Money Didn't Matter

In the mayor's race Pepper out spent Mallory $1.2M to $.4M. That is the most stunning statistic from the election.

Bengals Closing In

7:01 p.m. It's not over until the coach gets drenched. Bengals are AFC North champs.

5:55 p.m. 31-7 Bengals. Let's make some predictions for the final standings.

1. Indy. 14-2. They'll lose to Seattle, but win the last one. But they can't be moved, so it doesn't matter.
2. Cincinnati. 13-3. Win out. Sure would be nice to have that Indy game back, wouldn't it?
3. Denver. 12-4. They beat Oakland, but then they lose to SD.
4. New England. 11-5. Beat Miami and NYJ.
5. Jacksonville. 12-4. They have a weak remaining schedule.
6. Pittsburgh. 11-5. They have an even weaker remaining schedule.

Outside:
San Diego. 11-5. They win out, but they lose the tiebreaker to Pittsburgh.
KC. 8-8. Looked bad the other day and will lose out to more highly motivated teams.
Miami. 8-8. They won't beat New England.

The problem with our predictions? It depends upon San Diego beating Denver after being eliminated with Pittsburgh winning earlier in the day on the last day of the season. However, the Chargers look so good, and it's at home, and besides, the Bengals need a bye, so this is how we get to one. So there.

5: 35 p.m. Half-time, Bengals 24-7. Most of the games are already over, so we can update the standings.
Division Leaders
1. Indianapolis. 13-1. Conf. 11-1. Lost to SD, but they're the #1 seed.
2. Denver. 11-3. Div: 3-1. Conf: 8-2. After beating Buffalo, Denver still beats the Bengals on tie-breakers and control their own destiny for the #2 seed and that first round bye.
3. Cincinnati. 10-3, Div: 5-1, Conf: 6-3. Up on Detroit right now and will thereby maintain position.
4. New England. 9-5. Div: 4-0. Conf: 7-4. They looked fantastic against Tampa and clinch their division based on division record.
Wildcards
5. Jacksonville. 10-4, Conf: 7-3. Weak win, but it still counts for maintaining their position.
6. Pittsburgh. 9-5. Conf: 6-5. They now control their own destiny, as they can clinch a wildcard by winning out.
Outside Looking In
7. San Diego. 9-5. Div 3-1. Conf: 7-3. The win against Indy helps them a lot, but they still need to win out plus some help, with either Pittsburgh losing once or Denver losing twice or Jacksonville losing one or more games (SD would win the tiebreaker based on Conference record against Jax in that case).
8. KC. 8-6. Div 3-2. Conf: 7-3. Things look bleak. They can't win the division. They lose the tiebreaker with SD on common opponents, should KC win out and SD beats Denver. So, they need to win out, for Pittsburgh to lose at least once, and for SD to lose all remaining games, or to win out, Jacksonville to lose out and some other help.
Way Outside Chance
9. Miami. 7-7. Div: 2-3. Conf: 5-5. Can't win division, but they can get in with a lot of help. Pittsburg and SD have to lose their remaining games, and they need KC to lose at least once (so win vs. SD but lose to Cincinnati). Miami would then be 7-5 in the conference, KC would be eliminated by losing the tiebreaker with SD (because Division ties are broken first), Pittsburgh would be 6-6 in the conference, SD would be 7-5 in the conference. So, then Pittsburgh would be eliminated. Miami then wins the tiebreaker against SD since they beat them head-to-head. Got it?

5:00 p.m. Bengals up 24-7 with 9:20 remaining in the first half. This is about what we expected. However, the rest of the games are bizarre. While we watch this game, we'll take a look at the other results from the day and see what's going on.

Union Label for Hackett

Very big news for Paul Hackett. He lacks Northeastern appeal, and the UAW endorsement brings some with it.

Bigotry Tree Grows in Springdale

Suckers are born every minute, but these idiots were not wiped clean of placenta. I have to laugh at how ignorant people are. It is so very say at the same time though. This is not about free speech. The denials in opposition to that simple truth are not only lacking in creativity, but in credibility. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater. You can't threaten bodily harm on someone. You can't discriminate against people. The last one is not really speech, but hell, ignorance about what they are really talking about takes too long to explain to them, so I shall digress

(Maybe not) I also don't want to quibble with conservatives on constitutional law, but I will. They are the literalists here, after all. This is not about "Speech." This is at best about the freedom of the "press" is it not? Or is personal expression protected under the law? I don't see that written in the Constitution, now do I? It is there under case law, thankfully, but once again the hypocrisy of conservatives doesn't fail to impress me.

4th Amendment

Has the President of the United States ever read this?

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Based on the type of King George despot-speak we got today, I don't think he has.

It will be amazing how Bush defends will try to defend this. These will be the same type of person who cried about Ruby Ridge under Bush the Elder (yep, that wasn't Clinton's doing), but will now say they support ignoring the rights of people because they a suspected of being linked to "terrorists." How many of those will be Palestinian groups? I swear, it will take a video of Bush eat babies before some will turn against him, and even then it will be a tough choice. Admit you were wrong and move on. Bush is horrible. Accept it. Move on, and help the rest of us return the country to the rule of law.

Why Not In Cincy?

Why can't this type of thing happen with some of the crack houses in Over-the-Rhine? Why are landlords letting crack sales go on, but then others stamp out skanky girls dancing in pasties?

Monzel Shills For the Party

I know he owes much to the party for leaving Malone in the gutter and for not doing much for Ghiz so that he could get the money to get back on council, but what gives with bringing national politics into the city arena? Oh, sorry, I forgot, we are talking about Chris Monzel. Chris has a few speeds. He fights Ice Cream Truck Drivers, public defecators, against women's rights, and for computers (well for a while).

Chris should let Chabot do his own dirty work. This looks so cheap. It is low and shows Chris gives more of a shit about Congress, than about the city.

Civil Right Commission Says: Discrimination

Pleasure Inn owner Tom Ullum and his bigotry got another rebuke. No help from Charlie Winburn though. It is nice to see Charlie grill someone. It is shameful he was not Grilling Ullum, and instead sought to act as an advocate for the local conservative movement darling (Ullum). Is Charlie sucking up to the local powers that be for another futile run for office? His attitude towards those filing the compliant reminds me of what a 1940's Alabama Judge might have said about a "Whites Only" sign hanging in a diner window. Times don't change, but perspectives do.

"Might" Should Be In Quotes

Don't be fooled, Bob McEwen will challenge Jean Schmidt for the 2nd Congressional District. The only question to me is will he be challenged? Will Tom Brinkman run again? There will be others, but they have no name and no organizational support to make them a serious contender.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

I don't have much to say, now that I am finally feeling better. I hope to be getting back to regular blogging. Until then

OPEN THREAD!

Truth in Headlines?

In this article headline: What people, politicians say about Schmidt do we get the truth that politicians are not people?

Chaos in Covington?

Not really chaos, but a political infighting among MainStrasse businesses. Is it the bars vs. retail?

Sleep is the Enemy: An Open Thread

In the spirit of Christmas so elequently alluded to in the threads by Joe Wessels and by our friends and neighbors throughout our city, accept this open thread.

Be nice.

Miami: Still #2

We love to satisfy our readers wishes. Per the comment threads below asking for more Miami coverage, we offer this link: Miami is, in fact, still number 2. Insert fight song here.

No jokes about the headline, please. We intend to keep it clean in the absence of Mr. Griffin.

Enquirer: Unite to Defeat Snow Monster

The Enquirer included a lengthy editorial about how we need to plan better for the next snowstorm. Is it just us or is this weirdly late and overkill considering the huge set of editorials that ran on Friday?

This line from Friday struck us as particularly curious:

While it seems frankly silly in an urban area that has snowplows equipped with global positioning transmitters and grocery stores overflowing with food, the instinct itself has served mankind well down through the ages.

We don't know. Maybe it's entirely rational for people to hoard food so they don't have to go out for more later, considering that they may have spent five hours sitting in traffic in a relatively minor snowstorm.

Where to place the blame? Why not just blame everyone?

Commuters stuck in Thursday's rush-hour havoc wrote e-mails to The Enquirer blaming just about everyone for the traffic jams that stretched from Southwest Ohio suburbs south to downtown Cincinnati and into Northern Kentucky.

But there's no mention of Bart Giamatti? He has to be responsible, too, after what he did to Pete.

Actually, here's the interesting point:

After last year's record-breaking snowstorm, which dumped 15 inches on the city just before Christmas, the city of Cincinnati set realistic expectations: For an average storm of 3 inches and temperatures no lower than 25 degrees, residents should expect all primary routes cleared within 24 hours, and residential streets plowed within 36 hours.

So, what's the expected target with this storm? It's clear that this response time wasn't met.

Oh, no. We're complaining about the snow. We're such sterotypical Cincinnatians.

So, This Is What We've Been Missing...

Yes, Cincinnati, there is NFL football played in December, and what fun it is. We haven't watched this much football in years.

This is the promised update on the playoff chase. (NFL tiebreaker rules are pretty easy to figure out. If you took calculus in high school.) As always, Division winners get top seeds, and the Division ties are always broken first.

Division Leaders
1. Indianapolis. 13-0. Conf. 11-0. Assured of the #1 seed and home field as long as they stay in.
2. Denver. 10-3. Div: 3-1. Conf: 7-2. (Thanks, Baltimore.) Denver beats the Bengals on tie-breakers and control their own destiny. The tie-break is conference records. This is critical, #2 gets a bye in the playoffs.
3. Cincinnati. 10-3, Div: 5-1, Conf: 6-3. One more win clinches the division and a home game in Cincinnati.
4. New England. 8-5. Div: 4-0. Conf: 6-4. Bengals have a two game lead.

Wildcards
5. Jacksonville. 9-4, Conf: 7-3. They can't win their division, but they're up a game for the wildcard.
6. Pittsburgh. 8-5. Conf: 6-5. It gets confusing here. In a three-way tie for the wildcard, you eliminate all but the top teams from each division using the Division tiebreaker. San Diego wins the AFC West tiebreaker since they are up 1-0 on KC. Pittsburgh then beats San Diego on head-to-head play (1-0). Here's where it gets weird. If KC and Pittsburgh both win out, they'll be 11-5. KC would move ahead of San Diego in the process, since they play each other (SD could be 10-6 at best in this scenario), and then KC wins the tiebreaker with Pittsburgh based on Conference record.

Outside Looking In
7. San Diego. 8-5. Div 3-1. Conf: 6-3. Denver has a two-game lead on SD and KC, but either can win the division with help. Also, SD can win the wild card with help.
8. KC. 8-5. Div 3-2. Conf: 7-3. In eighth, but it appears that they control their own playoff destiny. Go figure.

Way Outside Chance
9. Miami. 6-7. Div: 1-3. Conf: 4-5. They can still win their division, under much the same criteria as Pittsburgh. Might not be eliminated from wildcard race. (But we didn't figure it out since there's too much number crunching for something so unlikely. Check back next week if you care that much.

No one else can get in. It will take at least 9 wins to get in, probably 10, and no one else can do that.

Mayor: Buck Stops Here

Yep, the mayor said it or something close.

Enquirer: "So who's the person that pulls all of that together?"

Mallory: "OK. That's going to be me. Let me be real clear about this. It's going to be me. Because a lot of what I'm hearing around the table is, it's basically a commitment to the same conversation that I have been having over the last several months. It's about each entity, each person having to do their part. It obviously takes a person to coordinate that. It takes a person to send the message that it's what has to happen. I have said consistently each of us has a responsibility. Each of us has a role to play."

Like it or not, this is going to be the issue upon which Mayor Mallory will be judged.

In the print Enquirer, they run a huge package on gun violence issues. You can find all the related stories in the link above, just look at the right of the page. (This is one way that print is still superior to the Web: big packages are easier to lay out in print.)

The redacted version: gun violence is way up (duh) and we need a multi-faceted approach to solve it (duh, duh). All right. No more snark.

Some observations:
1. It's probably a sign of how good ER is in this town that they number of shootings is way up and the murder rate is not climbing at the same rate. That's just a guess, and we'd love to see some support for that.
2. They talk a little bit about a new jail, but that's not a big part of the article. Are we keeping shooters off the street? Or are we limited by the jail limits? Aren't most violent criminals in the state prison system? What about drug treatment? Are those enough questions about jails?
3. Also, drug-related violence is a big part of the shootings problem. But, this statement seems to make people feel better about their chances without addressing the whole problem. It's not as though innocent bystanders don't get shot. So, communities with drug problems have huge problems. So, if that's the case...
4. Why aren't communities more involved? Give Mayor Mallory credit for calling out lack of community involvement. But is it fear of police, a community-wide us-against-them mentality? What's going on?
5. Just look at the clusters. We don't have anything else to say about that.

Bengals Beat Browns: 23-20

With Mr. Griffin under the weather, I'll post some good news. The Bengals have almost assured themselves of a playoff spot with the defeat of the Browns.

It was a lot harder than it should have been, but the Bengals have really helped themselves immensely with this win. The only way that Pittsburgh can win the division is to win all three remaining games and to have the Bengals lose all remaining games. The reason: Bengals have the tie-breaker against Pittsburgh (tied head-to-head, Bengals lead in Division play 5-1 vs. 3-2, with no way for Pittsburgh to surpass 5-1). So, the Bengals are in if they win any of their remaining games: at Detroit, vs. Buffalo, at KC. Pittsburgh is in trouble for reasons we'll see in a minute.

Here are the seeds right now. (Many games are on TV right now, so I'll update later tonight.) Seeds 3 and 4 host the wildcard games. Seeds 1 and 2 host the second round. The top remaining seed hosts the AFC championship.

Division Leaders
1. Indianapolis. 13-0. Having lost to them, the Bengals can't pass them. Denver can't either. They won their division, and they're the #1 seed.
2. Denver. 9-3, Div: 3-1, Conf: 6-2. (They're on TV right now.) There's a log-jam in this division, and we'll know a lot more based on today's games.
3. Cincinnati. 10-3, Div: 5-1, Conf: 6-3. At 4:30 p.m., Denver beats the Bengals on tie-breakers and control their own destiny. The tie-break is conference games, so the Bengals can pass them on this, depending on how the rest plays out.
4. New England. 8-5. Conf: 6-4. Bengals have a two game lead. Also, the Bengals win the tie-breaker right now, based on conference records.

Wildcards
(Top 2 make it.)

5. Jacksonville. 9-4, Conf: 7-3. They can't win the division, but they're in good shape for the wildcard.
6/7. San Diego/KC. 8-4. These two are playing right now, so I'm not going to right all this out. I'll update after their games. Either can win their division--we'll look at that tonight.
8. Pittsburgh. 8-5. They can get in by winning the division over Cincinnati (doubtful), or by winning out and getting some help.

That's enough for now. Check back later, and we'll update the results and standings.

Merry Hypocrit

I have been watching conservative Christians walk around with their panties firmly in a wad over everyone not complying with their religion. Well I firmly say Happy Winter Solstice to them!

I say shame on some of them right here in Cincinnati who are nothing but hypocrits:

"There's a national frustration," Giroux said. "Christians have kind of felt empowered to take back Christmas for Christ."

These locals folks are selling bracelets that read: "Just say 'Merry Christmas.'" These bracelets cost $2 each. So I wonder what the profit margin is on spreading the word of Jesus. 50% markup maybe? We can’t exploit Christmas on anything less than 40%.

Snow Stories?

It took me almost two hours to get home last night from Mason. Hamilton County was good by the time I got there. Mason and the local township were horrible when I left work around 7:15PM. I had to wait that long because the roads were so backed up, that no one could leave the parking lot.