orthodox (7%)
21. Hinduism (7%)
22. Islam (7%)
23. Jainism (7%)
24. Orthodox Judaism (7%)
25. Roman Catholic (7%)
26. Seventh Day Adventist (7%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (0%)
Chris Anderson gives Peter Bronson an F in Cincinnati geography. Pete needs some remedial work with map reading, or maybe he should actually visit the Zoo before comment on it.
UC coach blames `dead time' for Hawaii brawl
What a copout answer. Reports are that Minter will not discipline any of his players for the fight at Hawaii. UC reportedly threw the first punch after much provocation. Hawaii appears to be a classless team, but Minter carried on the UC tradition of letting bad behavior of its athletes go unpunished.
Jay Love Commenting on the Ohio State Melee.
Jay Love of 1230 the Buzz has on his race colored glasses today. He bemoans the Enquirer for not using the same "commentary" in the way it "refers" to young people in Columbus as it did in Cincinnati. Jay is race baiting. He is building up an issue that will gin up the racial discord all in the name of providing an entertaining show. This is not new for Jay, or anyone at the Buzz, but it does no good to the community at large.

Jay seeks to put the incidents at the Black Family Reunion in the exact same frame as the incidents after the Ohio State game. This premise is flawed at its inception. Jay wishes to compare the actions of two different age groups. He wishes to compare a drunken crowd to a sober crowd. He wants to compare the actions of adults with unsupervised children.

Jay is trying to promote a "spiracy." The "white man's" paper is out to get the black youth. I guess Jay will not be happy unless the Black community gets the equal use of adjectives. No Adjectives! No Peace! Wilding for all or Wilding for none! Riots for all.....hey wait....didn't half of the media in town call last years riots an "unrest?" What was term used on this article? The word "unrest" was used in the subheadline:
45 arrested in off-campus unrest
That sounds familiar. Where have I heard that used before? (Cough, cough, here, cough) Jay wants equal terms for equal events. I guess the Enquirer saw the April 2001 riots and the Ohio State riots to be cut from the same cloth. Hmmm, much ado about nothing? Nothing for nothing's sake.
UPDATE: This quote that came to mind as an afterthought for Jay is: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Sunday, November 24, 2002

Cincinnati's hysteric collaborative agreement
Bronson is the Revisionist du jour:
Jimmy Carter. His Nobel Peace Prize-winning failures in the Middle East and North Korea are nothing compared to what he could do to Cincinnati. When he's done, the boycotters will have nuclear weapons.
Peter still is pissed about the fixed rate mortgage he got in 1979. He must not be smart enough to have learned about refinancing. Get over your Carter bashing Peter, the man is a peace maker. There has not been a war between Eqypt and Israel since 1973 in large part due to Carter's influence over the Camp David Accord. I bet Pete is still pissed about the Panama Canal too. His fears of a Chinese take over of the Istmus are going to give him a heart attack. Huggins would surely get another one if he got involved with this mess. He should stick to coaching his prison basketball team.
Decision doesn't silence supporters
If the decision is made by the school board to remove the tablets, he said, "don't let them do it in the dead of night. Make sure the media is there to see it."
For the religious zealots in Adams county this all about getting attention for their religion. It is about promotion of their religion using the public schools. It is not about freedom it is about submission to a theocratic movement of religious thugs.

This article is also totally one sided. Maybe that occurs because this county has caused all dissenters to clam up and not speak out to the press. Religious oppression is not some myth in rural areas. Running people out of town on a rail is a cliché, but it is based on reality. Anyone who disagrees with what these religious people have done is at risk of being "shun" by the community if they don't conform. This is the exact reason why separation of church and state is such a vital principle for the nation. If the church can't stay out of the state, then the state should start getting into the church's business and take about tax-free status.
UC brawls after loss to Hawaii
UC could not let Miami get all of the bad attention and had to start a full-fledged brawl on the field. Hawaii takes an equal share of the blame for this however. Hawaii's players acted like thugs holding up a UC helmet as a trophy after the fight. This makes the Miami-Marshall game look like a Sunday Picnic. Ohio State and NC State had riots on the field and off the field. College Football is a mess.
Man taken to forest faces drug charges (4th item)
This is the guy the 1230 the Buzz caller base was defending? I guess the adage "drug dealers is people too" has meaning to someone after all.
For the Northern Kentuckians out there Here is a blog on public affairs for Kentucky.

Saturday, November 23, 2002

Portman backs schools in legal fight
"It is the basic moral foundation that does not promote one religion over another," Mr. Portman said.
Can he lie more? That set of the "Ten Commandments" is the Protestant version. What about the Jewish, Catholic, and Muslim version? Even in his terms of what religion is, that monument favors his sect of Christianity. I guess also thinks that polytheistic religions are not really religions. I guess the 1 billion Hindus are just atheists then Rob? Is this willful ignorance? Or is Rob just that stupid?
MADD: Trend disturbing
The modern temperance movement lives on. The right wing drunks out there I am sure call this a "liberal" group.
Fight for Commandments
It is nice to see that my congressman has come out of the closet and declared himself a theocratic fascist:
Portman said he appreciated the work of those dedicated to making "our nation, our state and our communities more God-centered.''
If Portman wants to make his life "god-centered" that is fine and dandy, but to try and make his religion the focus of the this community, this state, and the entire nation is nothing but the goal of theocratic fascism. A majority rules religion is not constitutional, no matter how much the theocrats try and force in on everyone. The stone tablets must go and must go now. The intent of the ministers and school officials in Adams County was to establish a community religion. Anyone of those fighting for the religious display that claims otherwise is lying. In case they forgot, lying is something those stone tablets forbids. I guess a lie in the defense of theocratic fascism is no vice, or sin in this case.

Thursday, November 21, 2002

When I was at Miami it was the Pikes and the Fiji's who were the "druggies."
I have to disagree with Chris Anderson on Bill Cunningham. Cunningham is not entertaining. He is like listening to 3rd graders sing Christmas carols. Fingernails on chalkboards make for a better afternoon than Willie's antics.
Activists: Police let officers get away with wrongdoing
The usual suspects give the usual answers.
Martin bows out as lawyer for city
Martin's use was already past. His expertise is in the negotiations, not the aftermath of the agreement.

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Mayor rethinks pricey lawyer
Did the Sunday Enquirer article push Luken over the edge against Martin? Luken did not like the article at all, but now he seems to be flowing with the winds of public opinion like a feather.
Goal: 30% minority contracts for convention center
30% minority contracts? There are not enough minorities in the area to fill that quota. If you read the fine print of the article it states that the 30% of the contracts covers small businesses and minorities. A nice little bait and switch headline.
Miami students arrested on drug charges
The Acacia House? I would have guessed the Pikes, but my memory of the Acacia house was as a cleaner cut frat. I have no pity for these guys. Pot should be legalized, but those who try and deal drug on any kind of scale deserve what they get.
Court: Ten Commandments must be removed from Ohio schools
An excellent decision. These stone monuments should have been never been allow to be place on public school grounds. The only more direct display of religion would have been to place a cross in front of the schools. I am sure the Peter Bronsons and Phil Burresses of the world are praying for their "righteous" cause.

Monday, November 18, 2002

Father charged with hitting son, 2
When does child abuse make the news? Child abuse happens every day, but why is the media jumping on this story? WCPO piles on with their story. WXIX had a lengthy report showing a lot of video of the man and his kid before the alleged incident, but not the incident itself. Why is this man being singled out? He may well be beating his kids, but there are far more people who are charged with the crime not getting their names in the news. I guess the video starved TV news wanted the story for the pictures, but the newspaper wanted to overflow of the beating caught on tape of the women beating her daughter in Indiana. The media put forth yet another example earning them the label of sensational bottom feeders.
BRONSON: The rap against old coots
Peter's beating a dead horse with two stones in the bush, which are better than one glass house.
Jerry Springer funded Ohio Democrats
Will Jerry run? Why the Hell not? Who else is going to run? If Jesse Ventura can become mayor, Hillary can win in NY, and the late Sonny Bono can become a congressman, anything is possible. Jerry would have to quit his show for a year or so before the election to indicate he is serious. He can't do worse than past candidates against the Republicans.

Sunday, November 17, 2002

Lawyer's bill tops monitor's fees
City Council has egg on its face for this one. I credit this story to Jay Love and the "Week in Review" gang for pressuring John Cranley to release the details on Martin's bill. There is a clear difference between the two lawyers, one was a lawyer for the city, and the other had an independent role. It is not fare to compare the two bills line for line or by dollar amounts. Both lawyers had different duties and different responsibilities. This will be fodder for the Buzz through the week.

Saturday, November 16, 2002

Alleged Gang Rape Rocks Kentucky College Campus
Is this synergy or is this Plagiarism?
Retiring justice could quiet city's racial woes
This appears to be the boycotters choice du jour, while according to the Post Vice Mayor Reece has Judge Jones in Mind.
Chris Anderson puts the racial conflict square on both sets of shoulder's responsible, the City leaders and the boycotters, while Denise Smith Amos from the Enquirer wants to lay blame on the City, and presumably the "white community," what ever that is supposed to be.
Marshall won't change security
Typical response from Marshall, their shit doesn't stink. Marshall needs to keep its Alumni off the field, namely 36 year olds who should know better.

Friday, November 15, 2002

Fifth Third under scrutiny for $54M 3Q charge - Nov. 15, 2002
All of this without a chairman of the SEC.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center has re-launched its website in hopes of adding more attention and more donations.
When the whole tale is told, many are responsible for incident
This is a must read for all College Football fans, but especially for Miami, Marshall and all MAC school fans.

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Miami suspends two assistant football coaches
I don't know what to say about this. I felt I had to bring it up here, but where I stand on the issues involved are not simple and not totally set. I am disappointed with the over coverage of this incident, but I am more disappointed in my alma mater's football program. I hope they can get past this incident with honor and dignity. I do also wish the opponent Miami played last night will learn something from the atmosphere they have created around their football program. The program and the fans of that program need to take a second of self-introspection and see that they have gone over the edge into a chasm of incivility. I sincerely hope Miami gets past this situation and continues on a path of excellence that is has, up to this point, achieved. I would rather go undefeated and never appear on TV again, than have this kind of embarrassment to the University ever again.
Protester arrested outside Springsteen concert
This is not the first report I have heard regarding Dwight Patton's behavior at protests. According to an affidavit filed by the victim, Dwight Patton bit his thumb. Does Dwight have some kind of odd fetish? Does Dwight need anger management classes?
Concert goes smoothly
As expected the chicken little press was wrong about this molehill. I hope similar concerts can go on in Cincinnati with limited festival seating. The fear of possibility should not be confused with probability.
Kalmanoff resigns as monitor of police reforms
Will he be paid the $55,000? Will he get a big settlement? Will the city retain custody of his beard? Stay tuned Cincinnatians! Same blog time, same blog channel.
CityBeat: Your Negro Tour Guide "Head Job"
Based on her column, Kathy would fit the stereotype of a hypersensitive black activist who is none to keen on white people that touch her. I guess if a white driver cuts her off on the highway, it was because of her race. If I were to not hold the door open for her, is it because she is black? If she gets turned down for a job, is it because she was black? If she is the only black person in an elevator full of white people and a white person puts his hand on her head, is it because she is black? It has nothing to do with him being drunk?

If this column is supposed to be satire, I guess because I am white it went over my head.

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

High court's integrity hangs by thread
You will not read this in a Cincinnati Newspaper. The Ohio Medical community appears to have purchased a Supreme Court Judgeship for their gal. CalPundit has more on this subject.
Ch. 9 stands for more changes
Musical chairs will not make the fluff go away. Stop reporting the weapies, and start back up with hard news. For the record: News is not the latest diet from Kathy Lee or the new movie staring the network sitcom star. Try telling me what City Council voted on, or the County Commission, or even the General Assembly.
A Top Ten worth reading from Chris Anderson.
Boycott backers: Bruce is hypocrite
Mike McConnell points out that the lyrics to the song in question is not a song that really fits they boycotter's "cause." The song is a lament that you must make sure you act in a way to avoid being killed. The lyrics do indicate sorrow and trepidation that such a situation exists, but to call Springsteen a hypocrite is a factitious argument of a desperate group. The BUF is and has been attempting to puff up their situation to that of New York or Los Angeles, but the analogy is a malevolent attempt at gaining national attention. The boycott was established for the express purpose of extorting money from the City of Cincinnati and local Businesses. The underlying police-community relations that were the alleged basis for the boycott are being addressed by the CAN commission and the Collaborative Agreement. I wonder if the boycotters will protest Bruce and how many racial slurs will he be called during said protest. Maybe I should start a pool.

Monday, November 11, 2002

Library drops planned closings
If this means fewer hours open at the rest of the branches, along with a reduction in acquisitions, then I say close the small branches.
Artist captures cow to Max
Did this cow ever get an official name? Charlie Mooken was a popular favorite of many. I am no expert on art, but this painting is nothing I would hang in my bathroom.
BRONSON: Team up to fire the monitor
Mr. Kalmanoff comes from Berkeley, Calif. - which is as far from Cincinnati as Mars.
That is true, but Cincinnati is Pluto in the analogy of planets.

Side note: I give Bronson credit for correcting his Detroit murder rate, but he should have rescinded his column. His attempt to scare Cincinnatians to fear the City becoming another Detroit was obviously an example of false propaganda. Peter jumped on a number that fit his presupposed position and got burned. I guess pressrooms need to rehire fact checkers.
If linear political theory is your idea of ivory tower musings, then this is right up your belfry.
Monitor no stranger to controversy
Yet another mess. This monitor sounds like a Prima Donna that sucks up cash for getting his beard trimmed.
Instapundit Referral?
Somehow I got a hit from an Instantpundit.com referral. I can't find my page listed in a post or the list of links on the 800-pound gorilla of Bloggers. A phantom link?

Sunday, November 10, 2002

Americans need to know about Ramadan
I don't need to know anything about Ramadan, no more than I need to know anything about Advent, Yom Kippur, or Winter Solstice. There is no reason to say I must learn about any religion let alone another religion. I have no problem with the media wishing people a solemn Ramadan at this time, like they do for Christians, but for columnist to tell me that I should learn about just they want me to respect them is ludicrous. When a Muslim person or any other religion respects agnostics, atheists, freethinkers, and secular humanists, then I might care what they and their religion stands for.
New Cincinnati Based Blogs
Here are a few new blogs that I think are based from people in the Cincinnati Area. Once I have a chance to read them for a while, I might add them to my list of blogs.
DisOrganization
bHjp
Robbernard.com
KMCCARTY
Marcuga
Very Big Blog
McConnell turns his clout against some of his own
I am glad I don't live in Kentucky. This state is in the firm hand of the right-wingers for a long time to come. If you have any intelligence you would consider moving out of the state as soon as possible. Yes, I did just type that, so you can wipe the drool off your chin.
Online service targeted by IRS
I have no love for the Rich, but this smells of a fishing expedition. Why not just pull the phone records of everyone calling overseas to the Camen Islands and investigate everyone for tax evasion? Please note, that was a rhetorical question.

Saturday, November 09, 2002

The Miami Student's Website is still not finished. Are they out of money? What gives? Why aren't the SAN classes making this a full yearlong project? We used to call The Student "The Stupid". I think they are earning the name most ceremonially now.
1979 casts shadow on Bruce's concert
With simple precautions, festival seating on the floor of the venue is safe. The panic and fear that lingers around local concerts is only perpetuated by Mother Cincinnati sheltering her little children. She allows no festival seating, no porn, no strippers, no controversial artwork, no beer at Riverfest, but she lets a Judge rule that people can carry around concealed weapons where ever they please.
Former officer sues Cincinnati
I wonder who his lawyer is. I think the city should not give him a payday for breaking the law. The PA's office should not have "pled" him down to no charges and just a "forced" retirement. If Mr. Taylor was innocent, why did he accept the deal to retire? Why did he not fight his charges? I would guess he wants money more than he wanted to be a police officer.
Judge orders Avondale charter school closed
It was only a matter of time for this to be mentioned:
Parents said the school was targeted because the school board and its students were predominantly African-American.

"If the school was all whites, they would not touch it," Ms. Spears said.
Is this the same "they" out to get Ken Blackwell?
Four teens charged in cross burning
The Enquirer shows with this article why it is the best news source in the region. The folks at FOX19 should be ashamed of themselves for the news "article" I posted about yesterday.

Friday, November 08, 2002

Four Arrested in Oxford Cross Burning
A three-sentence article. I know many of my blog posts can be smaller than that, but I would think a professional news outlet could muster up a few more facts on a story like this one. An indication of where these suspects are from? Their ages? What charges are they facing?

Wednesday, November 06, 2002

Council approves motion to remove monitor
What will the boycotter's reaction be? How will the election affect their momentum? Is this just an issue for Ken Lawson to handle, so the BUF and CJC will just lay low? They have been quite lately. Their website has not had any new press releases for over a month.
BBC NEWS: Press watches Bush waltz to victory
The BBC takes notice of election coverage here in the Queen City.
The victory is embellished with superlatives - headlines such as "Republicans waltz across Texas" in the Houston Chronicle and the Republican "elephant stampede" in Ohio, as the Cincinnati Post puts it.

But the Cincinnati Post also reflects the cynical views of some voters, with a cartoon showing a man reading the newspaper to his wife and saying "the mudslinger beat the muckraker".
The cartoon referenced:
The Godless Americans March on Washington made it on C-SPAN3 taped delayed. I wish they would have carried it live, and carried it on C-SPAN2 at least, but this is better than no coverage. Second class coverage is what we second-class citizens tend to get.
Election opens up judicial, clerk positions
I hope these appointments are up to the voters at the next election. Nepotism is not something that should go over in politics, but around this part of the state it is par for the course.
18-year-old arrested in West End slaying
Most of the murders in this city could be solved if more people, like the person in this case, called into Crime Stoppers and turned in the wanted criminals.
Shots fired outside bar
No one can say that Jim Tarbell does not take action. He not only lives in Over-the-Rhine, he is a City council man who does not just let thugs try and ruin a viable business and residential area. Kudos to Tarbell for calling 911. I would like to know if the kid arrested has job or has finished high school. Why not go home when the bar closes, get some sleep and either go to work or to school.
Mike McConnell Advocates Feudalism
Yesterday on Mike's 700WLW program he agreed with a representative from the Cato Institute in advocating a system of government where only property owners could vote when property taxes were the issue. He referred to the original system created in the USA, where only property owners were permitted to vote. I am sure Mike would predict this type of system would not get the votes to ever occur, but his anti-democratic (small d) ideas are what I find indicative of many conservatives and neolibertarians. Mike wants to limit the right to vote to the public, except those more likely to think like he does. This disgusts me and makes me a bit nervous. I was unnerved by his matter-of-fact conclusion to the validity of such a feudalist system of government. It was not something he saw remotely as undemocratic. To him it was fair. Property owners, gun owners, business owners, and the religious seem to get special rights under Mike's Feudalist system, while the individual who does not conform to his plutocracy gets the shaft.
E-mails between mayor and monitor
I am not sure what to make of this. It is more entertainment than informative. It does provide an overall frame of the relationship between Luken and Kalmanoff. I would share Lukens luke warm and later harsh actions towards Kalmanoff. Based solely on these emails, and other published accounts, it would appear that Kalmanoff put forth little effort to work within he city. He instead came at the city very nonchalantly, charging the city money to talk to the media. Kalmanoff did not even say much of anything of value to the media, so did the city pay him money to create his own positive PR? The selection of this man as monitor appears to have been a mistake, but who is to say anyone else would be better. This position is one prime for making a buck at taxpayer expense. I applaud Luken for growing a pair and standing up to what looks to be a dog and pony show hack, looking to monitor the city out of millions of dollars. Demanding a new monitor sounds like a reasonable action for the city to take. I am sure the chicken-littles and boycott bigots will call into the Buzz and claim Luken is a out to destroy the collaborative. I hope Chaz will ignore their knee-jerk race baiting rants and continue standing up to a monitor looking for PR and a payday.
UPDATE: The Post's Take.
Light-rail plan hits a wall of resistance
Well, I for one hope that I will not being living in this city in 20 years. The city will either be dead, or a parking lot.
It looks like all of the Issues in the City went down, except Issue 8, which kills campaign finance reform in the City.

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Monday, November 04, 2002

Enquirer and Post Endorsements: Something is Missing
Please compare these two slates of endorsements from the Post & KY Post and the Enquirer.

What is missing from the Enquirer's endorsements? Can we say Ohio Assembly House District 34? What they hell is the Enquirer smoking? Tom Brinkman the incumbent caveman conservative, as the Post puts it, against Dave Schaff. The Post picks Schaff, but the Enquirer makes no mention of this race. Last I checked this district not only includes part of the city of Cincinnati, including Mt. Lookout and Mt. Washington, but it includes Anderson Township. In fact the entire district is in Hamilton County. The Enquirer also ignored districts 29 and 30, which also are located in Hamilton county. Here is a graphic the Post was nice enough to include in its opinion page:



Are these races just non-issues for the Mighty Enquirer? Do they want to depress turnout and help the incumbents? Are they lazy asses? Or are they just inept? Who takes the blame for this Wells? Bushee? Or Whipple? It is bad enough they don't put their Editorial Page on the web; can't they at least complete the simple task of picking all of the political races from their home county? In 2000 the Enquirer Endorced Brinkman, why are they not now? If this right wing extremist hell bent on recreating the old west here in Ohio was their man back in 2000, why not speak up about it now?
GOP Robot Telemarketers
On Friday I got a voice-mail at home from Bob Taft. Tonight I got a phone call from a fast talking George Bush, who barely sounded like George Bush "asking" me to support Republicans, but the taking the cake if the phone call from Steve Chabot on Saturday. Chabot's record phone spam also asked me to vote for him. That is all fine and dandy if I was a Republican, but not only am I not a GOPher, I do not live in his congressional district. I know they changed his district on him this time, but I was not in his district in 2000 either, nor any election since I moved to Cincinnati in 1994. Since I am not registered with either party I also have not received any candidate mailings, only Issue mailings.
Issue 8 backers again don't file finance report
From the Article:
"We're not trying to hide anything at all,'' Monzel said. "The money just hadn't come in yet by the last report. In fact, they're still collecting checks. But nothing's being hidden.''
Did Monzel say this with a straight face, or did he have his fingers crossed behind is back. In my opinion, and I think even to the casual observing, Monzel, another "values" champion, is lying through is teeth. His group is obviously hiding the identities of backers to his Issue effort by having the fat cat donors hold back their contributions until the last finance report must be filed before the election, when a blitz of media air time will be purchased. Is that illegal? No. Is that honest? Hell No.
Campaign ads for secretary of state say there's a conspiracy against him
Here is another article about the now infamous radio ads from Ken Blackwell's Campaign. You would not believe who sent me the link, none other than Nate Livingston himself, or at least someone using that email name. I wonder if Nate’s real motivation for pushing this issue is because he is jealous of Blackwell’s tactics. Nate is part of the crowd that normally talks about the “conspiracy” against the “black man.” Nate might not like Blackwell stealing his issue. It reminds me of the GOP’s anger at Clinton for stealing Welfare Reform from them, and then using it to get elected in 1996. What I am waiting Nate to do next is come right out and call Blackell a “house slave,” or something even more offensive. I don’t like Blackwell’s campaign, and I would not vote for him if these Ads existed or not, but Nate’s hypocrisy on this issue is just as flabbergasting as Blackwell’s hypocrisy.

Sunday, November 03, 2002

Police Crack Pepper Kidnapping Case
It appears however that they let one of the guys go. The other man reportedly confessed to the Pepper abduction. FOX19 reported the family of the at large man stated he will turn himself in early this week. If the family knows were he is and have not help police try and find him, then they should be charged with an obstruction charge. A member of his family actually had the gall to claim that the October 31st incident in Mt. Lookout was just a Halloween prank gone wrong. She stated on camera that they were using a "toy" gun. Mr. Watkins, the 18 year old at large, seems to have told one hell of a big lie to his family about what has done.
BRONSON: Answer Man rescues confused voters
Sorry Peter, you did not phrase your answer in the form of a question.
Pair charged in Pepper kidnapping, robbery
The Enquirer's take on the Pepper Kidnapping arrests.
Bengals 38, Texans 3


Nuff said.
Pepper Suspects Arrested
Ok, can we put any and all conspiracies to bed now? No more timelines, no more missing minutes, or delays in calling 911.

Saturday, November 02, 2002

Godless Americans March On Washington, Nov 2, 2002
I cannot find a single report how this march turned out today. I was able to get 2nd hand information that organizers believe there were about 4 to 5 thousand marchers there. A small group of 25 Christian fundamentalists protested the march. This news blackout is appalling. C-SPAN did not even cover it. They may show it taped at some point, but let this go to prove the conservatives wrong, there is no atheist bias in the media, unless you mean the incredible bias against atheists and other secularist groups.

The organizers may have picked a bad day for the rally. It would appear that it could have gotten more coverage if did not conflict with the news media's free campaign coverage of George Bush shilling for every Republican in a close election on the planet.
Businessman sues for libel, slander
The odd thing is that this lawsuit revolves around actions which took place at the Ohio Renaissance Festival.
Who is running the Miami Student? The website appears to be undergoing a redesign, but it is now November and the newspaper has not had a working website all school year. What is with the slacking? On the eve of the Ohio game, one would think Miami could at least put up something against their student newspaper. At least give it the old college try.
Lawsuit: Punch cards faulty
Since the ACLU lawsuit involves Ken Blackwell, could Nate Livingston's motives for giving the Blackwell commercials to WLW tie into the lawsuit as a further attempt to defeat Blackwell?
St. Louis chosen to host 2006 nationals
"Other finalists for the 2006 nationals were Cincinnati, Cleveland and Minneapolis." Will the boycotters lay claim to this one?
Yale alumnus kidnapped, robbed, and released
Pepper's ordeal made the Yale Herald. It is nice when your alma mater pays attention to you.
Mike McConnell from 700WLW followed up on Friday with a little bit more information on the tapes of the race baiting radio commercials for Ken Blackwell. The news was that Nate Livingston provided those tapes to WLW. Nate is a little bigot, but a shrewd political operative. Ken Blackwell is what I am sure Nate would call the poster child for a "House Slave." I wonder how Nate got copies of those tapes? I wonder if it could have something to do with an individual who works at 1230 the Buzz with the same last name. The mystery will linger.
Miami U: Free Bill O'Reilly
Where do I start? A list will have to do.

  1. I graduated from Miami University in 1994 and in my four years we never had cable in our dorm rooms, let alone the dorm at all. We only had cable at the student union (The Res).

  2. Fox News is fair and balanced amongst 3 groups: neoconservatives, neolibertarians, and paleoconservatives. Everyone else gets little coverage, which usually is negative.

  3. Fox News is just talk radio with pictures.

  4. Economics major Aaron Sanders, who was quoted in the column, is the chairman of the Miami chapter of College Republicans, so his opinion is not biased?

  5. Where is Bronson’s fair and balanced reporting? Why is he not calling for Miami to “Free Phil Donahue?” According to his column the Miami cable system does not have MSNBC either.

  6. CNN does not have a liberal political bias. It has an intellectual bias.  CNN is not geared toward the anti-intellectual Bill Cunningham fan. CNN is more sophisticated, or rather it used to be until they started to go for the ratings by appealing to the lowest common denominator, and now their quality is falling.  It still is not down to the tawdry (yet pious) level of FOX, but it is on it’s way. For the record, MSNBC is generally crap too.

  7. Why should Bronson even want to encourage college students to watch TV in the first place?  If you want intellectual political content, the print media is the only place you will find it.  Bronson can’t complain about the “liberal” print media with the abundance of the right-wing newspapers, political magazines, and the dominance of the Blogosphere by the right-leaning moderates.

  8. Calling Miami professors in general "liberal" is basically a lie.  I would bet the Business school professors are at best 20% “liberal”, while 80% are moderates or conservatives. The rest of the university would most likely be maybe 50% liberal at a maximum.  The key here is that the business school, of which I attended, comprised of at least 25% of all students up to maybe 33%.  Calling Miami a liberal school is like trying to call Xavier a Baptist school.

  9. Also, anyone who watches Bill O'Reilly’s show a few times knows the guys “spins” the issue before his argument begins. He has his plot line laid out of what he is going to grill his guest on, blocks the guest from saying anything he thinks is incongruent to his preconceived notion of “truth”, which is as objective as smudged ink blots.

  10. Bronson should not be fooled. $1,750 could easily be paid by the College Republicans, one of the Miami Frats, or hell, get Mike DeWine to cough up the dough.

Peter should be happy as a peach with Miami. It is most conservative public university in the state. It has one of the biggest College Republican clubs in the country, certainly one of best funded too. Miami is no Bob Jones University however, so I guess that is what gets Peter's lion cloth in a bunch.

Friday, November 01, 2002

Candidates' quirks in question
This questionnaire was fine except for asking: "How often do you attend religious services?" That is a political question that does not fit in with the rest. Since in this country religion is a de facto requirement for public office, it clearly takes on a political tone when it is asked. You can be sure that many people will take how that question is asked as seriously as the candidate's position on school funding. Having it asked in this setting was a mistake.
Area Robbery Suspects May Be Linked To Pepper Crime
WLWT reports that David Pepper had no comment. I wonder if the doubters of Pepper's story have any less doubt. Since you can't beat a good conspiracy, I would guess they might hang on to it for a while.
Former Officers Sentenced For Restraining Local Man
They are off the force. As long as the FOP does not help them get back on the force the situation will be equitable for the city. The boycotters will cry for blood, but they will cry foul until they are installed as members of the Politburo of the “People’s Republic of Cincinnati.”