John Kerry Coming to Cincinnati

Democratic Candidate for President, Senator John Kerry, will be in Cincinnati for a public rally 11:00 AM on Tuesday, at Yeatman's Cove near the Cincinnatus statue.

A local Kerry campaign official states that the event is free and open to the public, but is encouraging people to pick up tickets for preferred seating/standing. Tickets can be picked up at:

225 W. Court Street, Downtown Cincinnati, from 2-5pm on Sunday.

or

1420 Main Street, (Greg Harris' campaign office), from 2-5 pm on Sunday or 3-6pm on Monday.

Kerry's Website and Ohio Page.

Choke On This One Si!

Court: County can't file charges against Flynts

Ohio Mayors

It Appears that mayors from Toledo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Akron and Dayton sent a joint letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow criticizing his comments about outsourcing American jobs. The Enquirer reported them on Tuesday:

The outsourcing of U.S. jobs "is part of trade ... and there can't be any doubt about the fact that trade makes the economy stronger," Treasury Secretary John Snow said Monday in Cincinnati.

Well, I never like "..." in the lead of story, but the context seems like comments that been attributed to Snow before.

The word "cold" comes to mind when I think of Snow, and that is not because I grew up about an hour from Buffalo, NY.

The story lacks much of any depth. He was here on a dog and pony tour to local big businesses, who support the GOP. What purpose did his visit serve?

I missed where the Editorial Board issued an opinion on Snow or his visit. It would nice to get a little bit more news than just the BushCo's view on the Economy. The Ohio Mayor's letter only made the news brief section of the Enquirer.

Another Reason For Good Public Schools

A local private school is closing its doors at the end of this school years. About 200 kids will have to find a new school to attend. This does not happen to public schools. There is and always should be a public school, a high quality one with needed funding, where a child can go for a 'free' education. I say free in the sense of tuition free. Education should be a public service as much as police protection and fire protection. If you want to pay for a private firm to give you police protection, you generally can. The same should be their for education. Voucher systems and the general motivation of some to make all schools private are things that will not best educate the majority of the youth in this country.

If you want religion in your school, then send your kids to a private school or school them yourself. That is your right, but not something we should subsidize.

The Law Dog Doesn't Dig Brown

LaShawn Pettus-Brown has fired Ken Lawson. According to the article Lawson had a plea bargain on the table that Brown rejected. The also indicates that Regina Collins, a civil attorney who has represented Brown in the past, stated Lawson forced his was onto the case.

Bottom line, when you Drop Ken Lawson as your defense attorney, you better start picking out your preferred brand of soap on a rope.

Hillbilly Lawyers?

Would this be considered legal incest?

The Dean Jams

The funniest thing Maggie forgot to include in her column was a reference to the Dean's music.

"D to the E to the A to the N!"

Bunning's Foibles

I thought this kind of ethnic bigotry died after the third installment of the Godfather?

Protest VP?

Dick Cheney is coming to town on Monday. Will protest groups have undercover agents inside their rallies down here like they did up in Dayton? With the GOP pull in this town, I would be shocked if the stroomtroopers where not out in force, both undercover and with riot gear ready to pounce on a litterbug.

Will Nate Livingston be protesting the VP? That I think is the real question, not that Bronson and Nate are becoming anti-free speech chums.

Sucker

So Peter Bronson fell for Nate Livingstone's email attacking the Know Theatre Tribe. Well folks, there you have your proof, both Livingston and Bronson seek to stamp out freedom and intellectual thought. Their form of life would be better had under their own distinct form of fascism. Nate wants a black run city where white people are oppressed, Peter wants a theocratic state, with a paper layer of tolerance easily torn.

Bronson should have seen Lips, the latest play put on by the Know Theatre. For the record I was a technical adviser on that production. In the play a fictional President (remember all of these plays are fictional) near the end of the play goes hand in hand with her Lesbian lover down the aisle of a Church, seeking acceptance, but instead gets attacked. That shows the realty of Bronson's brand of religion at its worst, but does not mock religion. Peter thinks his brand of Christianity and its fundamental/evangelical sects are tolerant of difference, but they really just seek to have those who don't conform to their religion slunk around in the shadows, neither seen nor heard.

Peter writes:

Council should encourage free expression and help the arts downtown. But if it gives cash to the Know Theatre Tribe, even indirectly, arts groups will never find the integrity to respect religion the same way they curtsey to more politically correct "sensitivities."

What Bronson forgets, oh so intentionally, that religious groups where pushing "politically correct" ideas for hundreds of years before the conservatives starting whining about being chastised for saying "redskin." I point to Blue laws as the ultimate in religious PC efforts, getting the sale of alcohol ban or limited on Sundays. What motivated the laws???? Yep, Political correctness.

I hope Peter does not forget something: Churches are afforded non-tax status. Why is that done? It is does because of political correctness. What does not having to pay taxes do for churches? Well, they can use more funds to evangelize or run their religious activities. The taxpayers are then indirectly supporting religious activities. I don't like that. If I ran the world I would tax churches as any other Business, because that is what I seem them as. Guess what, that is not going to happen. Bronson should look at what I do, learn to live with the reality that everyone will not think like I do and let groups like the Know keep up their work of keeping live theater going in this town and making a stand for new and diverse art.

UPDATE: The Post has a story on the Funding, and they too fell pray to Nate's charms by mentioning his email. I guess if on a slow news day I send out a mass email, then I would get my name in all of the papers too?

UPDATE#2: Wes Flinn also comments.

More Bad ReportingBlogging

Matt Leingang has written an article about binge drinking in Cincinnati. That is fine. I have no problem with the article, except no where in the article does he define what was considered binge drinking by the study. I looked in a sister article on the topic and found nothing.

Matt might have looked for something like this note on the Rutgers Journal of Studies on Alcohol's website.

Binge drinking has been defined by some temperance movement activists as 5 drinks in a night for men and 4 for women. That has become a common definition by many in the media who are often too lazy to a little research on the internet. I found the above page in a 10 second search using Google.com. Don't you think Matt might have spent that time? Better yet, do you think Matt did spend that time and his editors stupidly cut that part out? That is possible. The bias and/or stupidity of editors often outweighs that of the reporter.

UPDATE: Yes, I missed it. Yes, I was careless. Yes, I apologize to Matt.

Now, one critique that I honestly think threw me for a loop. Matt switched between using numbers in like "20" and 8.8" to using the word "five." Is that an excuse? Well, not much of one. I do still hold my opinion that the story should have held some critical opinion that disputes the study, which frankly is not worth the paper it is printed on, mostly because it defines "binge" drinking on such a narrow view that it holds no meaning.

Personal Jesus

The shot of the week goes to Greg Korte who wrote about theCincinnati Human Relations Commission:

"Councilman Sam Malone is performing his personal audit of the organization."

Nice to see Councilman Malone has found way to express himself to someone who really cares. If he would only do this more often and just keep his findings to his personal committee, we all might sleep better at night.

Hmmmm

Can we say Flip-Flop? Wow, a politician changing his mind based on political pressure. What a shocker.

Nader-Kerry Deal?

Rumor or Truth? Via TPM.

Kentucky Theocracy

Kentucky's Brand of Theocracy is on the march in Lexington. I really don't get why people cheer when people try to ban Gay Marriage. Why are the so gleeful? I guess doing their "religious duty" is what drives them into emotional fits. The only thing missing in this article is the fact that most of the Democrats in Kentucky's Statehouse would not favor Gay Marriage; just don't want to ban it outright in their Constitution. A technical difference that is political fodder, but not a substantive variation.

Pols on Movies

People get pissed when Movie Stars give their political opinions. Why then are we forced to hear about politicians given their opinions on a movie? I was pleased to see actually that most of those asked about the movie, which was the Passion by the way, had not seen it. That included well the more moderate Republicans and the Democrats. Chabot and Bunning made it into a big deal. Gee, now who is using religion and the "scriptures" for political gain?

Blog Round Up

Wes Flinn has info on some domestic spying up in Dayton.

Greg Mann comments on Bronson's latest column, and agrees. No, I have not seen the flying monkeys yet.

Matt Sledge has a future after 97X. I don't know if all the peanuts in the world would tell us what we be the new format of 97.7.

Mike at Rantophilia comments on Safire and his attempt to be a moderate on the Pledge issue.

Mark at the Rambler has an update on featured Dinosaurs.

SadGirlSeven just might have a thing for Anderson Cooper of CNN.

Monkey's Could Do Better

Some really bad reporting from the AP:

In Wisconsin, the Kerry advantage in a three-way contest was three percent in an American Research Group survey. Four years ago, both Ohio and Wisconsin went to Al Gore.

Of course you know Bush won Ohio in 2000. The report from UC (pdf) is really rather striking. If this poll holds through the summer and Kerry stays within the margin of error until November, I don't see how Bush can win nationally.

Brains.....Brains

A CT regular, let's call him "Bill," came up with a very interesting similarity with Mel Gibson's Movie "The Passion of the Christ" and the new remake of the "Dawn of the Dead." I did not write this, so don't blame me for it. You can just blame me for publishing it. Here is what he wrote:

Some friends had mentioned that 'Dawn of the Dead' had unseated 'The Passion of Christ' this past weekend as the top grossing box office movie.

And I thought, Wow, two hits in a row about dead people. Wait a minute. That's not quite right. That’s TWO BOX OFFICE HITS IN A ROW ABOUT THE UNDEAD. Movies about the undead, really seems to be a hit for moviegoers this movie season, but who can blame them for their insatiable appetite for blood and gore.

What am I talking about? It’s obvious, Christ was dead and then he came back from the dead. I think that definitely meets the definition for undead.

But wait, there’s more! Both groups strongly advocate the eating of flesh. Both groups hold the promise for life after death for followers.

Early followers were known to hide out in the catacombs. Coincidence? I think not.

The bible is strewn with references of his undead nature. The parallels are uncanny. Christ brought Lazarus back from the dead. Miracle or midnight snack? You decide!

5000 people, 5 loaves of bread, 2 fish – How did he feed them all? It’s not hard when you are undead.

Average person needs 2000 calories/day
Average person eats 3 times/day
Average requirements for 1 meal = 2000 Calories / 3 =
667 calories per meal
Average weight of human brain = 3 pounds
Calories for 1 pound brain = 503

# Lunchables = TotalPeopleAliveOrUndead - #Undead
X = #Undead

Solve for X!

#Undead * CaloriesRequirementsPerUndead = (TotalPeopleAliveOrUndead - #Undead) *AvgBrainWeightPerPerson * CaloriesPerPoundOfBrain

X * 667 Calories = (5000 People – X) * 3 lbs * 503 Calories

667 / 3 / 503 * X = (5000 – X)
.442 * X = 5000 – X
.442X + X = 5000 – X + X
1.442X = 5000
X = 3467

#Undead = 3467
#Lunchables = 5000 People – 3467 Undead = 1533 Lunchables

You can consider the bread & fish an appetizer.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is crazy you say? I think not! I found proof in the Bible! Everyone knows the living dead just love to eat brains. Look at these passages below.

1 Peter 5:2 King James Version
"Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;"

Biblical speak for “More Brains...”

Romans 15:6 King James Version
"That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

See! God wants you to eat brains.

Philippians 2:5 King James Version
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"

Christ is cool. He shares his lunch.

Ezekiel 23:22 King James Version
"Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side;"

Sounds like a scene of night of the living dead to me.

- - - - -

Whew, all that made me hungry. I think I’ll go grab a bite to eat now. I’ll catch you later.

And remember, the next time I am slowly shuffling up the aisle for communion, I will be thinking the same thing you are... “More Brains...”

To Contact "Bill" you can email him at morebrains2004@yahoo.com.

Oh the Humanity

The Richard Clarke Character Assignation has just really gone too far. I understand BushCo needing to defend itself. Fine. It is fruitless how they are doing it and only Andy Card, WH Chief of Staff, did it in a politically viable way, just brushing off Clarke's allegations as sensational book promotion. That is wrong, very wrong, but it would have passed the smell test if everyone from BushCo did that. Instead Rice makes spurious claims, then Cheney out right lies, now Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has gone off the deep end. Josh Marshall posts on Frist's unsupported and bogus grandstanding tactics on the Senate floor yesterday. I was sickened most by Frist's attack on Clarke for apologizing to the victims and families of the 9/11 attacks:

In his appearance before the 9-11 Commission, Mr. Clarke's theatrical apology on behalf of the nation was not his right, his privilege or his responsibility. In my view it was not an act of humility, but an act of supreme arrogance and manipulation. Mr. Clarke can and will answer for his own conduct - but that is all.

Clarke did the honorable thing and accepted responsibility. No one in the Bush administration took responsibility or apologized for not doing a better job. That human trait, humility, is void from this Administration. Mr. Frist should be asking why a retired member of the Administration had to publicly admit he was part of the government that fail the American public, but the President refuses to admit that he and his people did anything wrong or made any unwise choices. No one can hold Bush legally liable for what happened, but if I am the person in charge, the Buck stops with me. For this Administration dodging blame is not only part of all appointee's job descriptions, it seems to be becoming the only thing they do.