CityBeat: Best of Cincinnati

It is the time of year again for CityBeat's Best of Cincinnati. Make sure you vote and vote often. There is a best blog category, so, don't make me beg. Be it know that I will beg for votes. Shame is something you forego when you start blogging, at least when you start blogging in Cincinnati.

Vagina Monologues – Cincinnati

This Sunday is V-Day at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Enjoy a wonderful show featuring Former Mayor Roxanne Qualls, Stephanie Dunlap, and Regina Carswell.

Hartmann In Race for Secretary of State

Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, Greg Hartmann (R), has tossed his hat into the fire pit and has chosen to run for Ohio Secretary of State. He will not leave office while running for the primary, which is a shame ethically, but not strategically. That of course means he can bail out if someone else gets in the race. It also means that the People of Hamilton County do not have to have yet another person appointed to an elected office, at least for now. I have heard no other names being tossed around in public for either the GOP or Dems to run for Secretary of State. Locally people might throw out the names of Reece and Luken. I think Reece will run statewide for something, but Charlie is the wildcard. He is often perceived as damaged goods. He has the conservative Democrat rep to actually be a contender, if he had the desire and the willingness to build a strong team to run things on the ground. The Democrats in Ohio seem to me to not have the party loyalty, which I can fully understand as a registered Independent, need to when it comes to the organization working on the ground, which hurts come election time.

If the Ohio group that worked for Kerry last year, worked for a Coleman or even a Springer for Governor, then against Blackwell, Petro, or Montgomery, they would have at worst an even money chance of winning.

Sara Lee Out, This Hurts

Any loss of jobs hurts, but this type of consolidation is often unavoidable.

Hamilton County Decentralization?

What does a $70/hr consultant know about Hamilton County? The Republican county commissioners appear to believe he knows something. I don't know how. You know all governments and communities are alike, so we can just take a cookie cutter, apply the shape this man is selling and shut up and like it.

Si Leis is pissed about hiring this guy, a source indicates. Si appears to be pissed generally because his budget faces cuts, which is a common reaction, but when he talked with the commissioners recently it illustrated friction, not unity with his fellow Republicans. Now, who would not have friction with Si Leis? Other than ignorant voters of course.

What makes me nervous are the goals of Phil and Pat, illustrated by this from the article:

The contract with Roberts is written broadly enough to give him a consulting voice in reforming virtually all aspects of county government under the control of the county commissioners, including "a redistribution of responsibilities" with the city of Cincinnati.

Is this a plan to just dump down the government functions, or all those it can, from the county to the municipalities? Or in the case of Hamilton County, a way for the burbs to dump on the City?

The toxic twins of the Cincinnati GOP are already threatening to cut the funding of SORTA, will they just pull out and force the city to cover it all? There have been plans floated recently for the city and county to swap service responsibilities, but what services and who stands to gain? I can only see the Blue Ashs, Maderias, and even Norwoods looking to keep county services on things they can benefit from, not others outside their areas.

Open Thread

Running Late, Go Nuts, with a little class if you please.

Typical Bronson Yet Again

Question to Peter Bronson: What are your thoughts on how Bob Huggins was treated by the cops and how managed to keep his job coaching young adults?

Dildo Cover Takes Balls

A big hat's off to CityBeat for their cover this week. The cover story is a Valentine's Day themed montage of articles on various love related topics.

What takes balls is CityBeat going to the edge with cover art that slides in a Dildo on the end of the machine gun. It is subtle enough for the non-reader to catch while shopping at Biggs or other locations that fear the right-wing prudes (CCV) who have worked to ban CityBeat from as many places as possible.

Sam I Am

In what appears to be a text rendering of acceptance speech from Chris Monzel we lean that the newly appointed councilmember plans on working with Sam. That Sam is Councilmember Sam Malone. We are told that Monzel will work with Sam, work with Sam, and work with Sam some more. We don't read how he will work with anyone else, you know, like the other 7 members of council and the mayor. Without working with at least a few others they will not get anything done.

Why didn't this gain attention:

And during this past year, I have been asked many times by people: "When are you moving?" and "now you don' have to live in the city any more." And honestly my wife and I did think about moving out to the suburbs.

So who is asking Chris when he is moving and why? Also, WHY WOULD YOU APPOINT A PERSON TO COUNCIL WHO CONSIDERED MOVING TO THE SUBURBS? If he can't commit to living the in city no matter if he is on council or not, then he does not belong on city council.

This reads like something Steve at BlueChip Review wrote as satire. The problem is that it appears real. Steve should have made a better reference that it was a speech, not a column written specially for his publication.

Blackwell vs. Petro

Are we seeing the first blow in what I hope becomes a bloody Republican primary for Ohio's Governor?

Conforming Bronson

I see Peter lacks in originality. That might be a shocker somewhere in in China, but not to those who subject ourselves to his columns. Today he attacks both Miami University and a radical professor from Colorado which is the hottest talk-radio/O'Reilly crusade of the week. I also wonder if Steve Szaronos, the student quoted, is affiliated with the Miami Young Republicans club. It seems that Peter has a special email address just for Conservative activists at Miami. Will Peter write a column against any university who pays Ann Coulter? Coulter once joked about blowing up the NY Times building, wanted to use the US Army to convert Muslims to Christianity by force, and calls all liberals traitors. I guess dissent only counts if you are skinny conservative blonde walking pile of dung.

KKK Alive in Kentucky

In Shepherdsville, Kentucky an over zealous mother went on a crusade to protest a couple of Muslim students wearing a hijab, in technical violation of the dress code. Her child then had to wear a T-Shirt that said "FBI - Firm Believer In Christ" on it. She went to the extreme of protesting outside the school, and her protest attracted other adults dressed in White Robes wielding Confederate Flags. She denied this has racial overtones. The article made no mention of whether she denied that this had to do with her being anti-Muslim or not.

Dragging Feet?

Are Lloyd Memorial High School dragging their feet in allowing a Gay-straight club on campus? Based on the article they obviously are trying to not have to establish one. If they have any other activist groups, or more importantly, if they have any religious based groups, then they have no choice but to allow the club. If not, you can guess that bigotry is preventing it from happening. Now, honestly, I would not want to be an openly homosexual teenager living in Erlanger, Kentucky. The anti-homosexual blind hate that seethes from far too many brain washed kids is one of the worst forms of torment know to American Schools. Things may have changed some other the last few years, but has it changed in Erlanger? At least we did not have to hear the local preacher threatening the protest the school meeting. Imagine if this was in Adams County, Ohio.

More Opinion on Springer

Tom Feran, Plain Dealer Columnist, dishes up a topic filled with Jerry Springer. Has Jerry reinvented himself? I don't know. Tom couldn't help but dig up a slam on Cincinnati in the midst of his comments:

In a field dominated by conservative talkers, in a city that's been called the place where the Old South meets Germany, he's the local headliner on a station billed as a "revolution in talk radio" because it leans left.

Ouch, that smarts. Tom is right about one thing: he points out that so far Springer has not flopped. Is he setting records? I doubt it. Is he making money for Clear Channel? I think he is surely making more than oldies music.

Academic 'Freedom'

Four GOP Ohio Legislators having been reading right wing blogs and talk radio a lot and want to keep teachers in university from introducing "controversial matter and coursework that has no relation to the class’s subject of study."

Several obvious problems, this goes against local control of education, a GOP issue. This also brings up a culture police by requiring someone to define what "controversial matter" entails. It also brings up the horrid concept of watching professors in an FBI informant frame of mind. This is asking people to become McCarthyites, dropping a dime on a commie being rewarded with a gold star.

What I wonder most is that are these four legislators going to apply this to all public schools? If so, they might start with anyone trying to push creationism or its watered down version Intelligent Design on public school science classes. These two topics are without question controversial matters and neither have any relation to any science class's subject of study. I therefore suggest they start cleaning out their house, before worrying about a professor talking about ideas.

Trickle Down, Part II

Taking a page from the Bush Administration, Governor Bob Taft is set to propose a massive cut in the personal income tax and corporate taxes as well as an increase on sin taxes and a revenue tax on all areas of businesses in the state. Details are limited, but the Enquirer article does outline the basics: Cut personal income taxes:

Cut individual income tax rates across the board. The primary goal would be to reduce the top rate from 7.5 percent to 6 percent or less.

This is from Saturday’s business section, so I don't know if that is glee or not with the mention of the primary goal being the cutting taxes for the richest Ohioans.

Lawmakers are now scrambling over Taft's latest folly. How will they balance the budget? Where is the money going to come from? Once again a lawmaker, most of often a Republican, is deciding the price before he is sure what he is selling. Figure out what you want to spend it on and how much that will cost, then figure out how you will raise that revenue to get that level of funds. Instead, Taft will toil about cutting this, streamlining that, but will not tell anyone how this will help fund education or provide medical services to the poor. He will not show us how he will generate jobs, other than allow corporations to make more money and then take their service centers to India, Manufacturing centers to China, and pass every cost increase on to the customer and employee, giving the shareholder every once of immediate profit, caring not for the long term gain of all.

Yep, same old trickle down. Give to the rich and pray they will pass it along. Faith based economic was the type of drivel I expect from Bushco, not a reasonable Republican like Bob Taft.

Controversy Lingers

If those honoring troops up in Warren County want to avoid controversy:

'We didn't want this to be anything controversial,' said Regina Herbolt, Robby's mother.

'Whether we should be there or not, human lives were lost.'

After the crosses were cleared, Hesler addressed the scouts in front of what used to be the memorial - now a bare field, muddy and sunken with holes.

'I hope you guys remember the people who helped keep you free, OK?' he said. 'Don't forget them, all right?'

Why did they decided to remove them once the Iraqi "election" past? Why not at leave them up to next Memorial Day? I guess the Cub Scouts unit, Pack 452, are learning to be good little Republicans by adhering to GOP propaganda.

I know what you are thinking, the parents are too subtle to know the symbolism of what they are doing, and I say, no, they knowing chose to remove them after the Iraqi "elections" thinking that someone ended everything. They can now wash their hands and move on, just don't forget them, all right?

More Springer Speculation

William Hershey of the DDN is still pushing the Jerry for Governor meme. Unless Springer quits his TV show, he just can't be elected and with other candidates getting in the race, he will loose his name recognition advantage. He is best suited as Ohio Dem party Chair, and radio talk show host.

Good Old Nate

Here is the Nate that people know. His screed against Greg Korte, the Enquirer CITY HALL beat reporter, is classic racism from Nate:

And look how the press, especially the Enquirer's Greg Korte, treats proposals introduced by African Americans. Yesterday State Senator Mark Mallory introduced a proposal to abolish the elected Cincinnati Public School Board and replace it with one appointed by the Mayor. (I'll share my views on this in a separate blog entry.) Now, Luken and Council Member David Pepper hadn't seen the proposal but Korte called them for a comment. Of course, they both dismissed Mallory's initiative.

Why did Korte quote these two white guys? Two reasons. First, because they were white. Christopher Smitherman, Charles Winburn and Alicia Reece have all expressed interest in running for mayor. Why isn't their opinion on Mallory's education proposal important? Second, Korte always runs to a white politican[sic] who has something negative to say about a Black politician. You don't think so? Why didn't he ask State Representative Tom Brinkman for his view? Could it be that Brinkman (whose opinion counts because he has a vote on the issue) might actually agree with Mallory and you wouldn't want to see that now would you? If the issue is race or police they can find the Black candidates but they aren't interested in their views on education or finance. That's just wrong. (Before anyone gives me that crap about Pepper and Mallory being the only "official" candidates, keep this in mind -- Mallory has been an "official" candidate for months but Korte constantly seeks out Pepper and quotes him in the paper (always reminding readers that he is running).)

If Nate wants to call Korte a racist, he should just come and say it. It would be an outright lie, but hemming and hawing about something like that makes one look like they are forcing it. If you are going to play the race card, don't you at least try and look like you are not playing the race card? Also, did Nate not consider the possibility that Korte called all three people mentioned, but they didn't return his calls? Also, why doesn't Korte ask Brinkman for a comment? Simple, Korte is not on the STATEHOUSE beat. Also, shouldn't Korte have quoted Brinkman? I mean Tom is as "white" as they come around here. He is the "white man's" "White Man."

Nate might, just might want to consider that Korte gets quotes from Pepper because either Pepper has the money to pay a good PR guy or David just really has a lot of time to spend responding to reporters. The other three also have had dirty laundry raised about them by the press and likely are a bit more hesitant to talk to the press with anything not scripted grandstanding.

I think Nate was really pissed because, well, Greg didn't call him for a comment. Last I knew Greg didn't work for the AP, and therefore doesn't have Nate's number on speed-dial.

Phil Burress's Work

So Phil's folly not only oppresses homosexuals, it helps endanger women. Thanks to Phil and all of the folks at the CCV for giving degenerate men another legal defense after beating their girlfriends.