Xavier Cancels Showing Of "Vagina Monologues", Students May Offer It Anyway
It is their right, but it is clearly wrong. Why set up a performance to cancel it? That is about as rude as you can be. Who applied the pressure to cancel the show? Was it from the inside of the University, from the Alumni, or from the local theocratic fascists? The good news is that a class is going to put on the show anyway.

The Enquirer's report, the Post's report, and the Xavier Newsire report.

UPDATE: The Catholic News Service reports "Reacting to community and alumni concerns, Jesuit-run Xavier University in Cincinnati announced March 10 that it would not permit the play "The Vagina Monologues" to be performed on campus." I wonder which member of the CCV is an XU alumnus.

Prosecutor gave to Deters campaign
It pays that everyone involved is from the same political party. I wonder if Mike Allen will investigate the special prosecutor? Will he need to get a super-special prosecutor? Why didn't Mike appoint a Democrat? Wouldn't that have been easier and put to rest any doubt of bias or favor? Well, since Mike wants to move up to statewide office, I guess he felt the need to cover the party's ass. Will this hurt? Of course not, since the Attorney General and Secretary of State are fellow Republicans, Mike and Joe have no worries. Pierce Cunningham might have problems getting a job in the public sector again.

Rally for troops to be held tomorrow
This is being organized by 55KRC not 700WLW. I have to wonder why "the Big One" and Bill Cunningham are not organizing this? I guess it speaks to the demographics of the two stations. 55KRC is for the complete über-Freeper, while WLW speaks to a slightly wider and more moderate conservative. Both stations are of course under the iron fist of Darryl Parks, and Mr. Parks has a way with the sensational and the overstated.

Gino's charge: Assault

Rick Minter is giving Bob Huggins a run for his money in the number of players on their respective teams with a police record. I though the "C" in "UC" stands for Cincinnati, not Criminal.

Local Auto Shop Won't Fix French, German Cars
Sorry to disappoint the knee-jerk conformists out their but this is not patriotism, this is stupidity. Why is it that when Nationalism is concerned well reasoned and emotional free judgement just goes out the window? Here are a few points on this local chest-beater:

1. I wonder if he knows how to fix French and German cars.
2. His actions do not help our Troops. They instead hurt other Americans. Now the price for fixing French and German cars will go up, and Importers of French/German auto parts will loose money.
3. This man's motivation on the surface is misguided yet altruistic, but dig deeper and anyone should be able to see that this is not about helping the troops, this is about quelling his feelings. He needs to do two things: show his friends that he is conforming to the social pressures heaped upon the society by pseudo-patriots, and that he can quell some of the emotion he has for not being able to do anything else in the "war effort."

If you want to support the war effort why don't people start donating money to the USO or hell even start a scrap metal drive circa 1942? Creating a new instant "them" to hate and channel all your anger is nothing new, but it is nothing good either. Talk Radio and much of the rest of the conservative side of the media are sensationalizing and capitalizing on the listlessness people feel and using it to create useless and harmful spectacles to pump up ratings. We all need act like civilized adults, and stop acting like schoolyard bullies teasing the kid in glasses.

A Game of Chicken in the U.N.
In case anyone can't see what is the obvious game of chicken the US/UK is playing with the rest of the U.N. let me outline it. The latest effort to push back the deadline from March 17 to March 31 seems on the surface to be a concession, but in reality it is actually very sly. This revised resolution with a list of demands for Iraq to comply with and a later deadline will get the nine votes needed to pass the UNSC. France has pledged to veto it. If France/Russia/China apply their veto to resolution, then the US/UK have the cover needed to attack Iraq outside the U.N. If France/Russia/China abstain (they will not vote for it), then it will pass and then US/UK will have the U.N. backing needed. It is not really a good game of chicken for France. The US/UK can't lose, but France loses either way. I wonder if this is more of an American plan or a British Plan. I give the nod to the latter.

A McBoycott Franchise Coming to Your Town Soon

The Rev. Damon Lynch III, president of the Cincinnati Black United Front, led a contingent down from Ohio. Lynch's group has organized a lengthy boycott in Cincinnati that has prompted participation from various organizations and from entertainers including Bill Cosby and Wynton Marsalis.

"Police brutality is not just a Cincinnati and a Louisville problem. It's a national problem," Lynch told the crowd.

Lynch made it in the fast food industry, why not in the boycott industry?

Speaker will observe boycott
If you don't like Barbara Ehrenreich, then it is quite easy to prevent her from speaking ever again:

Ehrenreich, who is being paid $10,000 plus expenses for her appearance, told the Woman's City Club Feb. 20 that she would not attend a picketed event.

I would encourage anyone who does like this woman's opinions, or her caving-in to a hate group, to picket her where ever this event ends up. She said she would not attend any picked event. If she is honest and honorable, she will then not cross the picket line, no matter whose it is.

She is concerned about the plight of poor women. I wonder if she cares about the poor women who work downtown? She has shown her support for a group that seeks to hurt working women and men whose livelihoods depend on downtown businesses. I guess she is more concerned about the image of her visit, instead of the impact of her buckling to the boycotters.

BRONSON: Beating a Dead Horse
Peter is off on a crusade defending his boy Aaron Saunders, Miami University Young Republicans chief. Peter is doing exactly as I said he was doing. He is acting not on the merits of the case, but is out to attack his political foes. The right wing hates the humanities and arts & sciences colleges across America. They hate them because those schools challenge their religious beliefs. Bronson seeks here to discredit an honorable institution based on his political (religious) beliefs. He cares not for new knowledge; he cares for conformity and stagnancy.

P&G rejects MSNBC show
The bigot Michael Savage may have met his match. The mighty P&G is a big force in advertising dollars. If you don't get their money, you have are shut out of a large portion of the market. The real challenge will be for P&G not to buy any commercials airing during his radio show, which airs here in Cincinnati, home to P&G, on 550 WKRC. You can contact P&G here to voice your opinions.

Slaying happens in front of crowd
Calling Damon Lynch, Calling Damon Lynch....Where are you? How could nobody have seen anything? Well, it is obvious what the problem is, either people are fearful of the killer or friends with the killer and under both circumstances they don't want to talk to the police. This is where the rubber hits the road. You can't make people care about their community. They have to give a damn about it and want to change it.

BRONSON: Bush won't flinch
How can Bush flinch with Peter's head so far up his ass? This article seems pointless to me. Everyone who love's Bush loves his simpleton ways, or as they call it his "folksy" manner. Everyone else thinks Bush is as political as any other politician, if not more. The issue is that the people who love him come close to deifying the man. I think Peter is blinded by his religion. Peter's acceptance of Bush's "word" is basically based on emotion. Bush and Bronson are both Christians. I think they are both even to a degree both evangelical Christians. In my experience evangelical Christians feel their "kind" is special, part of the "chosen" who are totally honest. It is a manifestation of their blind faith put in their new divine King George. (I am generalizing here, so don’t get your shorts in a knot.)

Evidence that Peter has drunk the Bush Propaganda Kool-Aide can be readily demonstrated with his comments on the faux connection of Iraq and 9/11.

Some people just don't get it. But we are going to war because of what happened on that morning, Sept. 11, 2001 - to make sure those kids in that classroom don't grow up in a world of terror.

The problem is that people, like Bronson, really think this war with Iraq is part of the "war on terrorism." This is totally grotesque propaganda. It is a lie that he Administration is trying to build upon, trying to capitalize on the blood lust of the country to support him in a war.

This war is not about terrorism. If we were going to invade a country on the basis for its support of terrorism we would be going into Iran, Syria, Lebanon, or the Palestinian Territories. We would have invaded Columbia long ago. This war has several reasons. Preventing possible future terrorism from Iraq is a natural side effect of the liberation of Iraq, assuming Bush's gang don't screw up with nation building like they did in Afghanistan. Using America's anger over 9/11 as political cover for doing what ever you want is not only wrong, it is very "unchristian." There are valid reasons for this war. The timing of how this drive to war started are the most suspect and troubling aspect of the whole endeavor. The biggest concern is how the post-war situation unfolds. At this point, that is not something Bush thinks we Americans should know anything about. We are to trust him. Bronson is more than will to trust his religious comrade. Most of the rest of us, who did not vote for Bush, want a few drinks of facts before we are forced to swallow the one sided agenda of the current Administration.

Grand jury clears Deters
Was anyone expecting any other conclusion? Here is the hard part. The crime took place in 1996, but the former prosecutor's investigator was not indicted until this year. Why the delay?

Nice Day, but a Gut Check
It hit 69 degrees today. I was warm in my long sleeve shirt. The gut check came when the classic rock radio station 92.5 the Fox played a song from The Clash. The song was "Train in Vain". When The Clash are considered classic rock, you must admit you are old. Now, they really started out before my time, but while watching "Rock the Casbah" on MTV 1,000 times while still in grade school, you feel that they were part of your indoctrination in the music culture.

Churches target Cincinnati in campaign to help blacks
We get to be the whipping boy for a political campaign. This is not about civil rights, this is about politics. This about extreme-capitalists vs. socialists (or even some communists).

Church leaders called for a national campaign to promote social justice and economic programs to help black people.

This is about reducing poverty in the "black community." That is a good thing to want to do, it would be nice to try and do that in all communities, instead of creating false sense of discrimination. Hold on before you jump to the wrong conclusion, I agree discrimination exists, but not on a macro or conspiratorial level, and mostly not based on race, but on culture. There are more poor white people, than black people. That is a fact. As a percentage of each race in this county, blacks have a much higher percentage in poverty than whites. That is a fact. There is not one answer to why that is the case. They are countless answers because most of the reasons are subjective to each individual person or family. To say it is all about race or racism is wrong, self-defeating, and unproductive. You don't get more unproductive and down right offensive when you refuse to let a City Councilman into your meeting.

Councilman David Pepper called it unfair to target Cincinnati-based corporations such as Procter & Gamble and Federated Department Stores Inc., that have "gone out of their way" to contribute to job and educational initiatives designed to improve the lives of African-Americans. Pepper tried to get into the meeting to explain to national leaders what actions city officials are taking toward progress, but boycott organizers turned him away at the door.

This particular group of boycotters also have revised the "demands" to end the boycott, but beyond the general description of the changes from the article, I can't find the new demands online. When Nate Livngston gets out of jail, I am not sure if he will be more vocal on the internal boycott split or jump on the bandwagon of this now apparent leading voice of the boycott movement. The new leadership has apparently deleted some of the prior demands, like the demand that the police chief be fired, but have add some, like a "community bank." How can you hold a city hostage until it creates a private business, especially a bank? Do they know how long it takes to start a bank? You can't just start a bank over night; the regulation process will take quite a lot of time. Additionally, it sounds like they just want free money. Why don't they try setting up a credit union? That might be faster to create, and it can be run on a collective basis. The oddest thing, and frankly the nuttiest thing, is that a new demand included an investigation of "outside forces" that are claimed to be responsible for the drug ring problems. I love this one most. I guess the CIA is responsible? If you can't accept the reality that the people who are the drug dealers in the black neighborhoods are black, then you will never be able to rid those neighborhoods of those criminals. If you shield criminals, you will just breed more criminals. The cycle of racial grandstanding will be a never ending story in this town until the boycotters get what I think is their unmentioned wish: a majority “black” city.

Student Arrested In University E-Mail Hoax
"Miami Senior Faces Several Charges"

I wonder who will not be graduating this May?

None Injured, Two Arrested After Local Gunbattle
Damn, sounds like a scene from the latest Quentin Tarantino movie.

Kevin Drum at CalPundit has brought up an idea for a new Constitutional Amendment to require the President to hold a weekly Press Conference. This is an excellent idea. Kevin's idea has I think real merit. There are a couple of issues that need to be addressed however:

1. Will foreign reporters be allowed to participate in the weekly press conferences?


2. The amendment needs to be adjusted to allow the President a vacation or the ability to call them off if National Security issues required it. With the technology today the President could hold the Press Conferences from remote locations if he was on an overseas trip.


3. The method to select which reporters are allowed to participate in the press conferences has the potential to be open to political favor, since congress would have total control of the rules used to make the selection of the press conference questioners. A more constitutionally based means to select the press conference participants might reduce the ability to abuse who gets to participate. Those rules might include a geographical element or media outlet size element. They need to keep out the nut cases with a fringe website, but not allow the mainstream beltway press to dominate. Local press outlets should not be shut out.

I will be looking for the level of attention Kevin gets on this idea and whether it gains any support. I really hope it does gain some support. It is a long shot by far, but the current President has demonstrated that it is clearly needed.

Police Search For Men Carrying Suspicious Package
I hope this is an over reaction or just some regular old fashioned crime.

Local Boycotters Get National Support
Yet, Jesse Jackson did not show up. Damon Lynch's quote

"Not enough progress has been made," Lynch said. "In fact, I think the city is going backwards."

seems to be a whole lotta nothing. Where are we supposed to be going? Are we just supposed to roll over an give in to your demands? Are we instantly going to cure all of our problems? No, we are not going to to just change, and that is because Damon Lynch thinks that the "we" is only the police and non-black community. The “we” is everyone. The "black community" must change just as much as the "non-black community." That change does not include more segregation or Black Nationalism. The change means integration. Integration is basically assimilation. That is the basic core sticking point that must be overcome if anything is ever going to "change."