Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Where Are the Vote Counts?

The Enquirer is reporting that Chris Smitherman says he won the Cincinnati NAACP Chapter Presidential election, but the organization will not release the vote counts. It would appear that Smitherman graduated from the Hugo Chávez Charm School.

So much for legitimacy.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Kathy Wilson Travels, Fails to Mark the Twain

So cryptic attacks and backhanded praise once again flow like prose laden with random Jazzy CNN almost metaphors in another Kathy Y. Wilson column in CityBeat. If you want to watch ideas dance the Tango for no apparent reason, then have a read.

If you DO NOT want to watch Kathy ride the 2001 Cincinnati Riot Float in another parade, then I suggest you skip it.

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Hartmann Must Be Into BDSM

After the City of Cincinnati helped to carry Hamilton County, Ohio, and the whole election for President Obama, Republican County Commissioner Greg Hartmann is reportedly thinking about running for Mayor of Cincinnati.

He must be a Masochist. There can be no other reason for a Republican to want to got through that much pain and then get nothing out of it in the end.

I'm not sure if this is just local Republicans, like GOP party chair Alex Triantafilou, stirring the pot to see if Chris Bortz will run or if he wants to call out Charlie Winburn on lying about not running for mayor.  Either way it comes across as a severe case of denial.  No hardcore Republican stands a chance to win the Mayor's office.

I would have guessed Alex would be talking to John Cranley, seeing how Cranley would have get the Republicans on the Westside to support him if he was going to have even a remote chance to win.

Can Conservatives Stop Misusing the Word Socialism?

I cringe all the time when I hear people misuse words. I often make others cringe when I fail to replace my there with their. I think it is high time for Conservatives to stop misusing the word "Socialism." From the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Socialism is defined as follows:
Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
There are several other modifications of this definition that are also listed at the link above, but this is the first and the main defintion when talking about Socialism.

The President nor the Demoratic Park believe in Socialism. Anyone telling you otherwise is lying. If they continue to call the President a Socialist, then proceed to call them both a Feudalist and a Fascist and call it even.

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Obama Has Won!

Time to celebrate!

So Much for Protecting the Vote, Enqurier.

CityBeat has the details on the dumb error by the Enquirer in posting 'test' data for an election results page that incorrectly showed Romney up by 92K after early voting in Ohio. It has been removed.

Before the error was caught, Drudge picked it up and tweeted, cause he's dying to report impossible to find information.

For the record, there have been no vote counts released by anyone in Ohio. The Enquirer just made a stupid error. I hope this does not become the basis for any conspiracy theories.

I don't know why, but it seems like they did this previously, or I am just having a bout of deja vu?

Enquirer Has Voter Protection Coverage

The Cincinnati Enquirer has several election day efforts to document voting issues in the Cincinnati area.  The main section is located here (behind the partial pay-wall), which includes interactive maps showing the precinct and issue identified.  Already there have been issues with cut/torn bar codes that caused issues with scanning and many reports of provisional voting requirements that were not expected by voters.

You can follow the voter protection efforts of the Enquirer on social media on Twitter and Facebook.

Where are the Election Night Parties?

I know everyone's worried about who is winning the election, so I'm putting out the call to all of political Cincinnati to find out where election night parties are going to take place.  Here's what I know so far:

Northside Progressives will be at the Northside Tavern starting at 7PM.

Southgate House invites those who voted to hear some music.

Libertarians are at Dave & Busters from 7 to 11 out in Springdale.

HRC (Human Rights Campaign) is a Below Zero Lounge starting at 7PM.

Jeff Cramerding and Denise Driehaus will be at Arnold's starting at 7:30PM

Connie Pillich's Team will be at Rudino's in Montgomery from 7:30 to 9:30PM

Democrats will be at Cincy's on Sixth starting at 7:30PM

Republicans will be at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill starting at 7:30PM

Milton's will a hopping spot to check out the returns and will be the choice to go late if there is a celebration to be had.

These are the only places I found or heard about. If there are more chime in via email or make a comment and I'll update as the day goes on.

UDPATES:
Urbanists start off election night at the Moerlein Lager House.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Predictions For Election Day

I am going to say that Issue #1 fails.

Other than that, I am not going to guess, unless you want to bet me that Chabot and/or Wenstrup will lose. I could use some spending money for lunch the rest of the week.

Chime in with your picks: who will be the President in January 20th, 2013 at 12:01PM?

This is what Democracy Looks Like, Literally

Monday morning lines to vote in Downtown Cincinnati. A wonderful sight!

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Long Lines at the BOE

Today the line to vote at the Hamilton County Board of Elections at around 11:00 AM stretched to Eighth Street. I fully expect national media outlets be set up TV coverage from Cincinnati on election night. Hamilton County will be one of the most watched counties in the entire nation on Tuesday.

If President Obama wins here, he will most likely carry the state and win the election.

So, where should a political blogger hang out awaiting the returns? I personally want to be in hand in case something crazy happens here. I don't want the national media to fuck up the coverage of this area or our state, so I plan keeping my nose in the game, if it is close.

If one if the candidates is walking away with the election I plan on drinking heavily, very early, no matter who wins.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Political Intervention is Bad Business and Unethical

As a graduate of the Richard T. Farmer School of business I can tell you that I never learned it was a good business practice for a company, any company, to try to influence its employees' votes in an election. Why? For the same reason it is not a good reason to tell your employees what church they should go to. The head of Cintas, Scott Farmer, sent an email to Cintas employees that made it pretty clear how they should vote. It was the wrong thing to do. It creates a hostile workplace, literally. I would resent my CEO if he told me how to vote. The only thing the head of my company has ever done is to encourage us to vote and pass out League of Women Voters guides, the most non-partisan voter guides around.

A sane business manager worries about about attracting a large numbers of customers. A good business manager does not care how that customer votes, as long as they buy the product.  A good manager also attracts the best talent to work for them to attract those customers.  Voting choices don't determine job abilities.  It is a clear problem when bad managers state directly or imply success for employees depends on voting choices.

I don't know if it is egomania, fear, or ignorance that would cause Scott Farmer to cross this ethical line.  All I know is that he crossed it, and is showing he is not a good business manager.  I hope all of the current Richard T. Farmer school of business students pay attention.  If they like what they see in Farmer's actions, they should get an F in the capstone management course we all took as seniors.

So what do we know: at least a few CEOs feel fear from not having complete control over the government. If any Cintas voters were not put off by this, I hope they at least lose respect for their CEO. He obviously doesn't respect the rights and choices of the employees.

Richard T. Farmer's son, Scott, appears to not have learned enough at Miami. I fear that he learned too much from his father on the subject of politics, so that is clouding his judgement.

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