Blackwell Losing Focus

Ken Blackwell had better keep a special eye on the Hamilton County race for Prosecutor.: "'There are 88 counties in Ohio, and 68 use punch cards - and I've got to make sure we don't suffer the embarrassment of Florida in 2000,' Blackwell said, referring to the recount four years ago that delayed presidential election results."A county of the size of Hamilton with a race with only write in candidates and a local GOP itching to do its damnedest to win for their Fearless Leader® should be something to catch a little extra attention from the Secretary of State. We are going to have a mess here at the board of elections. We will have to count these by hand. That is something the GOP thinks is evil after all, so we can't trust it no matter what. We need a state official observing our election. Blackwell should station a team in the county on November 2nd and oversee how vote counts and poll workers operate, assuring no fraud occurs.

Deters' Baggage

Wow, something halfway critical on Joe Deters. The main negative on Deters that should be trumpeted is this one:

He also faced a special prosecutor's investigation in Hamilton County that examined whether Deters or anyone on his staff attempted to cover up a theft from the evidence room while he was prosecutor in 1996.

Whether or not he knew about the theft, it happened on his watch as Prosecutor. His oversight of his staff is not much better than Mike Allen. No, pun intended.

Character

In reading some of the comments I come away flabbergasted that people still think Bush is some ‘honest’ guy with a 'good' character. This is so misguided it is sad. If you think Bush's choices in governance are good, then fine, but to say how he has acted in office is of good character is laughable. If you think that anyone who 'won' an election under at best less than ideal circumstances (where more people voted against him) and then proceeded to govern as if those others opinions did not exist, then I think you need to rethink what honor and character mean. Ignoring the how he was elected and acting like he won in a landslide is the clearly the least honorable thing he has done. Well, that and misleading the county into war, but if you think the ends justify the means, I guess you will love this guy.

He also did, well, a shit load of other crap, but I think people can get my point.

Now, other than being a conservative Christian, what value has Bush put on the US, that other conservatives would stand up and cheer about? Budgets are going nuts. We have more poor people (they may not care). The rest of the world hates us (they may like that). What keeps the Bush people supporting him? Simple, they want to keep power on the right. That is comprehendible, but more cynical even than me.

Voters Cheered?

I know I cheered when I heard the news, but did people really cheer anywhere?

Lt. Gov. Bradley to Replace Deters?

If this is true, then who becomes the Lt. Gov? Korte says Kevin DeWine, Mike's son and Pat's brother, may be it.

Hate May Energize GOP

It is nice to know that that hate is the biggest GOP weapon. Knowing what the other side thinks is good for any conflict. If Bush wins Ohio, I agree with Phil Burress, it will be the result of hate for homosexuals that bring out the theocratic fascists in droves.

Bronson: Screw the People!

Bronson cares not for fair elections. Bronson wants everyone to just trust his Ohio GOP to run everything and say nothing. I guess this is the same Ohio GOP playing games with the Prosecutors office? I guess Bronson trusts the white people to write in the names of Joe Deters and that those can be counted by hand, but if anyone challenges someone's handwriting, we should not question it and just let his man Joe win.

What Bronson fails to see is that the Democrats got screwed in 2000. He was happy as a peach. We were pissed. Bronson should learn that we don't trust the GOP. We don't trust Ken Blackwell and more than we trusted Katherine Harris.

Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls

The Prosecutor's race gone from a middle of the road 3 ring circus to the world's Biggest Big Top. Where the hell did Joe Deters come from? I guess the GOP needed Sir Galahad to save the day. We have so many points to make this a flaming pile of pooh, that is just too juicy not to sink your teeth into.

1. Deters Moves to the county just to run for office. This is what I call Office Shopping.
2. Allen will not seek re-election, but he did not resign.
3. The Dems have not yet endorsed anyone.
4. Ken Lawson is out.
5. Jody Luebbers and Fanon Rucker are in.
6. James Rueger is in, but likely will be lost in Deters dust.
7. Melissa Powers is also in. I have no idea who she is other than "former assistant county prosecutor ." WLWT says she is a Republican.
8. Deters thinks this will affect the Presidential race. What a joke.
9. Deters is not going to resign as State Treasurer until the Prosecutor job is open? Who the hell is going to be State Treasurer if Deters wins? Are they going to try a bait and switch? Could it work? Could Deters be elected, then not take office and the GOP be allowed to appoint someone? Allen was appointed after all when Deters won the Treasurer's job.
10. I can be thankful that Deters is running and not Simon Leis. That would have been hell.
11. Few seem to be thinking about what a mess the local election officials will have with counting the ballots. Numbers will be high with the National election. This will create the need for more room for error or for manipulation. How do you write in a candidate on an electronic voting machine?

News roundup: Enquirer, Post, WCPO, WLWT, WKRC.

Enquirer Helps Build Fear of OTR

This story just helped kill business for the Main Street Area. Why should the city bother to exist if people are told to fear it every time they open the newspaper? Why don't we all just blow up downtown, blow up OTR, build 1,000 more cul-de-sac's in West Chester and live the stale bland Republican lives TPTB want.

Will we get an article soon Championing Fountain Square as the new hot spot?

County Prosecutor Race - A Mess

I have no idea who the Dems will support today as a write in candidate. We have three possibilities: City Councilman John Cranley, former Assistant Prosecutor Jody Luebbers and attorney Fanon Rucker. All I know is that by the end of the business day they will pick one.

Believe it or not but Ken Lawson thinks he could actually win, or I assume that since he announced he may run. How do you really announce you may run? I guess formed a 3 day exploratory committee, or something of the like. WKRC states he is a registered Republican (but they use a small "r"). That for some reason does not surprise me. Lawson entrance without any endorsement will split the black vote and the Dems will likely not win. The person with most ads and the smartest people who can understand how to write a candidate in will win.

Mike Allen still does not have the guts to resign and the GOP still has not publicly asked him to quit. I guess winning is more important than honor. This was the party that said only the Dems did that (yep about Clinton), so I guess the pragmatism is spread around evenly.

Cincinnati Post Gets It

The Cincinnati Post editorial gets the flap over Bush: he ducked his duties. The facts are out there and the document flap is meaningless. US News summed up the issues well and document, using basic math, that Bush did not serve all the time required by his commitment. Will people care? Not that much. The press seems to not want to show much about Bush, beyond the superficial and Bush supporters will never leave him, short of his committing murder. And then it would depend on who was murdered.

UPDATE: Just so you know that I am not going nuts, here is a screen shot from Google of the link:

Google Page Shot of Editorial Called "Bush's past is catching up" That is no long online.

UPDATE#2: I searched on the opening sentence from the Google page and came up with other Scripps Howard Newspapers with a similar editorial (reg rec'd), but I think still different, or just abridged.

Labels

Ok, I am a 'white' liberal atheistic-agnostic Miami Alumnus New York State born Guy. I generally don't say that. I sometimes call myself a liberal. I sometimes call myself a Miami Guy, or when refer to where I am from I say I am a foreigner to a person born and raised here in Cincinnati. When I got out with friends or go to an organization I usually don't say it is out of liberal guys. Conservative Christians does this all the time, like poster boy Evangelical ChristianPeter Bronson:

"I was paired up with Ben Turpin in a weekend outing of Christian guys."

Now, I have no problem with people getting together to play golf. If a Christian men’s group wants to have an outing, that fine. What troubles me is that in his description of the guys as "Christians guys." It was not a group of guys who are all Christians. It is like saying I am a white guy. I don't see myself as a white guy. I am a guy, who happens to be white. I am human being first, then all other classifications come second.

This takes on a whole new meaning with some Conservative Christians refer to and champion Christian Businesses. We get websites like this: www.christianebuy.com where you can find a Christian Quick Lube and get slogans like:

As a Christian, do you have what it takes to make in the business world? Absolutely!

It puts a label on someone, that makes it sound like all else stems from religion, and being human is merely a side-effect. Christians will say being human is being a Christian, which just layers on the sectarianism.

Bronson's column was in general good in so much that he appeared to understand that there is a middle ground on racial profiling. It does exist. It does happen. I would agree with him that those that use it to make money are likely overstating what happened, but it happens in the burbs all too often. A label on a black person is moot when the eyeball places a definition on them before the mind does. The mind must work faster than the eyes, but we must not just replace racism with another means of separation. Being human beings is more important than being part of a religion or part of a political party.

More Bias from the Enquirer

This is typical of the GOP leaning Cincinnati Enquirer, but this "news" item with a headline is about as biased without even the hint of being objective. I mean we get a headline bashing Kerry for using the Bungle reference, but we get nothing about Lynn Cheney saying:

"Isn't it called 'the Queen of the Cities?' " she said. "It's a very apt title."

It is the Queen City, not "Queen of the cities." That is an Elton John Song. I wonder if Lynn's daughter played a little funny on her mom with that reference. Constantinople was known as the "Queen of Cities." It should be an insult for the 21st Century crusaders here in Cincinnati to be linked with a city now majority Muslim. Can't have that, now can we. (cough, cough)

Ken Lucas is No Zell Miller

U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas put forth an honest and just plain true indictment of the War in Iraq:

"But I have to tell you from all the stuff that we've gotten I really feel like I was misled," Lucas said, responding to a question during the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce's monthly Government Forum.

"I think people had good intentions but I feel very badly about that. Particularly with -- 1,000 young men and women who have died, and thousands who have lost body parts. I don't feel good about that," he said, trailing off as his audience listened silently.

Now, I assume the right wing response will be, "he flip-flopped." That will unfortunately be an attempt to ignore what he said, and instead try and make one who is honest, forthright, and nuanced as someone "weak." The game of having one idea or opinion and sticking to it no matter what is the kind of thinking this president has and it is type of 19th Century thinking that brought unnecessary deaths to millions of people. I hope we can bring the intellectual level of our government forward to the 21 century.

The Last Night of the Proms

I am listening to the last night of the BBC Proms an annual tradition of wonderful music. It is live on BBC 3 if you care to listen.

Bad Reporting

I will not get into the game of spin and duck on type fonts etc, but I will comment on this online story from WLWT. The story states that:

Richard Polt, a Xavier University professor, was called on to examine documents from the 1970s that could shed new light on information about George W. Bush's service in the military.

Ok, that is fine, but who called on him?? How did WLWT find out he was called upon? Later on the article states:

Several national magazines have called on Polt for his opinion.

Ok, now we have something added of merit, but WHAT MAGAZINES? National Review? Weekly Standard?

The most insane element was section, including the magazine reference:

"When you think about some of the details of the documents, it just adds up to something recently produced on a computer," he said.

Several national magazines have called on Polt for his opinion. He said the only excuse could be that the documents were handwritten and someone produced them on a computer.

How the hell does this guy know what the "only excuse" could be? That is a theory, but this guy has no knowledge or experience in what else could explain why "might" have been typed recently.

His opinions are being refuted in other places: Here and Here, and CBS is still sticking with their story and they have their own expert, Marcel Matley.

WLWT went for the local angle to this story, but failed to give any qualifications to the professor, failed to show who “called” on him to analyze the documents, and also failed to point out that he undoubtedly had copies of copies of copies of the documents, if not a higher level of distortion. Mr. Polt has done a lot of research on typewriters, but his knowledge of type fonts, seems to be limited. From his bio he appears to be a philosophy professor.

The game of claiming forgery has turned into another case of the Chewbacca Defense. There was far more to the CBS News story, than just those documents, but that doesn’t matter, when the game is afoot.

Bush's Guard Service, Or Lack There Of

I really have little to say about Bush's National Guard Service. I have no respect for him, so this just reaffirms my opinions. What I find humorous is how it compares to the bogus charges against Kerry. The media are directly pushing this one through honest and legitimate means. The Swift Boat liars use spin and conservative media outlets to create a hollow scandal.

Maggie on the Edge

Ok, Maggie Downs offically has more guts than I do. Either that or she really is a bit of a lunatic.

Dick in Cincinnati

Well, Cheney made his staged event with little worry, but rumor has it that the guy in the shades below kept Secret Service agents on their toes:

A Terrorist or "The Man" behind "The Man?"

Local GOP Is Chicken

No one in the local GOP has the guts ask Mike Allen to resign. They have James Rueger on the ballot, why are they a bunch of wussies? It is hilarious that the party of Christian values is not going to do a damn thing about the poster boy for sin running as their law enforcement champion in the county.