Cincy Dems Straw Poll

The HC Democratic Party will sponsor a Presidential Primary Straw Poll next Tuesday, the 11th, at 6:15PM at the 20th Century Theater in Oakley. The event is open to "anyone who supports the election of Democratic candidates."

Mr. Racebaiter

Chris Smitherman wasted no time in using the death of a child as fodder in latest crusade. Can't Smitherman might a point about in justice without making it about race? This was just just not necessary to try and compare.

"Here today, we have a white woman down in Clermont County who killed her daughter, clearly endangerment of a child and we have the prosecutors saying not one charge will be levied against this woman," said Smitherman.

"And, at the same time, we have a an African-American woman in Avondale who's locked up right now for leaving her children in the closet," said Smitherman. "We have a prosecutor saying he's going to lock her up for 100 years."

This does NOTHING to improve race relations and it instead divides people more.

Mom Beats the Wrap

In what is driving people across the tristate nuts, the mother who left her young daughter in her car in 100 heat will not face charges.

I just don't understand why no charges were brought. If this woman was poor and black and living in the West End, would she be locked up right now? I'll just wait now to see who uses this to push their own agenda.

P-Ridge-Gate?

Brian Garry has been off the deep end for years, but lhis atest claim of being the victim of a Watergate style break-in at HC Democratic headquarters sends him into tinfoil hat territory.

There is a little smoke to the story, however, so let's start with the general facts: someone broke into Hamilton County Democratic Headquarters (also his campaign's headquarters) and stole two computers. The computers were his campaign's and according to Garry no other campaign's, nor the party's, computers were taken. Other candidates use the offices as their campaign HQ.

What are the possible theories:

1. Someone broke into the building with the intent to steal Brian Garry's computers because they wanted to damage his campaign.
2. Someone broke into the building with the intent to disrupt the Democratic Party and happened to pick Garry's computers to steal, not knowing who they specifically belonged to.
   
3. A thief broke into a building and stole the computers, having no clue they belonged to Brian Garry or that they were in the HC Democratic Party HQ.

There is another theory I didn't want to include in the list, because it points the finger someplace else : someone from the inside of the Garry campaign did this on purpose to gain much needed attention for Garry. There is no evidence to support this, but there is no evidence to support the claim that someone was trying to hurt Garry's campaign specifically.

There are two points that would lead me to favor one view over another. First is that in the article it was reported that an air-conditioner was "kicked in" to gain access to the building. That indicates to me that it was someone not worried about being caught as much as stealing something they need. The second point is unknown by me: were Garry's computers the closest to the air-conditioner or did the thief walk past other computers to get to Garry's?

The only other thing worth investigating, if a suspect is caught, is to determine if they have any connection with anyone who is involved in Republican or conservative politics. That might provide a lead for the theory that this was an attempt to disrupt the Democrats.

More from the Enquirer.

The Future of the Enquirer?

This appeared to be a test run on Youtube (instead of the full daily update on cincinnati.com, but I think I liked the effort. I don't know if this will build viewers and ultimately readers, but I give the Enquirer credit for expanding their use of technology.

On a side note: This version is much funnier:

Follow the Money

Will Justin Jeffre do the right thing and record the political ads running on the Beacon as an in kind contribution to his campaign? If they didn't include the graphic it might not fall into the advocacy category, but hey, I don't recall the Beacon crowd being sticklers for details on what they do, only on what others do.

More Banks Protests

First we had Chris Smitherman, now we have the 4th Street Crowd complaining about certain proposals for the Banks project.

MIAMI 14, Ball St. 13

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.


The Enquirer - Close game goes Miami's way

I didn't get to do this must last season, since the team was very bad. This year I have hope, at least after the first win!

Brinkman Defeated in His Anti-Gay Lawsuit

Ohio Representative Tom Brinkman had his case thrown out. Brinkman has sued to end Miami University's domestic partner medical insurance program. Brinkman's efforts were among the more cruel and hate filled efforts to hurt gays and lesbian in Ohio. Here's hoping Brinkman stops his anti-gay crusade. Not likely, I know.

Harris Anti-Poverty Plan

The Enquirer Politics blog has word on Greg Harris's plan to curb poverty in Cincinnati.

Hard Times, Hard Times Come No More

Here we have the downside of getting valid population count, we find out that over a quarter of the City live in poverty. These statistics show the real battle that is being waged in large cities across the country, one of class.

The Effects of Sprawl

It appears the Exurb of West Chester is feeling the pain of sprawl. They need government, but I would bet they'll get such a big fight to become a city and create an income tax that they would just save time by moving out now, before things eventually become so run down. Unplanned growth breeds problems that pied-eyed land developers don't mention when they get the permits to build on the farm land they buy up.

Harris on Police Reform

CityBeat has the story on Greg Harris's call for the reform of the police department. Speculation is that this will somehow hurt Greg. With whom? Do any senior police supervisors actually live in the city? The conservatives on the police force and their boosters who will be pissed about this weren't going to vote for Greg anyway. This opens up Greg to voters who are looking for two things: honest policy on the CPD and for someone willing to break with the conventional moderate Democratic wisdom about how to act with the police, unlike Cecil Thomas.

Porkopolis: Confirm This Rumor

I shall echo Greg Flannery's desire for rumor confirmation. The rumor appears to be that the Enquirer is in negotiations to buy the on-line version of the Post, and will keep it going in some form. The question is: will they keep it going as on ongoing news gathering outlet? If they just buy the website address and link it over to the Enquirer page, no big deal. If they keep an on-line news outlet with real reports writing original articles, then that is really something of note.

New Stage - New Season

New Stage Collective have announced their new season, read the details over at the Conveyor.

Blackwell Retireing from CPS

CPS superintendent Rosa Blackwell is retiring after the current school year. Her tenure has been one filled with budget woes. What type of candidate should the school board be looking for? What do the candidates for school board think?

City Council Candidates

Here's the list (pdf) of the candidates of for Cincinnati City Council that have filed:

Melanie Bates
Jeff Berding
Chris Bortz
Laketa Cole
Minette Cooper
David Crowley
John Cranley
John Eby
Pat Fischer
Andre Harper
Greg Harris
Brian Garry
Leslie Ghiz
Justin Jeffre
Joan Kaup
Sean Robert Lackey
Sam Malone
Chris Monzel
Mitch Painter
Michael Earl Patton
Steve Pavelish
Roxanne Qualls
Cecil Thomas
Charlie Winburn
Wendell Young
George Zamary

So Malone filed as did Jeffre. There are 6 independents. I'll be collecting websites for each candidate as I locate them.

[Via the Enquirer Politics blog]

Smitherman, Not Councilman

NAACP President Chris Smitherman did not file for City Council today:

Chris Smitherman, the head of the Cincinnati NAACP chapter and a former city councilman, did not file to run for city council.

The Enquirer had that as a sidebar to the additional announcement that Jim Tarbell did file his petitions to run for Cincinnati School Board. That had been rumored previously and seems a little bit strange. I guess I dont' see Jim having the drive from schools that he did for the City. I'll be interested in his platform.

Also, in yesterday's Enquirer Politics blog post about who had or was going to file to run for council there was one name they did not mention: Child Beater and Republican endorsed candidate Sam Malone. Did he file his petitions?

Dream a Different Dream

Club Dream is closed. Great news for Main Street. The promoters and club owners did not do a good job of programming and attracted the murders.

What I would like to know most, is there evidence that the murders of the two men outside of the club actually were inside. I would say all evidence points to a clear answer of yes. If the owner doesn't see why he was running a bad club, then he deserves to have it shut down.

The negative on this is for Midpoint. This is slated to be a venue for the late September music festival. As of now it is still listed as a venue. Will it be able to open up under new ownership for the festival?

Local Programming Survey

In case you've missed the obvious, Cincinnati has little local programming on our broadcast outlets. What's left? On local TV and Radio, why specific programs are actually local? If you have a list or a few programs you regularly listen to that are locally based AND the topics are locally based, post your list. Note: Sports shows count, if they cover local teams. Local talk radio counts, if they talk about local issues. I'm interested in putting together a list to see how bad it has gotten. I fear we are facing the same problem in all areas of business, where the nation corporation takes over local markets. Here the problem is that we lose out on our local culture when we have no local programming.