Downtown on the Rise

Downtown Cincinnati is moving forward. Main Street may be dying, but the CBD is looking up.

Bizarre

Can we say TV movie of the week? Meredith Baxter Birney call your agent!

Blackwell: Oops

Ken Blackwell allegedly unknowingly invested in the Diebold while he was requiring counties to purchase Diebold voting machines. Blackwell claims he did not know this, and his investment manager did it without his knowledge.

Ok, When did he know and when did he sell the stock? He claims he just found out that he bought the stock over a year ago. I am not a millionaire, but unless I am buying into a mutual fund, I know when I own stock outright, and Ken Blackwell should have sure as well known that as well. It should not take the man a year to figure this out. If he was embarrassed by it, well he should be and should have fessed up long ago. He did just find out about it, then he appears to not be the man who would oversee the financial interests of the State of Ohio, which as governor he would do.

Reason #721 not to vote for Ken Blackwell. Reason was is because he's a republican, which makes most of the other reasons redundant.

DeLay to Quit House, Leave Race

Say it Loud and Say it Proud, GOOD RIDDANCE!

Government Propaganda

Right under our nose lies a blog based on the Enquirer's website that looks to be pure government propaganda. Justin Rood has the story and takes down the Grandma in Iraq who is a Public Affairs officer. She's open about it, as it lists on her Enquirer blog:

I get to a variety of construction sites because my job takes me there. I do public affairs, which means taking pictures, communicating the progress and accomplishments of our projects, writing news releases, planning and conducting media events, escorting reporters, ceremonies and you name it.

The fact she lists that is good on her part. Why hasn't the Enquirer made that part of her blog descriptions?

Also, does the Enquirer edit or fact check her PR posts? She is a positive spin machine. She writes only about what she does. Who picked her? She just happens to work with a team of builders. Why do they need a press agent?

This stinks to high heaven. I had not read this blog before. I assumed it was a grandma going off to serve in Iraq and she would be posting the everyday goings on. Instead we get what smells like Rummy's wet dream PR machine. Does the Pentagon get to review her posts before she posts them?

Let's Go Reds!

If you are going to the game, have fun and boo the President for me!

Connect the Dots?

Well, this just fucking sucks. No place to hide on this one, it is going to drive fear into people, and for once I will not blame them. I don't the people shot were random victims. If you connect the dots from the shooting scare at Newport on the Levee that happened a matter of a few hours before this incident occurred, and since the victims were reported to have been at the Levee that evening, I hope police are on the ball and looking for connections. [/ snark]

The Newport story didn't get much newspaper ink, and I think it only made the Kentucky edition of the paper. WCPO had that and link the stories based on I assume the Levee connection.

Jammin On 2.0

Mark your music calendars for May 12 and 13th Jammin On 2.0. The line-up is out and it looks great.

Strickland Has Big Lead

Ted Strickland currently has a solid lead over both Blackwell and Petro. With the fight going to heat up between Blackwell and Petro over the next month, neither fairs a good chance of going into the Summer within 10 to 15 points of Strickland. It will take money to beat Ted Strickland. The GOP has it and will use it, only to a point. The GOP candidate has to have traction. By Summer the GOP will start cutting its losses based on the national party trends, and Ohio may be sick of the GOP enough to keep national money out of the state. DeWine will get the money to win. Blackwell/Petro won't get the same kind of push from the National GOP leaders.

Courting the Bigot Vote

Malia Rulon of the Enquirer reports on Sen. Mike DeWine's choice to sign onto the same-sex marriage ban amendment in the Senate. Sen. Frist the Boss Bigot in the Senate who is doing all he can to the the mind numbing moron bigot vote. That's the voting block out there that actually would be influenced by someone who seeks to oppress gays and lesbians.

DeWine sounds as if he fears the base will leave him. He is playing all nice with Bush when the President visits Cincinnati on Monday, making for a mess of an opening day.

DeWine is in trouble and he knows it. This kind of crap is going to send the moderates to Brown in truck loads. When you think you can only win by pulling out your base, then you are not doing well, and you are marginalized.

Hackett on Springer?

Word on the street is that Paul Hackett is filling in for Jerry Springer on his radio show today? Check it out and report in on how it goes!

CityBeat: Best of Cincinnati 2006

The New Issue issue is out. Were there any surprises in your mind? It was great for Cincinnati Advance getting two mentions.

The reader's pick for best blog was "myspace.com"????? WTF? I didn't lead people to the water this year, so I guess that hurts, but to lose to a generic service and not a local blog? The kids are not all right if they pick that for best local blog. Hint: It's not even local!

The whole thing is over at www.bestofcincinnati.com.

Promise Not Kept

The Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church has voted to proceed on expansion.

A Scoop on Bridge Closure

The Cincinnati Post has the story about the Suspension Bridge closing for a year's worth of repairs in yesterday's paper.

The Enquirer makes it a lead story today.

Competition in reporting makes both papers better. It will be bad when he Post closes.

It will be a pain when the bridge closes after Tall Stacks later on the this year, but what a great excuse for a party when it reopens in 2007!

Theocracy On The March #34423

It's been a while since I mentioned this, but the extremists are starting to define their theocracy. These extremists are not just crack pots in strip mall churches, they are mainstream extremists (yea, an oxymoron), who get air time on TV and Radio. The question out there for Ohio is has Ken Blackwell accepted this document as his political bible?


[Via Kevin Drum]

Welcome to Yugoslavia

In an effort to improve on a hodgepodge of left over plots of land, Columbia Township is trying to brand itself as "something." They should first off consolidate their gerrymander looking map and push the City of Cincinnati (or other contiguous municipalities)to annex the related parts of the entity. If you look at the map (pdf) of the township you have to just burst out laughing at the thought that anyone could think of this mess as anything but leftover space.

The Township leaders appear to be clueless:

"Mariemont has an identity and people know where it is," he said. "We'd like to be able to achieve that with our branding project."

In order for your people to know where something is, it has to be Somewhere! In one place. Not just that gap space where for some unknown reason no one wanted it part of their city 100 years ago.

A Game of Chicken

Where would CSO go if they left Music Hall? The answer is they wouldn't go anywhere. There is no place to go. Cleaning up Washington Park and moving the Drop-in Center are the simple solution to what bugs the folks at the CSO and Music Hall. It should happen and happen this year.

AOL City Guide: Cincinnati - City's Best , Restaurants, Nightlife

AOL's City Guide has issued their Best of Cincinnati 2006 List.

Interesting highlights:
Best Bar - Cock & Bull
Best Music Club - Bogart's (Yea, someone's smoking crack)
Best Singles Scene: Jeff Ruby's Tropicana (Who the Hell voted on this stuff?)

Note: CityBeat's Best of Cincy issue comes out this week. I trust CityBeat readers/editors much more than AOL users/editors.

Thor Jacobs Picks Up Endorsements

The Jacobs for Congress campaigned has issued a press release stating that Cincinnati City Councilmen John Cranley and Cecil Thomas have both endorsed Thor Jacobs in the Democratic Primary for 2nd Congressional District.

Since the Hamilton County Democratic Party was unwilling or unable to endorse anyone in the primary, it is interesting to read about individual office holders making endorsements.

Will we see other endorsements from more liberal council Democrats, like Cole and Crowley?

Great News for Fountain Square, Great for MPMF?

Bill Donabedian, co-founder of the Midpoint Music Festival, will run Fountain Square. It is a great for someone with the vision to help found a great event like Midpoint to focus his efforts on the new Fountain Square. Let help his leadership will open up the square to new ideas, not just appeasement programming for the 4th Street Money Men.

What does this do for Midpoint? Will Bill continue his involvement and pave the way for something different with the festival? Or will he have to leave Midpoint planning totally to others? I have no clue, but I see this as an opportunity for Midpoint to capitalize on a new Fountain Square. This year's Midpoint could have a signature presence on the Square and showcase the new improvements while attracting a vibrant audience to the City's center.