Insta-Drivel

I know I am behind the trend here, but have to point out that Glenn Reynolds (aka the 800-pound gorilla) has gone from semi-neutral moderate, to all out foaming at the mouth Kool-Aide guzzling end justify the means mega-hawk.

Glenn's Tirade is filled with anecdotal reports that he finds supportive of a viewpoint that is totally contrary to the reporting coming out of Iraq. Even Fox News does not paint as rosy a picture as Glenn seems to paint. Iraq is not going well. It does not take a genius to figure that out. It does take a strong person to admit when you are wrong about a policy. Glenn and the Blog-hawks cannot find it in them to admit that although the heavy fighting was done brilliantly, the aftermath was not planned and is not getting better. Now sure, not ever town in Iraq is horrible, but the parts that are bad are not getting better and any efforts to change are as rapid as a new bottle of Ketchup. I am tempted to edit my blogroll.

Should we leave Iraq? Hell no. We should stop lying about the need for help, mainly more troops, and start working quickly with the UN. Hat needs to go in hand. Let the French ego grow. Bush does not care about our international image, so why does he care about looking bad at the UN. Oh, wait, he does care about how his supporters see him, and he can’t look like a weasel to them. The hawks will be pissed if we don’t stick to the plan that is not working. Lovely.

I have to repeat Josh Marshall’s question: Where is the Kay report? Where are the WMD’s that we “knew” where there.

UPDATE: Glenn continues to drink the Kool-Aide, he even links to the MRC.

Nick Spencer Goes Nuclear

Yesterday council candidate Nick Spencer challenged the efforts of Charlie Luken and John Cranley to hire John Elkington as a consultant for Main Street development. At the OTR Chamber of Commerce luncheon Nick raised questions as to why the city is not considering the problems Mr. Elkington has had in some of his development project outside of Beale Street in Memphis. Nick's comments appeared to have not only put Mr. Elkington back on his heels, they also pissed him off enough to not show up for a meeting planned with Nick later on yesterday afternoon.

Support for Elkington is falling more and I would not be surprised if no vote occurs to even pay him. If the money for Elkington is denied, I hope that does not kill development for Main Street. Nick's had the quote that summed up the core problem with how this "plan" to hire Elkington was hatched:

"This has been put together by three or four guys who came up with this in a room somewhere and they don't want to be pressed on details," he said.

I will have more on this story in next week's VigPol.

More from the Enquirer.

Ohio's Interstate Highway System Has Been Completed

After 38 years it is finally finished? Why now are we talking about widening those same roads? Why are we not thinking 30 years ahead instead of 5? In 30 years will need a rail system to parallel the highway system? Will we need air corridors to handle the low-level plane traffic? Do we need to be investing in Mass Transit now? YES!

Miami Student Caught Counterfieting

Ok, this story got a bit too much coverage:
Enquirer
Dayton Daily News
WCPO
WHIO
ONN

The News Record's former editor steals several thousand dollars and it barely makes the news.

The original story goes to the Miami Student. It would seem the other outlets read the "Student" on occasion.

Star 64 Where Are You?

The remotely located news broadcast from WB-64 had been delayed, but they have picked the local "host," Former WXIX reporter Kimberly Moening. This will be a general waste, but it might put a little fire under FOX-19's belly and push them to be the real "local" 10 o'clock news by actually covering nothing but local news for the full hour. Ok, I am dreaming, but a man has to dream sometimes.

Mixing up Analogies

Peter Bronson needs to revisit the story of Mutiny on Bounty in his column called: "Mutiny on the Butler County Republican Bounty." Pete illustrated his column by telling a tale of Capt. Horatio Hornblower. The problem is that Hornblower was not on the Bounty. He was not even a real person. Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian were the duo that made the story's antagonist and protagonist. I would surmise that Pete knows this, but chose to mix up his analogies simply because of the alliteration of Horatio Hornblower. He is taking license with literature, but I don't think that is what people expect in a column. It was nice to see Pete expose the conflict in Bulter County Republican Party and in the entire column he did not blame Bill Clinton or a liberal. He did correctly refer to Democrats as a Moby Dick type creature. This characterization is valid because Bronson and most hard-core Republican pundits do come across as Captain Ahab most of the time.

School Prayer Gets a Midday Update?

An annual event gets a midday update? Why is this story being pumped up? Who is the Enquirer trying to impress (or piss off)? This story is a puff piece that is fit for inside the paper, it is not breaking news worth knowing about before tomorrow, if then at all.

Beyond its inclusion as part of the updated paper, usually reserved for "breaking" type news, there is the balance problem. This is written as a human-interest story, where it gives no alternate views. It is reasonable to write such story if it is meant for the Temp section. If this ends up in the Metro section, then it should at least included some counter viewpoint. Now what are those viewpoints? Well there are responses to comments like this one from the article

"I think it is just wonderful we have a society today that accepts this,'' said Herring of Colerain Township. "So many are against allowing God and prayer anywhere.''

This statement is false. There are not "many" against allowing prayer or "God" "anywhere." There are people who wish to maintain the separation of Church and State. It is legal for kids to pray in school, as long as they do so on their own time, or silently without causing any disruption. Why was there no counter argument to this viewpoint? If this is a puff piece, then why include such a harsh and false statement (albeit debatable by some fundamentalists)?

Now this statement is not legally an issue:

"I'm not ashamed,'' Johnson said after the 25-minute program of song and prayer. "Let our community know we have Christ in our school.''

It is a concern of the attitudes of those who seek to indoctrinate children with religion at schools. Most of those who want to put religion back in schools, want to put Christianity back into schools. This is fact. The savvy politicos will try and make it monotheistic, but that still fails the legality test. I wonder if Peter Bronson will question the lack of balance is this story and at that school, as much as he did Miami University's choice of Convocation speaker. I kind of think he will be giddy as a boy burning ants with a magnifying glass over this article.

UPDATE: Matt Weiler comments(rants) on this as well.