Crime in Over-the-Rhine

The Business Courier has an excellent story this week about crime in OTR and the impact of the horrible mistake of keeping a centralized homing beacon for criminals to prey on victims has done to this neighborhood.

Who's Bumblin' Now?

HamCo Republican Party Chair Alex Triantafilou has decided to blog about Joe Biden's purported tendency towards gaffes. The former judge is upset that Biden told a Delaware crowd that the Delaware Blue Hens (a div I-AA team) would beat the Buckeyes. Of course, the two don't even play against each other.

I had a lot of respect for Triantafilou when he was a judge. He's a really intelligent man, and he was a really good judge, in my opinion. But you'd think the local GOP chairman wouldn't be too interested in calling attention to a candidate's less-than-perfect oratory this week.

You see, John McCain announced earlier this week that he wouldn't meet with the president of long-time NATO ally Spain if he's elected. The most reasonable explanation for this is that McCain was confused about the nation to which that president, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, belongs: the question came after a discussion of a series of Latin American leaders who an American president probably wouldn't be willing to meet. But rather than admit this, McCain's campaign is insisting the septuagenerian senator meant what he said, even though this past April, McCain said he'd welcome such a meeting.

So who would I rather have leading the country: someone who pandered (admittedly) to his home state by asserting that its university's second-rate football team could take on one of the best in the nation, or a senator who's "bumblin'" may hurt American foreign policy and alienate our Western allies? You be the judge.

Finally, since Triantafilou raises it, let's deal with the Biden plagiarism myths. In 1987, when Biden was running for president, during a debate he borrowed extensively from a speech initially given by British politician Neil Kinnock. Sounds damning, right? On its own, sure. But not so much when you consider that Biden had repeatedly paraphrased Kinnock as he did during that debate, and on each previous occasion, he attributed it. During the more abbreviated format, he forgot to. There was no intent to mislead anyone into thinking the idea was his own: he'd told people on numerous occasions that it had originated elsewhere. And as for the allegations about what occurred during law school: he was fully investigated by his law school at the time, and a determination was made that he was guilty only of sloppy citation (lawyers are a stickler for citation), not intentional plagiarism. He'd pointed out the work (a law journal article) his ideas had come from, but had not sufficiently footnoted his assignment.

Joe Biden certainly is not a perfect candidate for national office. If I were a GOP leader trying to throw red meat to the base, I'd be talking about Biden's ties to the banking industry, given that this week all hell has broken loose on Wall Street (of course, then the Dems might start talking about McCain's role in the Keating Five . . .). The petty attack on the Blue Hens remark is, quite frankly, beneath our local GOP chair, and not what the voters of this or any other county will be focusing on in November.

1929 Redux --- Free Market Capitalism's Last Gasp

Since I have been without power since the freak wind storm on Sunday, it has felt a lot like what 1929 must have felt like on a lot of fronts. Let's see, where once there stood five major historic finance houses, now there are two. The government has nationalized the giant home mortgage loan companies and now has a majority equity stake in the largest insurance company in the world. Individual shareholders and employees at these companies who have seen their savings and their retirements and their lives wiped out in an instant have been told by the "inventor" of that great Canadian device, the blackberry, that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." (The inventor of the blackberry realized after conferring with his staff that no stupider statement could possibly have been made and tried again a few hours later.) The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen almost 1000 points taking with it thousands of dollars that you and I have put away for retirement --- although likely the market will rally today with news of this societal bailout. Credit card companies overnight began slashing all of our credit lines, after decades of encouraging our profligacy --- they don't seem to understand that it is my right as an American to have stuff I can't afford, because it is not fair for people with money to live better than me.

No, the fundamentals of this economy are not strong. It is hard to know even where to begin the discussion of the events that have occurred over the last week that have led to the remarkable interference in the markets announced by Treasury Secretary Paulson and the SEC this morning.

First, the SEC and its UK equivalent announce that they will prohibit, at least temporarily, the short selling of financial company stocks, which means that no longer will these free marketers allow you to bet that the price of the stock will fall. Now you can only bet that it will go up --- hardly an unfettered market.

Treasury also will create a $50 billion fund to protect investments in some segments of the mutual fund market --- the market where most of us have our retirement money after the government's idiotic decision to drive retirement dollars to the speculative markets as a way of giving us all freedom --- freedom to be poor in old age (How much is in your 401K and how many years salary does it represent? Enough if you live to 80? Or are you counting on that "conservative" 8% annual growth?)

Next, the Congress and Treasury will work together to essentially create a "bank" to buy up and hold over a trillion dollars in bad toxic mortgage debts that financial institutions have created by putting individuals in houses and loan instruments that they could not possibly afford and then selling those loans off --- all the while knowing they were crap and that the whole system was built upon the false assumption that housing values would never fall.

So to all you free marketers out there benefiting from your government subsidized education with your money held in government protected accounts and living in your house mortgaged by a government protected entity, here's a toast to the week that the myth of free market capitalism crashed and burned. Unfortunately no one will be held responsible and we will be paying for this devastation for years.

So maybe this election will be about more than lipstick and pigs and whether McCain knows where Spain is and whether he invented the blackberry and whether Obama is a celebrity who chose hoops over troops, and whether Palin is a celebrity who had her brother in law fired because he was a cad or whether she can actually see Russia from Alaska and thus is a foreign policy expert on the Bush Doctrine --- maybe this election is about us and our children and our country and our future and what kind of country we will be and whether we will continue to be a country that tortures and one that honors its values.

Hope springs eternal, but today feels like 1929.

Map Out Oktoberfest

If you don't know where to go during Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, you'd best check out the map. Please be warned that during the peak hours, 4PM to 11PM Saturday and 3PM to 7PM Sunday (After the Bengals Game) you are going to have to fight the dreaded slow walking crowds. With that in mind, use the map to enter the 5th Street area near where you want to be. Get a beer and a brat, then just start the stroll.

Update to Ike Damage

A reader has an update on the damage from the falling street light Donald wrote about Monday. Here's the photo update:

BuyCincy Drinks Deep into Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

The Gents at BuyCincy have a nice article on Oktoberfest Zinzinnati.

Media Coverage of the Storm

While I didn't lose power, I still had no Cable or Internet at my house, therefore radio has been (and continues to be) my lifeline to the world. John Kiesewetter's piece on local news coverage during the wind storm illistrates how little news coverage we have. The public is oblivious to most of the world, but when they have a tree fall in their yard, they finally can take notice that no one is paying attention anymore. Hell, our entire storm here affected everyone in the tristate area and it barely got noticed in the national press. So, who is left to report on things locally? If you are saying not many, then you are correct. This is of course not unique to Cincinnati, but the storm here and our abundance of apathetic hyper consumerists show the cost of losing so many local news reporters. We have been abandoned by the corporate media. They don't see the profit in providing for the public good, instead they prefer to keep the Reds games on.

We have brought most of this upon ourselves. We want everything to be cheap, Wal-Mart cheap. With that kind of cheap, comes low quality and syndication. That is what most of the Cincinnati media landscape has become. We are left to rely on technology, which when the power goes out, doesn't amount to much. It would behoove us to start consuming media with a local focus. If you want more news coverage on WVXU, then give them money and they will provide it!

HYPE Haus Party - Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

Something a little different this year at Oktoberfest is the HYPE Haus Party. I am a little torn on this. I see Oktoberfest as more of a fest where you get out and mingle with the masses of people. If you are going to get drunk and dance a few polkas with an unsuspecting Suburban former fratboy, then you really should be out in the middle of 5th Street. If you are scared of crowds, then you might be more comfortable in this special area on Fountain Square. Tickets are limited.

2012 Olympic Chicken Dance Preliminaries

The London Olympics are four years away, but you can begin your Chicken Dance Training at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati Noon on Fountain Square along with thousands of your fellow Olympic hopefuls. To help with the training will be local Beijing Olympic vets Mary Wineberg and David Payne who shall lead the mid-day workout.

Please remember that the wearing of spandex during competition is strictly prohibited by the International Chicken Dance Olympic Committee. It is a safety concern, so please help prevent injury and wear something a little more festive.

Food For Thought

For most of us (well, most of you, as I'm enjoying my power-outage-free downtown apartment), losing a lot of perishable food because of the blackout is a minor inconvenience. A few minutes spent throwing out the contents of the fridge and freezer, some grumbling, and an extra trip to the grocery store.

But for many, it means the loss of food that was barely affordable in the first place. The storm probably came at the worst possible time--on a Sunday, after people had stocked up on groceries following the traditional Saturday of shopping.

I've not seen a public plea for help, but it seems to me that organizations like the Freestore Foodbank and other, smaller pantries in the Cincinnati area may well see an increased demand this week and through the end of the month.

So if you're so inclined, this would be an excellent time to donate food or cash to the food pantry of your choice.

UPDATE: This morning, we got a comment from someone who's obviously more in the know than I am, and I wanted to bump her comment to the body of the post:

I work with the FreestoreFoodbank and have to second what you said in this post. We opened yesterday on Liberty Street (despite a lack of power there...) and saw more than 550 households come through. That's more than twice the number of households served on an average day. We're estimating we served between 1,200 and 1,400 people through yesterday's distribution. So as you suggested, we're hurting - especially given the fact that our perishable foods were without power and therefore can't be distributed. Cash and non-perishable food donations are welcomed.And, if there are people who need emergency food assistance, they are urged to visit the FreestoreFoodbank from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. all week.

McCain Health Plan Again

Just an added note: the online chatter about health care has been fueled by Health Affairs (a nonpartisan journal) analysis of the candidates' plans. While the full text of the article is here, this is the conclusion the authors reach about the McCain plan (emphases mine):

Achieving Senator McCain's vision would radically transform the U.S. health insurance system. His plan would alter the nature, source, and financing of coverage for the nearly 160 million Americans who now receive health insurance through their employers. We estimate that twenty million Americans--about one in every eight people with job-based coverage--would lose their current coverage as a result of the change in the tax treatment of coverage. Initially, this loss of job-based coverage would be offset by an increase in coverage in the nongroup market (although not necessarily for the same individuals). Within five years, however, the net effect of the plan is expected to be a net reduction in coverage relative to what would have been observed if the tax treatment of employer-sponsored coverage remains as it is now. The decline of job-based coverage would force millions of Americans into the weakest segment of the private insurance system--the nongroup market--where cost sharing is high and covered services are limited. Senator McCain's proposal to deregulate this market would mean that people in it would lose protections they now have. These changes would diminish the security of coverage for most Americans, especially those who are not--or someday will not be--in perfect health.

The McCain Health Plan: Hold Onto Your Wallet!

Every cloud has a silver lining. Perhaps the silver lining of this week's economic crisis is that the candidates are once again talking about issues, rather than each other. So let's talk about an issue that McCain hasn't spent much time on: health care. And I don't understand why he isn't talking about it, as his plan will radically alter the healthcare landscape in this country.

John McCain's plan to provide health care to Americans is essentially reform of the tax code. If you receive health insurance through your employer, you don't pay taxes on the portion of your premiums that your employer pays. McCain would change that: this "income" would now be taxable.

Instead, McCain would offer a $2,500 tax rebate to all Americans for the purposes of paying for health insurance. But Americans won't get that money themselves--the health insurance company you select would automatically get that money to cover your premiums. And to incentivize cheaper insurance plans, if $2,500 exceeds the amount of your annual premium, you'll get the excess back. Of course, you can't spend it: it will be put in a Health Savings Account that you could use to pay deductibles or co-pays. (This is all detailed on the McCain website, here.)

McCain's theory is that if people are forced out of employer-provided insurance and into the insurance market, competition will magically drive prices down and make health care affordable for all. The New York Times' Bob Herbert has this to say:

This entire McCain health insurance transformation is right out of the right-wing Republicans’ ideological playbook: fewer regulations; let the market decide; and send unsophisticated consumers into the crucible alone.
You would think that with some of the most venerable houses on Wall Street crumbling like sand castles right before our eyes, we’d be a little wary about spreading this toxic formula even further into the health care system.

To me, the McCain plan is a bad idea on its face. But regardless of its merits, shouldn't Americans know that if they elect John McCain president, every person who has employer-provided health insurance will have higher taxes taken from their paycheck each week?

Don't Come To Work Smelly Tomorrow

Two fitness chains, Fitworks, and Urban Active, are offering free showers to the public, according to the Enquirer.

So if you're without power, stop at the gym before you go to work tomorrow.

Ike Damage

Question: What's missing from the following picture?

Answer: Check out the second pole in the picture. It's a street light, just like the others. Except it's missing its light; yesterday's winds blew it off. It was tossed, unfortunately, onto a parked car below. (The car was whisked away by the time I thought to take a picture.) No injuries, but the car was totalled.

(This is Fourth Street, standing at the intersection of Plum and facing west.)

Feel free to post descriptions of damage you saw.

Snarky aside: I still don't understand why WCPO needs two tickers to list school closings. I am amused, though, that on the larger (uppermost) of the two, they didn't find a way to get rid of the snow flurry graphics.

Oh Yes, It's a Chicken Dance Off

It's Oktoberfest Zinzinnati week so let's start things off with a Chicken Dance With The Stars.

Ike Remnant Recon

If you're at home this evening reading this, then just stay there.  Don't go out before sunrise unless you have to.

I hadn't realized the power problem is as widespread as it is.  Downtown, power is mostly on.  There's a couple intersections with traffic lights out, but power never even flickered where I live.  Yes, I'd heard the big number of customers without power:  I'd simply, mistakenly assumed that most people without power were out in Clermont, Warren, and Butler Counties and across the river.

So I went out to find some fast food dinner.  Big mistake.

Power outages are, in fact, widespread in Bellevue and Newport.  (That meant that at the restaurants where power was on--McDonald's, Arby's, and Frisch's in Bellevue--lines were interminably long.)

Power in Clifton, at least as of 8:00 pm, is apparently non-existent.  And when I say Clifton, I mean Clifton, Clifton Heights, and University Heights (and even into Camp Washington).  Widespread outages.  There's probably some damage.  Police had blocked Ravine Road from Central Parkway, and also McMillan at Clifton.  I'm not sure what happened in either place.  

Things on the West Side didn't seem much better.  There were spotty outages in Queensgate.  Further north, power seemed to be mostly out at Harrison near Queen City.

Driving is tough right now.  People seem to be mostly remembering their long-forgotten traffic school lesson:  when approaching a traffic light that is out, treat it as a four-way stop.  The problem, though, is that if you or another driver is unfamiliar with a particular intersection, you might not, after sundown, realize that you're driving through a dead traffic signal.

To sum up:  stay home.  If you can't, be very, very careful.

And I've emailed family members who live in the Florida area, petitioning them to ensure that in the future, their hurricanes stay where they belong, in the Deep South and the Gulf Coast.  We don't send them our snow and ice storms, so they should extend that same courtesy and keep their damned weather to themselves. 

Good News, Bad News

The bad news: it's going to be a long, long season at Paul Brown Stadium. The next interesting thing to happen there likely will be the 2009 Macy's Music Festival.

The good news: following the next two home games (9/29 against the Browns and 10/19 against the Steelers), you'll probably be able to purchase tickets quite cheaply.

UPDATE: I just thought of more good news. Since lots of season ticket holders will likely be willing to part with their tickets this early in the season, we should see lots of hotel business from our friends in Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

That raises an interesting open thread: whose fans are more offensive when they come to town, Browns or Steelers?

More Downtown Strolling

This Summer I have rolled into morning walking rituals. Saturday I am off to Grater's for a doughnut then Tazza Mia for Coffee. Sunday morning I go right to Tazza Mia for a tasty breakfast Sandwich and coffee and off to the Yeatman's cove to sit for a while by the river. I've got to get back into the habit of going to Findlay Market on Saturdays this Fall.

Speaking of Tazza Mia, on September 17th they are having their official "Ribbon cutting Ceremony" at 8:30 AM. The first 50 customers in the door after the ribbon is cut will get a free pound of coffee. Also, you can get a free cup of regular coffee from 8:30 to 10:30.

The Problemed Park

I got into a lively discussion about this last night, so Just Past Central has a better round up on the recent news on Washington Park's problem. I really have nothing good to say about the efforts of local social services who don't provide the base service to society to do everything to keep crime from happening on their doorsteps and in the surrounding areas where the criminals go who are not let in their doors.

When you attract crime, you can't stand in the way of others who are trying to fight it.

Yes, The Enquirer's Website Sucks

Everyone has known about it since it was relaunched with Gannett's Structure. Now Enquirer Management knows about it.