Nice Day, but a Gut Check
It hit 69 degrees today. I was warm in my long sleeve shirt. The gut check came when the classic rock radio station 92.5 the Fox played a song from The Clash. The song was "Train in Vain". When The Clash are considered classic rock, you must admit you are old. Now, they really started out before my time, but while watching "Rock the Casbah" on MTV 1,000 times while still in grade school, you feel that they were part of your indoctrination in the music culture.

Churches target Cincinnati in campaign to help blacks
We get to be the whipping boy for a political campaign. This is not about civil rights, this is about politics. This about extreme-capitalists vs. socialists (or even some communists).

Church leaders called for a national campaign to promote social justice and economic programs to help black people.

This is about reducing poverty in the "black community." That is a good thing to want to do, it would be nice to try and do that in all communities, instead of creating false sense of discrimination. Hold on before you jump to the wrong conclusion, I agree discrimination exists, but not on a macro or conspiratorial level, and mostly not based on race, but on culture. There are more poor white people, than black people. That is a fact. As a percentage of each race in this county, blacks have a much higher percentage in poverty than whites. That is a fact. There is not one answer to why that is the case. They are countless answers because most of the reasons are subjective to each individual person or family. To say it is all about race or racism is wrong, self-defeating, and unproductive. You don't get more unproductive and down right offensive when you refuse to let a City Councilman into your meeting.

Councilman David Pepper called it unfair to target Cincinnati-based corporations such as Procter & Gamble and Federated Department Stores Inc., that have "gone out of their way" to contribute to job and educational initiatives designed to improve the lives of African-Americans. Pepper tried to get into the meeting to explain to national leaders what actions city officials are taking toward progress, but boycott organizers turned him away at the door.

This particular group of boycotters also have revised the "demands" to end the boycott, but beyond the general description of the changes from the article, I can't find the new demands online. When Nate Livngston gets out of jail, I am not sure if he will be more vocal on the internal boycott split or jump on the bandwagon of this now apparent leading voice of the boycott movement. The new leadership has apparently deleted some of the prior demands, like the demand that the police chief be fired, but have add some, like a "community bank." How can you hold a city hostage until it creates a private business, especially a bank? Do they know how long it takes to start a bank? You can't just start a bank over night; the regulation process will take quite a lot of time. Additionally, it sounds like they just want free money. Why don't they try setting up a credit union? That might be faster to create, and it can be run on a collective basis. The oddest thing, and frankly the nuttiest thing, is that a new demand included an investigation of "outside forces" that are claimed to be responsible for the drug ring problems. I love this one most. I guess the CIA is responsible? If you can't accept the reality that the people who are the drug dealers in the black neighborhoods are black, then you will never be able to rid those neighborhoods of those criminals. If you shield criminals, you will just breed more criminals. The cycle of racial grandstanding will be a never ending story in this town until the boycotters get what I think is their unmentioned wish: a majority “black” city.

Student Arrested In University E-Mail Hoax
"Miami Senior Faces Several Charges"

I wonder who will not be graduating this May?

None Injured, Two Arrested After Local Gunbattle
Damn, sounds like a scene from the latest Quentin Tarantino movie.

Kevin Drum at CalPundit has brought up an idea for a new Constitutional Amendment to require the President to hold a weekly Press Conference. This is an excellent idea. Kevin's idea has I think real merit. There are a couple of issues that need to be addressed however:

1. Will foreign reporters be allowed to participate in the weekly press conferences?


2. The amendment needs to be adjusted to allow the President a vacation or the ability to call them off if National Security issues required it. With the technology today the President could hold the Press Conferences from remote locations if he was on an overseas trip.


3. The method to select which reporters are allowed to participate in the press conferences has the potential to be open to political favor, since congress would have total control of the rules used to make the selection of the press conference questioners. A more constitutionally based means to select the press conference participants might reduce the ability to abuse who gets to participate. Those rules might include a geographical element or media outlet size element. They need to keep out the nut cases with a fringe website, but not allow the mainstream beltway press to dominate. Local press outlets should not be shut out.

I will be looking for the level of attention Kevin gets on this idea and whether it gains any support. I really hope it does gain some support. It is a long shot by far, but the current President has demonstrated that it is clearly needed.

Police Search For Men Carrying Suspicious Package
I hope this is an over reaction or just some regular old fashioned crime.

Local Boycotters Get National Support
Yet, Jesse Jackson did not show up. Damon Lynch's quote

"Not enough progress has been made," Lynch said. "In fact, I think the city is going backwards."

seems to be a whole lotta nothing. Where are we supposed to be going? Are we just supposed to roll over an give in to your demands? Are we instantly going to cure all of our problems? No, we are not going to to just change, and that is because Damon Lynch thinks that the "we" is only the police and non-black community. The “we” is everyone. The "black community" must change just as much as the "non-black community." That change does not include more segregation or Black Nationalism. The change means integration. Integration is basically assimilation. That is the basic core sticking point that must be overcome if anything is ever going to "change."