Chandra Yungbluth Named Dem Director

The Hamilton County Democratic Party has named Chandra Yungbluth as the new executive director, replacing Adam Rosenberg. Yungbluth work on the Greg Harris campaign and is native to Hamilton County. The most interesting thing, is that Googling her comes up with little. I don't know her or anything about her. The views of those who know something about her (and who I know) say she was the right choice for the job.

I am wondering if she has called anyone form the Ghiz camp. I don't see Leslie jumping ship, other than to Charter, but you don't know until you try.

Cincinnati Magazine

I am included in Cincinnati Magazine Article in the February edition. It was just published, but I have not seen it yet. Nick Spencer, who was also included in the article has reviewed it and feels it was a good article. When I get a copy I will post more. At this point it is not online and will not be. Cincinnati Magazine doesn't generally publish articles online, only in hardcopy. I hope they put this one as a special considered, considering the topic. I mean, if I can't link to story that mentions me personally, would is this blog good for anyway?

Delusional or a Liar?

When you read stuff like this from Bush do you think he comes across more as a liar or is he just living in a delusional state?

President Bush said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.

"We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me."

When he says stuff like this I think than man's mind is just off on a different planet or filled with a really thick haze.

Tsunami Relief Effort of Cincinnati

If you care to help out, a local effort called Tsunami Relief Effort of Cincinnati is having a benefit dinner next Wed January 19th at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, Hall of Mirrors. The full details:

WHAT: Tsunami Relief Effort of Cincinnati Benefit for the American Red Cross International Response Fund. Dinner by the bite, local djs, a balloon pop raffle and much more.

WHEN: Wednesday, January 19, 2005, 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

WHERE: Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, Hall of Mirrors 35 W. 5th St., Cincinnati.

WHO: Tsunami Relief Effort of Cincinnati, area restaurants and businesses: Pho Paris, Cumin, Beluga, Teak, Celestial, Mt. Adams Fish House, Boca, Maisonette, Carlo & Johnny, Orchids, The Quarter Bistro, Embers, Sturkey's, Encore Cafe, Aioli, Sake Bomb, Shanghai Mama's, Vineyard Cafe, Bella, Riverside Korean, Lemongrass, Jag's, Cutting Edge Selections, Cincinnati Wine Garage, Heidelberg Distributing, Dennert Distributing, Ohio Valley Wines, Sprouts, Deux Design and more.

TICKETS: $65 per person -- suggested donation.
Available by calling 513-533-9111. Tickets are also available at Cumin, Beluga, Aioli, Jean-Robert at Pigall?s, Boca, Carlo & Johnny, and Mt.Adams Fish House, or any participating restaurant.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Tsunami Relief Effort of Cincinnati
3514 Erie Avenue, 45208
phone: 513-533-9111
fax: 513-871-3287
email: yajan2000@aol.com

WEBSITE: http://www.tsunamireliefcincinnati.blogspot.com

Right now you could also check out NBC's Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope on all NBC Universial television broadcast and cable channels.

Why TV News Sucks

In this WCPO story about a rape at Cincinnati State we read in the second sentence:

As 9News was first to report, school officials said a woman was raped Thursday night while working in the 3rd floor computer lab of the school's new Advanced Technology and Learning Center.

First? FIRST? Who gives a damn if WCPO, WWE, or my back fat was first to report the story about the rape of a 21 year old person? No more whoring for ratings using rape victims, please. Hell, it is not even sweeps yet.

Yes, that is a common phrase used by WCPO and other outlets, but here it just sounds despicable.

UPDATE: To clearify one thing, this web story is just a transcript from a broadcasted story.

1530 WCKY Website Up

The "Revolution of Talk Radio" 1530 WCKY's website is up and nearly ready to go with content from Air America.

The switch will reportedly begin at 9 AM on Monday with Springer's Show. What Jerry will cover is up in the air. On a radio insiders message board discussion hovered around whether Springer will cover local issues or stick to national issues. Well, the current bio page on the WCKY site gives one answer:

He's baacck! At home and on the air in Cincinnati! No, not Jerry Springer Trash TV host, rather Jerry the lawyer turned politician turned anchorman, father, talk show host, country music singer - New York Savvy with Midwestern warmth. Along with sidekick-Jene Galvin expect the unexpected! Social activists that will cover Local, Regional and National issues that are both entertaining and topical!

What will be interesting next is to hear the outcry and rantings from the conservative media. That is, all but Clear Channel radio stations. I can't wait to hear Bill Cunnigham's story of leaving Jerry a basket of porn on his desk as a welcome gift.

Jake Speed Interview & Folk Life Benefit

Cincy Music's Venomous Valdez has an interview with Jake Speed. It is light, yet interesting.

If you have not already, make sure you pick up Jake Speed and Freddies latest album 'Huzzah!'. If you go to one of their shows you usually can get it cheaper.

Jake Speed is also scheduled to appear tomorrow (Sunday Jan 16th)at the Cincinnati Folk Life Benefit:

What: Musicians' Benefit for Cincinnati Folk Life and the Celtic World Festival

When: Sunday, January 16, 2005 3:00-11:00pm (Doors open at 2:30pm)

Where: 20th Century Theater 3021 Madison Rd (on Oakley Square)Cincinnati, OH

Suggested donation: $10 per person (at the door)

Schedule of Performers:
3:00 Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Glee Club
3:30 The Hooley Band
4:00 Riley School of Irish Music Ceili Band
4:30 Silver Arm and Celtic Rhythm Dancers
5:30 Jake Speed and the Freddies
6:30 Acappellics Anonymous
7:30 The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs
8:30 Roger Drawdy and the Firestarters
9:30 Dave Gilligan and The Flock

Cincinnati Advance

The Cincinnati Tomorrow Civic League has changed its name to Cincinnati Advance. Complete with a new website, the group is changing its name to maintain its independence as stated in the latest "Wire:"

Why the name change? We originally created the Cincinnati Tomorrow Civic League as a separate group from Cincinnati Tomorrow so that the original group CT would obtain 501(c)(3) tax status. That was intended to allow CT to do fundraising to perform more civic-minded efforts in our community. o­ne hurdle has been the name similarity of the CT prime and CT Civic League. 501(c)(3) organizations cannot endorse any commercial entities. That led to us cutting out great things like the calendar and links, not to mention limiting the type of stories we could publish o­n our main page. With the rebranding and separation of Cincinnati Advance, we eliminate this confusion: Cincinnati Tomorrow is the home of civic advocacy and non-profit projects; Cincinnati Advance has much greater latitude in doing projects like the After5 Walks, Culture Nights, and so o­n. This restructuring will allow both organizations to better focus o­n their projects and encourage their success.

To you the fine folks who attend the After-Five Walks, Culture Nights, and other events, you will not see anything different. I also will be taking a more formal position with the group as well, so look for more on what the group plans in the future.

"Words, words between the lines of age"

Is Bush starting to feel a bit guilty?

Washington- President Bush expressed misgivings Thursday for two of his most famous expressions: "Bring 'em on," in reference to Iraqis attacking U.S. troops, and his vow to get Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."

Is it possible for him to eat his words, or is this just another case of targeted audience speak, where Bush takes a page from Clinton and plays to his audience's desires, while Bush's blood lusting supporters would not be listening to this crowd anyway?

Flooding, Etc.

I drove this morning along Route 32 to Newtown and the Little Miami River has flooded all the way up to the edge of the road. The Clear Creek Park is more like a lake.

Today was renewing my car registration day. I had to get the eCheck and the nearest location is in Newtown. I was surprised on something. My car was not completely tested. I don't know why. I did not ask. It is a new enough car with a new exhaust system, so I am sure it met the standards, but I wonder why the car did not get the test where they "drive" in the car in place and measure the exhaust.

I then had to go get the renewed registration at the BMV. I got the typical wait in line. I waited for a while until I was the next in line. Then this old couple comes in and walks right up to the main counter and proceeded to ask a question in the form of telling a story about getting a ticket. Once the BMV clerk said they don't handle tickets, twice, and said they should go downtown, twice, I got my little 06 sticker and was on my way.

Post Mortem on Monzel v. Ghiz

It's official. Councilman Sam Malone, the anti-gay bigot, has appointed Chris Monzel to City Council. The man who has been appointed to council more often than he has been elected.

This should now be an opportunity for the Dems. The East Side moderates are a source that have been ignored as fickle and too willing to vote for the GOP. This episode should be exploited for all it is worth. The County GOP has for some unknown reason gone to the right to try and keep someone on council in the city. The idiots in Sharonville (Phil B. and his thugs) have cracked the party. Now is the time for the Dems to open up that crack and bring the social liberals on board.

The article indicates Ghiz may not run this year and even got a job offer from Joe Deters. She reportedly turned it down.

This is a gut check for the Hamilton County Democratic Party. If if they don't find a couple more David Peppers (not money wise, just position wise) to run for council, then they will be lucky to keep the 5 seats they have and will likely drive the East Siders into a devil's bargain with the bible thumpers in the rest of the county.

I Have No Words

Discuss, but be nice.

Vice Mayor's Pub Crawl

Vice Mayor Alicia Reece is pushing for a restaurant/bar smoking ban in the city.

First, Reece said she will launch a stop by campaign where she will make visits to restaurants, bars, bingo halls, bowling alleys and other establishments to talk with owners and citizens about the issue.

This amounts to a city sponsored pub crawl. As someone who has been on many a pub crawl, I would offer this simple advice: pace yourself. Also, prepare to feel the wrath of the smokers. I myself am torn on this issue. I don't like smoke in restaurants at all and would not shed a tear if the ban goes in.

I do have a problem with private business being forced to remove it. Having the city ban gives cover to bar owners who would want to do it, but have no juice to enforce it. I guess I would give an out to business that allow it, but make some kind of accommodation for their employees, like great air filters, or a money settlement to find another job.

GOP Chooses Anti-Gay Bigotry, (We Think)

It is nice to know who you are up against. In this city the GOP has reportedly given in to the bigots of the party and will appoint Chris Monzel to council.

What a bunch of fucking idiots.

Are these guys really this stupid? [Note: I wonder if they are were men?] Monzel lost last time, not just to Leslie Ghiz, he lost to Damon Lynch III. Unless they promised the White House to Ghiz, I would advise her to become a Charter Candidate the minute after they give it to Monzel. The only way they could insult her 2003 campaign more would be to issue a retro-active revocation of the GOP endorsement. She appears to b a loyal Republican, but can she honestly stay in a party when it is clear they did not pick her because of her support for gay-rights. Their logic is mostly likely the belief that Ghiz could win next time, but Monzel could not, unless he was on council. The logic fails because he already lost as an incumbent and he would likely loose vital East side GOP support for this debacle.

How honestly could the GOP not respect the voters? Well, that is the silliest question I could have asked. We are talking about the Hamilton County GOP.

Now more than ever I would like to know who voted on this. I would like to know more if that vote actually was for Monzel or if the bigot vote said they would raise a stink if they did not appoint their person.

Phil Burress must have a really big hard-on at this very moment. Hurting people who support gay-rights, especially in his own party, will likely now become his pet project.

[Note: official word on this has not yet come. A press conference is expected later on today.]

UPDATE: More from Wes Flinn and Nick Spencer.

UPDATE #2: WCPO reported last night that Monzel has been picked.

UPDATE #3: The Post's story brings a whole new level into this.

Although the party's selection committee favored moderate Leslie Ghiz last month in an informal straw poll, incumbent Council Member Sam Malone nixed that choice, said sources close to the process. Malone prefers conservative Monzel, who lost a reelection bid in 2003.

[...]

"It's almost certainly going to be Monzel," said one high-level party source. "That's what Sam indicated to us."

"Ultimately, it's Sam's choice," another source said. "At best, we're an advisory board, and he's not taking our advice."

So it was all Sam Malone? A personal vendetta against Ghiz? The bigot in Sam just couldn't let go.

Is it Ghiz?

The Whistleblower thinks maybe yes, if Mike Barret's votes counts, via the Blue Chip Review.

Korte is reporting that county GOP will meet today at posh 4th Street club in secret. Greg takes a shot at the smoke filled room scene:

Whenever Cincinnati Democrats meet to decide whom to endorse for City Council or the school board, they do it in an open meeting - usually at the Letter Carrier's Hall in Northside. Though anyone can watch, only precinct executives in the city get a vote.

When Republicans do it, it's behind closed doors at the coat-and-tie Queen City Club on - where else? - East Fourth Street. The county party - dominated by suburbanites - controls the process.

And so, today at 4:30 p.m., 30 to 40 members of the GOP nominating committee will meet secretly to determine who will get the City Council seat vacated upon Pat DeWine's swearing in as a Hamilton County commissioner last week.

The party of the people! Well, the rich people.

I think the only thing missing from the meeting today would 40 cones of silence to help dull the sounds of apathy coming from their suburbanite minds. Will Greg have a list of who attends? It would be good to know how many are actual city residents.

Councilman Sam Malone has the final call. Would he dare buck the local party if they want Ghiz? Does Pete Witte have a shot as a compromise candidate still? Will Malone announce his choice today or wait? Can I ask any more questions?

Mean Jene Galvin In Bed With Springer

Jene Galvin will be the side kick for Jerry Springer's new radio show starting next Monday.

I will be tuning in the first day because I will off work, but otherwise I will be missing how this program goes. I plan on being a regular listener to 1530 WCKY once it switches to liberal talk. Will Galvin have to go solo for Jerry often?

Jazz Fest Back?

Maybe. If it comes back it would be staged in conjunction with the Ohio Classic.

Game of Chicken Getting Serious

John Cranley's game of Chicken with SORTA is getting serious. Today SORTA is expected to vote to eliminate Sunday bus service starting March 6th. Cranley and Portune are working towards disbanding SORTA and moving control of the Bus service to the City.

Their plan includes possible privatization of the service.

Spencer Picks Campaign Manager

Nick Spencer, City Council candidate, has tapped Ted Jackson to be his campaign manager for his council run. Ted helped run the effort to repeal Article XII with the group Citizens to Restore Fairness. I was introduced to Ted while at the Know Theatre benefit on Saturday and anyone who was able to get the repeal passed has good experience under his belt to help Nick's campaign. This is a positive move for Nick. I don't know if Nick can tap into the same money sources Ted might have contact with from the Repeal XII campaign, but it is a good bet he will have an opportunity to tap into those.

Fumble

As stated before, Enquirer columnist Peter Bronson has moved from the Metro front Page to the editorial page. Sunday marked his first column in that spot and in doing so wrote a very revealing and interesting column. Not very often to journalists talk about the world behind the velvet ropes. Well, they talk about it all the time, but not so directly as Peter did. He talked about how he had a column spiked this year by the Editor.

When I started out as editor of the Enquirer editorial department in 1992, we almost never punted. But by the time I left 10 years later to be a columnist, it seemed like we punted all the time. I wanted to throw right, but the head coach (now gone) wanted to run off left tackle or up the middle. So we punted.

I don't do that anymore. Or at least, I try not to. Once this year, I had to punt, but that was the coach's call.

When the Mike Allen scandal broke, I wrote a column urging Allen to resign, pointing out that I once supervised the woman who accused him of sexual harassment, Rebecca Collins, when she was a clerk in our editorial department.

Editor Tom Callinan decided I should stay on the bench and avoid piling on if I might end up as part of the story. It was a good call. But I hated to punt.

I don't know how much of this inside-the-huddle stuff is interesting to readers, but thousands of e-mails, phone calls and letters have convinced me that most of our subscribers are very curious about what goes on behind the gray walls of the Enquirer Wheaties box at Third and Elm.

Now two interesting things here. First, I am torn on whether Bronson's column should have run, calling for Allen's resignation. It would a refreshingly principled position to take, but Callinan was right to not have Bronson become part of the story. Bronson in a way was, and is now with admission, shoring up his reputation as a conservative prude. Something I think he would consider a positive.

The second element of the column is nothing but a swipe at the editorial staff. He claims that the former publisher or editor, referenced as "head coach" wanted to take things to the "left," and which I read to mean that he thinks he was forced out as chief of the Editorial pages because he was to conservative. I have to ask what significant positions has the board taken which he would think are so radically off base to his views? Where will his opinions divert from the editorial board? They support Bush, and the War in Iraq. They are not keen on abortion. The only difference I can see is on gay rights, and maybe some economic policy, but Bronson rarely delves into the dollars and cents issues.

My belief as to the underlying reason for Bronon's shuffle is that he is going to write nothing but politically based opinion, which I think he prefers. Instead of the assignment articles that have been called columns in the Metro Section.

What I wish the Enquirer would do is to offer up a counter voice to the right wing views of Bronson on its editorial pages. I know they have national liberal columns there, but nothing on a local basis. We get no local retort to Bronson's attacks on the city for not letting the police rule with an iron fist. We get no retorts to Bronson's attack on teachers or on liberals in general. His conservative voice will be front and center on local issues and maybe sometimes there may be a guest columnist on an issue, but no one, unless something else is planned, will have a chance to give the paper the balance I believe they are trying to provide.