Life Can Sometimes Really Suck

Well, I was having an OK, nothing grand mind you, birthday when our entire department was called into a meeting this morning. To make a long story short, we all got laid off. Needless to say that made for one really shitty birthday present. We have four more weeks and that is it.

Wow, we are in such a great economy now, aren’t we??????

I will be getting a severance package, but I also do have two internal job leads, which are not bad and will likely at least pay about the same as I am getting now. If I am lucky one of them might actually be an increase in salary.

If anyone knows of any job openings where a guy with a Finance/business background who can do wonders with Microsoft Access databases could be of use, please drop me a line.

I am going to have a beer now.

You Say It's Your Birthday?

Famous people born today:

1876 Jack London
1905 Tex Ritter
1926 Ray Price
1930 Glenn Yarborough
1944 Joe Frazier
1951 Rush Limbaugh (Yes, it is "ironical")
1954 Howard Stern
1955 Kirstie Alley
1964 Jeff Bezos
1966 Rob Zombie
1972 Brian Griffin

Peter Ignores the Truth

Mr. Bronson is missing something about why the Maisonette is having troubles, and I think he missed it on purpose. He mentioned convention business is not what it was. I wonder why, Peter! You don't suppose that the convention boycott started in reaction to Article XII, the anti-homosexual charter amendment? Peter, you don't suppose that gay friendly organizations that might come to Cincinnati for a convention might just be big customer for restaurants like the Maisonette?

I think Peter has more to do with the failure of the Maisonette then he would like to admit. His advocacy for groups like the CCV and their theocratic agenda helped Phil Burress get his anti-gay ballot issue passed. Also, Peter's regular laments on the crime rate in Cincinnati, and the fear mongering that follows, creating a myth that is followed by the ignorant suburbanite. Peter has done more than anyone to drive fear into the suburbs. Why would they want to be near the gays and blacks? "They" might actually talk to a Hummer Driver, and "we all" know that is just unacceptable. (Cough, Cough)

Ignorant Old Man

The Enquirer has a guest column from a WWII veteran who attacks the media for making a big deal out of the number of "causalities" in the Iraq war. Robert E. Johnson is correct when he says the number of dead pales in comparison to the people lost in WWII or the Civil War. What Mr. Johnson seems to be being missing is the media's play of "causalities." The media does report deaths in Iraq. Deaths of soldiers that is. Very little is reported on the non-fatal casualties. NPR did an excellent report, "Measuring Cost of Iraq War," on the number of casualties in the war on Iraq. I would suggest Mr. Johnson ponder for a minute the absence of the thousands of wounded men on the TV screen. We don't see the men without limbs, or men blinded. We do see a President walking around without a care in world.

For a running count of Military deaths and woundings, check out Lunaville.org. As of now 495 U.S. Military deaths (591 total) and 2,849 U.S. woundings.

Local Blog Round-Up

Notes from Ground Level: Greg Mann comments on today's Maggie Downs column. I did make some resolutions. I will try to write better, maintain my weight (lose 10 more lbs. if possible), and actually finish the outline to my novel this year. I know I will not keep these fully, but I picked things that I am constantly working on, so any effort means “success” towards these resolutions.

Rantophilia: Michael covers the up coming new space exploration initiative. I really would love to send men to Mars and back to the Moon. The Problem here is that 1) Bush knows this plan is dead in congress. There is no money for it. 2) Bush will likely make a big hoopla over it and then try to get the private sector to do it, which no private group will take on. This kind of big project will only work with government backing. No corporation can make their short-term profits (something they can’t live without) from this kind of long-term investment. I really wish I could support Bush's plan, but I see it as an election year ruse that he knows will not get off the ground, literally.

Queen City Soapbox: Ethan Hahn brings up the new immigration policy. I see this as Bush pulling a Clinton, again. He is using Dick Morris's triangulation trick. Get the far right wing pissed, but gain some of the centrist voters because you appear to be moderate. I am not sure if it will work. This act might keep some of rabid rightists at home; enough to offset any gains Bush might get from Latinos and Centrists gained from adopting this new policy.

Tasers Work?

This story seems to provide anecdotal evidence that the new taser worked well. This story sounds like it was spoon fed to the reporter like a nice ripe piece of propaganda, but other than that.....

Council Race Relations

I have a simple question: if you hold a press conference about stopping "black-on-black" crime in this city, and only include the 4 black council members, and don't give details on your plan, then how can you complain about bad race relations on council when you are segregating yourself from the rest of council based on race. I don't get how this contradiction goes on?

From the Vice Mayor:

"You do not see (City Council) working together all the time. It depends on whose idea it is," Reece said.

"What I'm seeing is a bad precedent being set," she said.

News Flash Alicia!! You are not working with all of the council. You are the only forming a black voting block on council. You are the one race baiting here, not the 5 non-blacks on council.

It seems to be that Cole and Malone might be drawn into this not so forcefully. Reece and Smitherman are the ones getting the press, or rather pushing their faces and words into the press, so they feel they need to form a power block and segregate themselves. I hope Cole does not play their game. I doubt Malone will play that game. He can't win with the GOP and that would really piss them off.

Louisville Mini-Riot

After a fatal shooting of a black man in Louisville protestors rioted and broke windows of Louisville Chief Robert White's office. I wonder if any Cincinnati boycotters/rioters joined the fray? The protest had a reported 400 people, but reports indicate that 60 had to be forced out of the area after the permitted protest time.

It is 'nice' to see that Damon Lynch's counter part, Rev. Louis Coleman of the Justice Resource Center, did little to condemn or stop the rioters:

"I admire their willingness to stand up," Coleman said, adding that he encouraged the youth to express their anger in a different way.

"The young people got us to the table tonight," Coleman said, referring to the meeting with White.

So rioting got Rev. Coleman to the table. Great thing to teach the young people: be violent and they will notice. Great plan Rev. Coleman, I am sure that will go along way to help reduce tensions. Nothing can calm racial tensions like a good riot. (cough, cough) (Nate, Make sure you copy this part of the post too... I want to make sure people know that I don't steal them from my own site and post them on yours)

Other coverage: Enquirer, WLKY, ABC-AP.

CityBeat Subpoena

Do we have a new King of Grandstanding at City Hall? Is Chris "Big Boss Man" Smitherman out of the gate with too much oomph? If the DOJ will not Subpoena Bob Novak on the Plume affair, then what good will it do to try and Leslie Blade to reveal her sources? Since Christopher is the "Boss" of the police, why doesn’t he just call in the police chief and get him to investigate his own department? Better, yet, call the FBI. The FBI will not bother being "friendly" with Chief Streicher.

I think Councilman Smitherman might be watching to Much C-SPAN. The C-SPAN bus was in town yesterday, but that does not mean they are going to broadcast the council meeting. I am not sure if Chris can really compete with the Queen of Grandstanding, Vice Mayor Alicia Reece, but if he keeps this up he might come close. He might win be default if the Queen advocates for higher office.

Pete Rose Held to Higher Standards Than Bush

Pete Rose is being crucified by many for lying about betting on baseball. Bush and his administration misled the US public and world (lied to us) on WMD in Iraq, but it seems the Bush Faithful (think Wildman Walker and the Rail Gang's view on Pete) will let the ends justify the means. The "ends" are not really clear, but I don't they care.

Eric Alterman made this comparison first and did so quite well:

If only Pete Rose had claimed he bet on baseball games and then lied about it because he suspected other teams of harboring ties to Al Qaida and building weapons of mass destruction, then the Washington Post editors would have called him a patriot and supported him down the line, even without that lame apology.

We don't even get an apology from Bush Inc. We get no acknowledgment that they were at least wrong. CNN has a story indicating that the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has issued a report that provides evidence that Iraq has not had WMD since at least the mid 1990's, and has not a WMD program beyond one on paper for just as long.

Bush supporters are going to overlook this. There was no threat from Iraq on the USA, but that does not matter. Operation Inigo Montoya will go on without consequence. How many more wars will the USA fight under a second Bush term that will be based on lies? I fear Bush supporters don't care. They are either blinded by their "savior," or they have bought into the new "red herring" in American culture: "terrorism." Communism was the propaganda tool for 75 years in American politics, but now that it has failed, something had to take its place. Fear of Islamic terrorists is driving otherwise logical people into Bush's camp of perpetual war. I don't see a cure for this brand of emotionally based political discourse. Fear is powerful, and not much can take away fear when terror alerts pop in and hatred of Islam is allowed to fester as a form of "fighting terrorism."

Race Relations On Council: Bad or Just a Means to an End?

Ok, there are various ways to spin this, but I will take a cynical view, of course. Alicia Reece is full of shit. Tuesday's debate covered in the Post during the Council Subcommittee meeting showed that playing the race card is still an old hat for some political climbers:

Some Council members were angered about the tenor of Tuesday's debate on the proposal, alleging Reece unnecessarily injected race into the political debate over its merits.

The decision, Reece had said, would be an indicator about whether Council supports Cincinnati's black community.

"It's wrong and it's unjust," Crowley said. "If in fact she persists in that stance, I think it's grossly unfair. I would hope she would tone that down."

Now, if David Crowley, the most pro-black non-black person on council, has to say that, then something is wrong. Some might even say David Crowley is the most pro-black person on council, period.

Reece's plan seems like classic grandstanding. Let's give money to some groups who claim to want to do something to stop the black on black crime. Whether or not these groups have any proven track record is beyond the point.

Reece says the "Administration" can approve who gets their share of the $100,000 to start a program. I wonder how much pressure and influence members of council will put on the individuals in the Administration to accept the proposals of people that support that councilmember. Did Reece think this kind of plan work well with LaShawn Pettus-Brown?

What I found interesting was the debate of the details of the Reece Plan. The 5 non-black council members want some details, any details would be a start. I would guess the 3 black non-Alicia members of council would also like details on this plan. Reece seemed to care more about leaping before she looked:

"We have to go where the kids are," Reece said. "This is designed to get something on the streets and get it going quickly."

What is "this" and what is the "design" of it? How Alicia Reece (or her father) thinks she has the skills to move on to higher office is a mystery. Looks are not good for as many votes as one might think. Grandstanding is the only arrow in her quiver. The more she uses it, the duller its tip gets.

Never Know Who You Will Run Into

What do you do when you put an issue of CinWeekly to bed? Well, tonight you go to the Dubliner in Pleasant Ridge and play trivia. I am a semi regular trivia player there myself and along with our crew I was just playing along when I was approached by a man.

Now, you have to realize something that might be obvious. I am a rather bland and nondescript person, well at least outside of the blogosphere. I doubt my writing tone or style matches my face. With that in mind I was approached by Beryl Love, editor of CinWeekly. He wanted to introduce himself to me and wanted me to meet the rest of the staff who were playing the trivia game in the next room.

I have to admit I was surprised to be recognized. My mug is not exactly front-page fodder, but they knew me. I was introduced to the staff of CinWeekly, traded a few friendly jabs, and went on my way. I felt a slight bit of guilt. They were of course nice folks, not so different from anyone else. I have ridden their publication fairly hard since its inception. My guilt was short lived however. Criticism is not usually personal, and with CinWeekly it surely is not.

What was more impressive was that their team finished 2nd in the game. My team finished 4th. I was hoping to rub in an opposite outcome, but I guess their ace in the hole kept them ahead. That ace was the source of their team name: "Where the hell is Tom?" Tom was Tom Callinan, editor of the Enquirer. Tom had a few problems finding the Dubliner. I think someone needs to buy Tom a map of the city, or better yet maybe Gannett can spring for an installation of OnStar in his car.

Most of the staff appears to have read or regularly read the blog, so I would have been remiss not to mention our meeting. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I hope they don't have to work early tomorrow.

False Alarm?

I guess it was just much ado about nothing? WLW had to kill a bunch of commercials for this?

The 800-pound gorilla thinks this was a false alarm, and decided so fairly quickly.

Flight Landing Into Cincinnati with 'Persons of Interest' On Board

WCPO and WLW are reporting that a Plane from France might have suspected terrorists on board. Some reports are that fighter jets are escorting the flight.

UPDATE: "Terrorists" was too strong of a term, and was edited. This might be much ado about nothing, but no one is taking any chances. WLW has live coverage.

UPDATE#2: FOX coverage, and WLWT's report.

UPDATE#3: 3:47PM - Flight is reported to have Landed in Cincinnati. CNN's has story on the incident and reports the plane was escorted by fighter jets. Here downtown a larger than usual number of commercial jets few over downtown in the last 20 minutes.

UPDATE:#4 3:57 PM - WLW is reporting that about 12 law enforcement officials boarded the plane before any passengers deplaned. The plane is away from the main terminal towards the DHL hanger.

UPDATE:#5 4:02 PM - The Enquirer has a story. Some people are starting to leave the plane at this point, but not in mass.

First Shots are Harsh

The first shots of what will surely be a very harsh and I think eventually violent campaign have been made. Moveon.org's has as a finalist a political ad contest which allegedly compares Bush to Hitler. A group called Club for Growth Political Action Committee has an ad sterotyping Dean:

In the ad, a farmer says he thinks that "Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading ..." before the farmer's wife then finishes the sentence: "... Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs."

This add is supposed to be running in Iowa soon.

It is 11 months before the election and we have this already. Come October how will we not have thugs in the streets battling to disrupt each other's rallies?

Blood, Blood, Blood Makes the Primary Fun!

Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich is endorsing Pat DeWine in what the Enquirer is calling his "maverick campaign to unseat fellow Republican John Dowlin."

This should be fun! It is always fun to watch an intra-party fight for office, but it is even more interesting when an incumbent faces a challenge for the party endorsement. I can't find any firm ideological split in the local GOP here. So far it is more of a battle of either the old guard vs. the new guard, or just personal friends sticking together.

What it might be is City Republicans vs. suburbanites if one takes this at face value:

"He has been a steadfast supporter on township and suburban issues," said state Rep. Bill Seitz of Green Township. "Now is no time to leave our county at the mercy of a city-centric commission."

I guess Seitz should just come out and say it what he really wants to say: "fuck the city."

Geographic political slits have historically been true on a macro level, but is this a sign of micro-geographic political battle? The City folk vs. Country folk? Westsider vs. Eastsider? Old Money vs. New Money?

This primary should prove fun.

Tracking Visitors

Michael at Rantophilia comments on the new program to fingerprint and photograph all foreign visitors not from specific strong allied countries (mostly European countries).

I myself am no overly upset of this method. We have laws on the books now limiting how long non-citizens can stay in our country. Tracking people in this manner will make it easier to find those who have violated the terms of their visa. The problems hear are appearances. One is that this looks really bad. It looks like something the Soviets would do to Westerners. I don’t like it when we look like authoritarians. The second is that the claims or more likely the implication that this will somehow help keep out terrorists are just vast over exaggerations. This will not keep people out who want to do harm. It might keep out the lone nut bent on doing something small, but if an established terrorist group wants to get people into the country, they can still do it without worrying about this new system.

The question then becomes, is this program so important? Well, I don't really think it is, but there is not a legal reason not to enforce the laws on the books in this manner.

I also have read about many countries pissed about this, namely Brazil. On this front I don't really see their gripe. Americans are not treated like saints anywhere in the world, so fingerprints or pictures of us will not matter, and it will not hurt them either.

I do however wonder what we will do with the fingerprints and photos. Will we share them with other countries? Will we keep them for ourselves? This is what scares me more: we don't care. Will we care if (or when) the Homeland Security Department does this for any domestic air travel?

More from the Enquirer.

Queen City Soapbox: Ethan Hahn Back and Blogging in Force

Please check out Ethan over at Queen City Soapbox. Ethan has been away from regular blogging, but has restarted his efforts. I bid him a welcome back!

Ethan has posts on: the Red's Faithful blog, Pete Rose, Freedom, and the cold.

Yes it is damn cold today. One must love hitting 67 one day (Saturday) and then three days latter is drops to 10.

C&C Bill Showdown

The conceal & carry bill is in limbo. It has passed both houses, but not yet gone to the Governor. Taft is threatening a veto:

Taft has threatened to veto the bill over public access to records of who has applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He thinks the public should have the right to find out who is carrying concealed guns. But the House has refused to go that far, instead allowing only journalists to request permitting records by asking for individual names.

I again have to wonder why the gun owner has more rights than I do. Why can a gun owner carry around a gun in public, but I can't find out about? Why can a gun owner "protect" themself from me (quell their irrational fears to put it another way), but I can't protect myself from them? Why can't I know who has the right to carry around an machine made to kill? Why can't I know who fears me, or people like me, and then keep away from people who think I might try and commit a crime against them. I would prefer keeping away from people that I might judge as being a few cards short of full house who also are carrying around a gun, maybe in my home.

Why deny property owners the right to screen gun carriers from their property? If I am having a children's party, do I not have the right to keep parents of kids who carry a gun off my property?

Why do gun owners deserve "special rights?"

Rose Bet on Baseball

Well, this is not new information to everyone else, just Pete. I am glad he finally fessed up to what was fact to those not deluded by his bowl hair cut. I hope Pete can get into the Hall of Fame, but I hope he does not manage a team. I could stand him as a low tier coach, but not in charge of the team.

I mostly hope that once Pete gets into the Hall of Fame, his rabid fans (read Wildman Walker) will finally shut the hell up about Pete. Pete is not someone who will do much for baseball. He might fill some seats locally for a season, but the shine will wear off fast. I wonder how long he could stay out of trouble if he was highly involved with the Reds. That would be entertainment. That would not be good for the Reds though.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that this whole affair is one of the best uses of PR to sell a book in a long time. Who ever is Pete's PR person, give them a raise.