Friday, August 08, 2003

OSU Arson
The man suspected in the Arson that killed 5 college kids in Columbus may have the charges dropped against him. How does that happen? How do you arrest someone for the crime, charge him, and then backtrack all within a couple of weeks? If you had the goods on him, lock him for a long long time. If you are looking for a scapegoat and found a low life who was stupid enough to admit to the crime, then someone in the Police department up in Columbus needs to loose their job.
Queen City SoapBox Q&A with Nick Spenser
Ethan Hahn has questions to Nick Spenser, city council candidate, with answers from Nick.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

Giddy Boycotters
I was sent an email today from one of the Boycott B leaders with a link to this story from the Post. The Boycotters are gleeful that the local NAACP is again not holding its annual Freedom Fund dinner in downtown. Instead they are holding it at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, a gun shot from downtown. I guess I don't really see this as meaningful. It is still in the downtown general area, within the City, so in reality, the same group of businesses they seek to destroy in their campaign of revenge will be putting on the event, and getting paid. All they are doing is shifting the money to a different group within the city. What will this accomplish? Nothing, because no one is really paying much attention. The Hannity event will attract more attention tomorrow night. I am still betting on less than 12 protestors from the Boycott B group. It is on a Friday night so I think they might get all of their members, and a few friends out, thus the 12. The normal number of 6 or so will likely be the most vocal. I look for some sort of confrontation with some of the Hannity Fans, who are foaming at the mouth Republican zombies. They will yell back at the boycotters without ignoring them. They after all have a similar mentality: personal problems resulting from hateful ideas and a massive chip on their shoulder. It should be a hoot to watch. I hope the local TV sharks are out in full force looking for a nice screaming match to film.
Editorial or Prejudice?
Rev. Raymond Larger resigned as a Roman Catholic Priest after he was convicted of public indecency, involving a police officer working a sting operation. The police officer was a man. The Dayton Daily News ran this headline in their regular story: "Priest resigns in indecency case." In the Enquirer they ran an editorial with this headline: "Gay priest removed." In the editorial they also indicated the following:
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati took swift action against a west side pastor convicted of soliciting an undercover male police officer for sex at a Dayton park.
Now was he convicted of solicitation or indecency or both? The Post's headline on its story read: "Priest resigns after sex charge." The Enquirer's news report read as follows: "Priest resigns after verdict."

Where does the prejudice come in? Well one could argue the implication of the Enquirer's editorial is that they are happy the Archdiocese of Cincinnati took quick action on a "wayward" priest. This quote links this action to the child sex abuse scandals
Decisive action is exactly what's needed to put wayward clergy out of commission, and it was sorely missing in recent years in such scandal-plagued dioceses as Louisville, Boston and Los Angeles.
This case is linked in the sense of the priest is not living up to his convictions, but lumping him with child molesters is unfair, and add the headline and the implication is that "gay" priests are the real problem with all of these sex scandals. This is the opinion of many conservatives, but is this what the Enquirer is intending to portray? If so, I think their bigot meter just went up a few bars. The Post story more directly linked this case to the child sex scandals by listing the widely known cases recently resolved or still pending of priests who sexually abused children. The implications of the Post story is just as unfair, but the only difference was those cases were buried at the end of the story, and not in the headline.

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Springer Not Running for Senate
Jerry Springer has announced that he will not be running for U. S. Senator of Ohio. I am not surprised. He had horrible numbers, but he could have spent a boatload of money and pulled enough new voters in to help out the Democrats. I guess he was not willing to spend his own money and he did not want to give up his show to campaign. Greed won out. Springer lived up to his image. Instead of gaining attention for a senate race, Fingerhut will be the next under funded candidate to be sent up for slaughter against the Ohio GOP Machine. Voinovich looks like a lock, unless someone else comes out of the woodwork with a truck full of money.

More Coverage: Post, FOX, Bloomberg.
Good Dowd: Neocons Coup at State
More good Dowd. I am sure she will be attacked by the 800-pound gorilla and his minions for not used italics at a certain point, but she is still a great columnist.
More Springer Coverage
These stories will all be moot by midday. Enquirer here, and here. The BBC covers both Jerry and Arnold. AP's take.

This story on a guest on his show being arrested sure does not help either.

UPDATE 11:05 AM: On RunJerryrun.com Springer's next media appearance is listed as CNN's Crossfire Today (Wed Aug 6th). This is an indication that he still wants to get into the mix of political discussion no matter what he annouces today.