Democratic Rally Today 2 PM Fountain Square

I plan on doing some live blogging at the Fountain Square event.

Enquirer Picks Miller Over Brinkman

What a difference two years make for the Enquirer with their endorsement of Glen Miller for the 34th District of Ohio House, my district. It is an obvious choice for any sane human being. Brinkman is an extremist ideologue who seems to be more concerned with controlling women's bodies, destroying all levels of government, and providing guns to any nut with a pulse, than with preserving the rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, the rights of the first amendment, or of keeping a basic level of government to protect the poor from having to beg from the powerful corporation just to live.

The change from the Enquirer lies in the fact that they did not list an endorsement for this race back in 2002. I guess it is either more competitive this time around, or when Brinkman pushed a law where people could carry concealed guns in Churches and day care center just may have been the straw to break the blinders off the Enquirer's face.

I join the Enquirer in stating that we must vote for Glen Miller in the 34th.

Maggie Downs Missing From Friday's Enquirer

Yesterday I read Friday's Cincinnati Enquirer online, as I do everyday.

Friday is normally the day everyone can read Maggie Downs' weekly column, but I looked all over the front page. I looked in her archived column section. I looked and looked and looked and looked.

I did not find a column for Friday. I "wonder" why I did not find a column on Friday. I guess the bumper sicker column pissed off some West Chester GOP hacks who swear they tore off every Kerry bumper sticker they saw. From their perspective her count of Kerry stickers must be the result of some kind of, oh I don't know how they put it, "liberal bias?" We all know bias has no place in an opinion column.

Why is the Enquirer trying to silence Maggie? What fear do they have of opinion, and a liberal one at that, in their Metro OPINION columns? There is certainly no shortage of conservatives. I would love to know how often they kill a Bronson column for being too right-wing.

Hot Spots?

A request for anyone out there: Where are the hotspots for WiFi downtown? I know of Hamburger Mary's, but where else can I go at night? I am will to pay, up to a point for it, so I don't need just the free-places. There are several around UC also and Panera Bread and a few fast food places have it too. Anyone else been to any and know of good places to go, with good food or beverages if applicable? I have a new laptop, in case you did not hear me say it 100,000 times over the last week, and I want to try out some remote location blogging.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

An official ticket to the Bush rally at GAP.

I am torn on what I should do. Should I go to the event or not? I want to test out the local GOP staffers who may or may not be on the ball enough to keep me out of the event.

I will try to have a Kerry sticker on as I go in, assuming I go, but not a big one or open to see.

My real plan is to try and talk with some of the protestors and see if that gets me banned from going in.

I got the ticket from a friend who did so fairly easily. He went down to the Cincy Bush HQ and they gave him four tickets. He had to say he was a Bush supporter, but I am sure he at least supports Bush on something remote so as to not make that a lie. He had to gave his name, but did not have to sign anything.

The Enquirer gave its typical puff piece on the event showing people torn between trick-or-treating or going to the Bush event. For the record, any Parents forcing their kid to see Bush instead of trick-or-treating is either a fundamentalist (and extremist) or is just plain cruel. That goes the same for the Dems who bring their kids to protest. I hope every kid there at least was able to have beggar's night tonight instead.

19th Century Enquirer Thinking

I guess the Enquirer Editorial Staff have a concept of time forieng to most living in this century as illustrated by their Groppe endorsements:

She has used technology to counter a rush of refinancing when interest rates fell, and has kept a close eye on her budget.

I guess the 2 months it takes to process a title is good by 1878 standards.

Blackwell Asks AG To Bar Challengers From Polls

In yet another surprise move Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has asked Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to ban all challengers from the polls on Tuesday. Blackwell lacks the authority to do so and short of a change in the law, I don't see what can prevent them, short of the Governor using some type of emergency power.

The lawsuit that caused problems with challengers took on a nasty reality when Democrats reported that 250 of the 251 precincts the local GOP registered challengers with were in predominatly Black areas.

Republicans also submitted a list of 251 other precincts where they may put challengers. Of those, county Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke said 250 are majority-black precincts.

I guess I will not see anyone in Cincinnati 1K. I am going to try and look up the possible precincts they could be targeting. It could just most of the City or it could pick out specific places to try and keep minority votes down.

Halt of GOP Pre-Emptive Challenges Upheld

To my surprise the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that the pre-emptive voter challenges can't go on before the election.

The real question about these challenges rests on how these people were identified as registrations to challenge. In the Akron area it appears that the reasons were at best sloppy and at worst partisan targeting.

CiN Weekly One Year Later

CiN Weekly is one year old and wants you know it. Well, what do people think of it after they have lived through 52 weeks of it?

I myself can say it a nice light publication and objectively speaking it serves its purpose. CityBeat is still better as publication, but CiN adds a CNN morning show style cultural feel, which is at least hipper than the Today Show. I hate to say it but there is a market for CiN. Think of CiN as Starbucks to CityBeat's Kaldi's.

HypoSpeak Challenges Ohio Reporters

Hypothetically Speaking is asking if you, a professional journalist, have the guts to seek out the alleged fraud the GOP is claiming. $100.00 American Dollars await the first reporter "who can document that 'massive and systematic voter fraud' has been conducted by pro-Kerry forces in this campaign." There are rules so have a look and take your best shot.

Ohio AG Carrying GOP Water?

The Ohio Attorney General is reportedly appealing the federal court order halting BOE hearings on voter registration challenges. Will this do any good? Well if the Conservatives on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals here in Cincinnati get their way, they will be having hearings the second they can overrule the lower court order.

Shine a Light on the Vote Challengers

Covington Jim has put forth an idea of capturing a photograph of vote challengers at each precinct, forever documenting who is going to be trying to suppress the votes. Now, there are going to be both Dems and GOP challengers, but only the GOP have stated they will challenge votes. Dems here in Ohio have stated they will not challenge votes at the poll.

I am willing to snap a photo at my poll station, but I doubt they will have anyone there, since I live in a GOP area. What I think is more interesting is to see the face of those challenging votes in mostly black precincts. I don't know if you have to be registered in the precinct to be a challenger in that precinct or not, but if not I expect some very white faces to be in OTR, the West End, Walnut Hills and Avondale challenging voters.

I will accept some photos and post them, but I would want some verification of who you are, your polling location, and verification that this was taken on Nov. 2nd. I will not be able to post all of them.

If some enterprising young person (or old person) out there wants to set up a website to accept and display this collection, I would be happy to promote it.

REM at the Taft

Did anyone see REM at the Taft last night? I did not go, so I would not mind a review, and maybe some without the politics. I wished the Post could have kept it to the music, but this was a political concert, so I guess I can't get my music separated. It would have been better to have a political story on the event and then a music story.

I Contain Multitudes

I commented today in comments that Cleveland was not as Pro-Kerry as Cincinnati was Pro-Bush HypoSpeaks as poll numbers that prove me wrong. What it also says is that Cincinnati has more Kerry Support than I could have ever imagined. My only assumption is that these are metro numbers, not city proper numbers.

I have been reading HypoSpeaks for a while and have been meaning to add them to the blog roll. Sorry for the delay in do so!

Bias or Bad Journalism? (yet again)

We have an article on Michael Moore's visit to UC yesterday. We hear quotes from Moore, which is good. We get a report of who else appeared with Moore, which included REM. What we then got where quotes from Republicans: Susanna Oakley had tepid yet anti-Moore comments:

Susanna Oakley, an art history senior from Montgomery, said she was not impressed.

"He didn't say anything of substance. He's ridiculous," she said.

That was fine on the surface. That is her opinion and it would have been fine giving the opinion of someone who does not like Moore.

Then the writer ends with an indirect comment that was supposed to fact check Moore, but instead was just propaganda

Moore is twisting the facts, said Lindsay Quinn, a UC senior and organizer of the College Republicans. Those poll watchers will be impartial observers, she said, adding that Democrats will be observing too.

Now, first these are not poll watchers or "observers," they are challengers. They are there to challenge voters, not just watch the polls. They can't do anything but use their cell phone if they think something is wrong at the polls. What sets me off more is that this came from an "organizer of the College Republicans." Why not wake up and fact check what this person says before you publish it as a retort?

Where were the comments of someone who likes Moore and what he said? There were surely plenty of Young Democrats at the event, and the reporter could have gotten a quote, and if she did get a quote and the editor did not print it, well there is your clear cut bias from the Enquirer.

The Columbus Dispatch On Web?

I don't subscribe to the The Columbus Dispatch, but I was able to read this story about the Dems suing the GOP over their pre-emptive hearings trying to kick over 2,000 people off the voter rolls.

In the past the Dispatch limited access to subscribers on all stories. They have been added to Google News, so I guess they don’t know or no longer mind.

Desperation?

Bush won Ohio in 2000. Bush won the Cincinnati area very easily in 2000. Why would he waste time holding a rally here 2 days before the election when he could be in a location where he might sway some voters?

Does Bush's base around here need any more motivation? I guess he needs a big crowd for good video shots, but I would have thought that a visit to Iowa might do him better. I think Bush's chances are fading in Ohio, but in Iowa he is doing much better. But Hell, I hope Bush spends all day Sunday right here in Cincinnati. It does not look good if you spend time in the last days of the campaign in places where you already are supposed to have won without question and without much effort.

Since it is on Sunday, maybe I will try and get tickets. I wonder if you will need to sign an oath or pass a FBI background check to go to it. I have been getting almost daily auto-dialer recorded propaganda from Bush, so someone foolishly has me on a list of undecided voters or something.

QCF Interview Fanon Rucker

Michael Atlman interviews the Democratic endorsed write-in candidate for Prosecutor.

Cyber-Jingoism From Bush

Funnel Cake reports that the Bush Campaign web site is rejecting Non-US visitors. He also provided a link to some confirmation from international users. Why would this be happening? Why would he keep people out? Are people being blocked only in certain countries? I could see this would be a way to stop a denial of service attack, but I would like to know if IP's from Israel are being block, because they UK's are being blocked. How are international Bush voters, Americans abroad, supposed to read his website? Now, I am not saying they should, but I am all for people having the chance to read what all candidates are saying.

Mullane's Back?

We have hope Mullane's Parkside Café will reopen.