DeWine in Trouble?

Interesting speculation on next year's Race for the U.S. Senate. Mike DeWine should be worried both about Taft bringing down the GOP in Ohio as much as he should worry about the old conservative guard not forgetting his independence streak against killing the filibuster.

This Is How You Shill For Big Oil

I know sometimes that reporters use Press Releases as the basis for their articles, but since when editors allow columnists to just write a story based on a Oil Industry Lobbyists? If this was not so straight forward I would say someone was paid. Instead of it being a columnist, that someone may be Gannett, Inc.

Home Town News for Wes Flinn

Just weeks after he left town, Wes Flinn is already making the newspaper in North Adams, his new home. It is a great article.

More Bad Journalism

In the same article about the Reeces we get this side story:

"Suburbanites for Winburn

Suburban Republican leaders endorsed Charlie Winburn on Thursday for mayor of Cincinnati, calling him the only candidate who can make Cincinnati a safe place to live.

The supporters included Mayors Robert Bemmes of Reading, Rick Bryan of Blue Ash, David Collins of Deer Park, Richard Ellison of Elmwood Place, Jay Gohman of Terrace Park, Brad Greenberg of Loveland, Virgil Lovitt of Sharonville, Dan Policastro of Mariemont, James Rolfes of North Bend and Theodore Shannon of Fairfax.

Others included Township Trustees Cliff Bishop, Sycamore; Tom Bryan and Joseph Honerlaw, Springfield, Keith Corman, Colerain; Russ Jackson and Peggy Reis, Anderson; Jodie Leis, Kathy Wagner and Eric Minamyer, Symmes; and Chuck Mitchell and Tony Upton, Green.

Vice mayors include Joe Schickel, Loveland; Clara Pugh, Forest Park; and Joe Schickel, Loveland.

Clerks: Heather Harlow, Colerain Township, and Tom Straus, Green Township.

Council members include Jim Sumner and Henry Stacey, Blue Ash; Kerry Rabe, Sharonville; Mark Quarry, Silverton; and Mike Mestemaker, Cheviot."

Now, the nice editors created a totally misleading subheading saying "Suburbanites for Winburn" which misleads the reader. It should have read "Suburnban Republican Leaders for Winburn," but that ends up sounding like a "Water is Wet" headline. What also is bad here is that the rest of section just lists the leaders out. This is right from a press release, not original reporting at all. This is not even news. This is a free campaign commercial for Winburn. At least the Pepper section on this article had quotes from the campaign. They could have gotten something from Winburn to use. Hell, there should have been quotes in the press release that they could have used.

This goes to show that the GOP leaders in the rest of the country are either stupid or just loyal partisans. I hope it is the latter, but it could of course be both.

Reece Family Pull Registrations

Every member of Reece family, except the Vice Mayor, pulled their voter registrations after being questioned on their residency. They were all obviously playing some type of game with voting and got caught. It has been rather obvious, but for some reason now, action was taken.

This will hurt Reece, but odds I think were already against her making the top two anyway.

Thank You!

I wish to put out a big thank you to Adam and Josh for filling in for me while I was on vacation. I think they did a great job, and carried forth the blog with gusto! Things may or may not get back to normal now; I am still recovering a bit.

Religious Freedom, Only for the Monotheistic

Family Order To Keep Boy From Wicca Thrown Out

Taft Pleas "No Contest"

Taft cops a plea with the Prosecutor. Talk about falling on your own sword. Bob Taft has done just that.

This is the first time I believe an Ohio Governor has ever been in court on criminal charges while governor.

UPDATE: No jail time, $1,000 fine on all four counts. Taft also must meaningfully but apologize to everyone in the State.

Home!

After arriving at the Fairbanks, Alaska Airport at 10:30 PM last night (3:30 AM Cincy Time) I landed this afternoon at about 1:45 PM. I connected in Seattle, which by the way has poor signs directing you where the various concourses are. I had the almost guess.

I am tired. I don't have to work tomorrow, and am staying up today as late up to my normal bedtime as possible to try and rid myself of some of the impending jet lag and Red-Eye flight schedule. I had maybe 3 to 4 hours sleep between the two plane legs.

I had a great time on my cruise/land tour of Alaska, but I must tell you I am happy to be home. It was a long time away, and it was a bit too long.

Gov. Taft Charged With Ethics Violations

Ohio Governor Bob Taft is being charge with 4 misdemeanor violations of the Ohio Ethic's Laws.

Will he resign? Will he be found guilty? Will this do anything beyond making a despised governor, even more despised?

The Banks saga, day 3145

Somebody wake me when this whole thing is over. Now the county has to meet with the Cincinnati Planning Commission to ensure there are 'no more delays'? Wasn't this a selling point of voting for the Reds' park to be at the Wedge instead of Broadway Commons? Seven years later and we're still going through this crap? How much longer until this thing gets built? I only plan on being around another 40-50 years, I'd like to see it in my lifetime.

Adam

Reality Bytes

Lytle tunnel narrowed for next 10 days

I've got an idea for truckers: when you go through a tunnel or come upon a sharp turn in the highway, slow down! Now our poor brethren to the south have to deal with what will be ridiculous traffic for the next couple weeks.

Adam

Reality Bytes

Why ultra-religious people scare the shit out of me

Allow me to go all Wes Flinn here and comment on a letter to the editor in the Enquirer from yesterday. Let's go to Williamstown, KY, where fine woman Norma Oliver comments on Mike Wagers, the cabbie that called the police to report the whereabouts of Jennifer and George Hyatte:

I think this was a good thing. I prayed with my husband that the Lord would reveal the whereabouts of George and Jennifer Hyatte to the proper authorities, but most of all I prayed that they would do no harm to anyone else and that they would give up peacefully.
I think I also heard another comment made on TV coverage of someone else praying that they'd give up peacefully and that there be no more harm done. I think it worked out perfect and God's hands were all over this!

Holy shit!! So because this woman (and maybe/maybe not another person) prayed for a peaceful end, she thinks that's what caused it to happen? I'm not condemning prayer, but to think that your prayer helped police capture a criminal? Good lord! And what's scary is that I think there's a lot of people like her out there. And didn't Wagers get contacted to call police based on a news flash on TV? Are we now saying that God speaks through CNN and MSNBC (though I've always looked as Lester Holt as a Christ-like figure anyways).

More importantly, what's the converse of this way of thought? If someone dies or contracts a rare disease, do we then tell them they didn't pray hard enough for it not to happen? Or when the Patriots beat the Eagles in last year's Super Bowl, do we tell the Eagles that God must not have liked them as much as he did the Patriots? Where does it end?

Adam

Reality Bytes

Redistricting ballot measure

It's probably a good thing to have an independent commission draw up lines for congressional districs. However, I'm not a big fan of doing this to 'make races more competitive'. I thought the purpose of districs was to have counties/areas with similar interests represented by the same congressman/woman. Granted some current districts could probably use some reshaping, and that's all well and good to take the decision out of the lawmaker's hands. But let's not do it strictly to make races more competitive.

Adam

Reality Bytes

Delta Delta Delta needs some help ya help ya help ya

Delta finally sells off regional carrier ASA for $425 million, but then says it still might not prevent them from filing Chapter 11. This begs the question, what is CVG going to do when Delta goes under, what will the city use the Delta customer service building for, and how silly will the city leaders feel for giving Delta all the perks it did to keep their offices downtown? Oh wait, never mind, the government will most likely continue to bail them out so they can continue losing money.

Adam

Reality Bytes

Reds/Bengals leaders go off

Why does Reds COO (Cheap Operating Officer) John Allen continue to deny rumors that they're looking to deal Ken Griffey Jr.? It makes sense to do. If you want to build a winner over the next several years, you deal Griffey, get out from under that God awful contract, get some prospects, and spend the money on pitching. If you want to stare at a superstar that has maybe a few years left and won't help the club win on his own, you keep him, but people want to see a winner in the end. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis goes off on 1st round David Pollack for holding out. Good for him. I'm all for an athlete getting theirs, but at a certain point you either want to play or you don't. It's only about $200K that they're bickering about (I know that's a lot, but in sports parlance it's not all that much). Compromise, suck it up, sign the deal, and get your ass into camp.

Adam

Reality Bytes

CPS improves ratings

On the surface it looks great for Cincinnati Public Schools Superintendent Rosa Blackwell that its schools' ratings have improved from academic emergency to continuous improvement in just two years. However, given the population shifts to the suburbs, I don't think it's going to have quite the effect on enrollment that the Enquirer thinks it will. It's a great thing, but there's still a perception that the suburban schools are better, one that will likely take several years of consistent high performance for CPS to overcome. And there is a certain percentage of the population that would just rather live in the suburbs. But this is a good start.

Adam

Reality Bytes

Bigg's supports local health-food company

Bigg's Hyper-market, a tri-state native company, is stepping up to support another Cincinnati based business, Bright Future Foods. Specializing in an "on-the-go snack" version of edamame called "Ma-Me!", Bright Future is hoping to claim it's stake in the booming health food market. Bright Future is not your typical health-food company. According to the Cincinnati Business Courier

Bright Future plans to donate 10 percent of its net profit to the Bright Future Adoption Foundation, which is dedicated to helping bring children and prospective parents together through adoption.

In addition, the company

awarded the production contract for the brand to a food manufacturing facility in Southeastern Ohio launched by The Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, of Athens, which is working to revitalize a depressed economy in that part of the state.

According to a Bigg's press release, "Following the introductory phase, we expect Ma-Me! will be offered in all 14 of our stores."

Anne Chambers, CEO of Bright Future Foods, explains that the company's dual mission is

to create healthier futures for people by introducing them to the health benefits of soy, and to call attention to adopting as a wonderful way to create a family.

Bright Future is hoping to follow the Biggs offering with a national roll-out.

It is nice to see socially responsible local business supporting each other and taking actions to revitalize the region.

Taft won't comment on resignation

Governor Taft has finally taken responsibility for the "errors and omissions" in his ethics statements.

"I'm responsible for them, absolutely. It's my responsibility to file a correct report,"

This admission is well past due.

When asked whether the investigation regarding 60 unreported golf outings would lead to his resignation, Taft responded by saying

We are not going to talk about [that]. This process is still not complete; it's not finished. It wouldn't be proper to answer a number of those questions until the Ethics Commission provides its reports, and we provide the information to the public.

It looks to me like Taft will be resigning.

Columbus resident Mike Short labeled this admission by Taft "the tip of the iceberg."

Short continued by saying

I think he's betrayed the state. If his mission is to take care of the people, and generate business and income for the state, he's gone about it the wrong way.

Short indicated that if Taft refuses to step down, the legislature should remove him from office.


In related news, Ohio's probe into the coingate scandal is now expected to cost $6.5 million.

This post was made by Josh Nelson of Cincinnati News.

I WANT ANSWERS!!

Since it's a slow news day, and since the media has allowed itself to become distracted by the new shiny object known as John Roberts, I think it's time to put the Valerie Plame situation back in the spotlight. So in a perfect world, here is a list of questions that I would like to have answered by this administration:

1. What exactly did Karl Rove say to Matt Cooper of Time magazine, and what did Scooter Libby discuss with New York Times reporter Judith Miller during early July 2003?
2. If Rove specifically referred Valerie Plame or Joe Wilson’s wife, why did he need to identify her, instead of just saying some mid-level staffer from the CIA sent him? And why did Rove not confirm with the CIA whether her identity was classified or not?
3. Who saw the classified state department memo issued on July 7, 2003, that specifically named Plame, and whom did they inform about the contents of this memo?
4. How did journalist Robert Novak learn of her identity, and what communication did he have with other members of the government?
5. If Plame’s identification was not classified as some claim, why did Bush’s own Justice Department and the special prosecutor determine that the criminal referral from the CIA had merit? Why did 11 former CIA agents feel compelled to send a letter to Congress denouncing this claim? Further, why has former CIA agent Larry Johnson, a Republican, ripped this administration over its handling of the situation?
6. Even if we assume that Joe Wilson is a hack and was sent to Niger by his wife (neither of which are true, but for argument’s sake we’ll say so), how does that justify the leak of her name to the press?
7. Explain how this administration has cooperated with the investigation.
8. Why did President Bush’s standards for dismissing anyone that leaked her name change? If the president’s standard now is that no one convicted of a felony can work in his administration, does that only apply to this case, or do previous convictions (Iran-Contragate for example) apply as well? Or do they receive grandfathered protection?
9. Help us understand why White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan issued blanket denials that Rove and Scooter Libby were not involved in the leak. Did he know that they were involved and decide on his own to deny? Was McClellan told to deny that Rove and Libby were involved? Or was McClellan informed by the administration that Rove and Libby were not involved?
10. Scott McClellan has refused to answer any queries on Rove or Libby’s involvement recently, citing that he cannot comment on an ongoing investigation. Then how was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales able to comment just two weeks ago that he did not have any knowledge of Ms. Plame and her role at the CIA? What is the administration’s exact position on commenting on this matter, and which one conflicted with its policy?
11. Why did the CIA have to notify the Justice department four times that a criminal act may have been committed before launching an investigation? Why was former Attorney General John Ashcroft so reluctant to assign a special prosecutor to the case? Would it have anything to do with his close working relationship with Rove over the previous 20 years?
12. Why, when the DOJ informed (at the time White House counsel) Gonzales was informed on the evening of Monday, September 29, 2003, to save all documents relating to the Plame situation, did they then tell him it was ok to wait until the next morning to inform the White House staff? Why did he then tell Andrew Card about this on that Monday evening before informing the staff? Whom did Card discuss this with during the 12 hour time period? And why should we believe that this 12 hour window is not in fact the ‘Plamegate’ version of the 18 minute gap in the Nixon tapes?
13. Why did the Intelligence Committee not have time to investigate this issue, but yet it has time now to hold hearings on whether the CIA protects the cover of its agents strongly enough and the validity of the Fitzgerald investigation? Is Pat Roberts (Kansas senator, co-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee) being ordered to convene these hearings by the administration?

Adam

Reality Bytes