MIAMI 42, UC 37

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.

Ring that Bell!

Coverage: Enquirer, more, more, more, and more. DDN, More, and More.

More Miami U. Strike

The University has issued a press release on the Strike and they appear to not be backing down on anything. The rumors on the Strike are rippling throughout the campus. Reports are that the bulk of the push for the strike came from the Dinning Hall staff, who are amongst the lowest paid of all full time employees on campus. Less than half of the almost 900 staffers "covered" by the union were actually union members, around 400 to 450. Allegedly 70 of those members quit the union from the point the negotiations when down hill last month, and only 300 voted on the contract, so likely many more are no longer be members. Reports are that most of the non-dining hall staffers will break picket lines on Monday, no matter if the Strike is resolved or not. The physical facilities crews had a large percentage show up for work today, likely a majority of workers in those departments.

Reports also were made that some Professors either held classes off campus, or planned to do so because some students or the professors themselves did not want to "cross the picket line." That seems stupid. I assume if those students want to honor the same picket line they will not eat anywhere on campus, and will not even enter their dorm rooms, in fact since the grounds crews are covered here, they can’t step foot on campus and should just leave all together.

Niger-Gate?

This is fresh news via Talkingpointsmemo.com: MSNBC is reporting that the CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate the White House for allegedly leaking the identity of a CIA agent, a violation of federal law. The agent in question is the wife of Joseph Wilson, former Ambassador to Iraq and envoy sent to Niger to investigate reports or speculation that Iraq was seeking uranium from the African country. Wilson “discredited” those reports, but Bush still used the claim in his state of the Union address.

This story hitting on a Friday night is not a shock, burying news is the standard MO for this administration top to bottom. The timing may not matter, assuming the press does not ignore it. No one in the Bush camp can escape the power of the subpoena. This will be a test of life after the Independent Council Statute. Will John Ashcroft conduct a fair and impartial investigation? Will Congress hold hearings? Will Congress at least keep tabs on the thoroughness of the DOJ investigation?

Miami University Workers Strike Causes Football Game to Loose TV Coverage

Well, this will accomplish nothing but make another generation of business leaders hate unions. Good Long term planning there Local 209 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees! Do you even have strike fund? Here is the kicker:

About 300 union members voted.

The union claims to represent 860 workers. In reality the 560 other workers, or close to it, are likely not actual paying union members. They will probably still be at work today. Miami is bringing in temporary workers to help feed the students. I wonder how many workers from the dining halls will actually not work and make it difficult to feed the students. That is kind. An unconfirmed report from last night indicated that the Shriver Center (the student union, aka the “Res”) was locked up. It is normally open 24 hours a day.

This is the kind of union that I really can't support. What are they fighting for? Now, I don't mean for people to spout off Union Rhetoric. The dispute was down to something like 6 points. The issue was about power. The union wants to take away power from the University. I can understand this point. Power to the people is a tempting path, but when only 35% of the people the union claims to represent actually vote on striking, and only 165 people voted to strike (19% of the total 860). How is that power to the people? That is power to a small minority of the people.

The TV coverage of "the Game" is being cancelled according to this post on www.miamihawktalk.com from a credible source. Reasons for the cancellation are related to the strike, which looks to make its big show at the football game. Having no TV coverage does take away a possible PR weapon the Union could use if they wanted to disrupt the actual game. Miami may be able to pick up another game later in the season, but official word will come later on today.

UPDATE: Here is the official press release from Miami on TV coverage being cancelled. No details were given as to why, specifically the game was cancelled in this release.

More details on the strike from the Miami Student: Here and Here. Both stories are very fair and show mutliple sides of the issue.

UPDATE#2: The Enquirer has caught up with the story.

Always Glad to Help

Jack Shafer of Slate's newest piece, "The Rat of Baghdad" came out on Wednesday and believe it or not I actually was able to provide some background information for his story. I tracked the reporters who were in Baghdad during the Iraq War, so he was able to get an idea of the players in question that affected New York Times reporter John Burns, the subject of Jack's story. I am not mentioned in the piece; my posts back during the war were just a research too for Jack, but hell, I will take credit for anything I remotely may have had a hand in. If my work can provide any positive service or value to anyone, then I actually feel like what I do is worthwhile, beyond keeping me sane of course.

Even Liberal FOX News

FOX News has a story that David Kay's report on WMD in Iraq has so far produced little or nothing. What I find most interesting is that there is no author listed for this story other than "Fox News" and that the following was included in the report:

The United States and Britain made their case for war arguing that Saddam's weapons program was an imminent threat to their national security.

Couple this with the fairly tough questions asked of Condi Rice by Bill O'Reilly, one has to ask, has FOX News turned on Bush? I know, I know, they have always been "fair and balanced." (Cough, Couch) The only other possibility I can fathom is that Al Franken infiltrated the GOP News headquarters and spiked someone's coffee.

Seriously for a second, I think FOX News can no longer consider that they, in their own minds of course, are even remotely objective or "Fair and Balanced" if they don't report the fact that Bush's main reason for going to war was that Iraq was a threat to the USA through the existence of WMD and a future threat with on going WMD programs. If there are leaks from the administration that David Kay has found neither WMD nor any serious ongoing WMD programs, then Bush may be losing some of his conservative support. No one likes to be lied to. Liberals did not like being lied to be Bill Clinton, but in the end his lies did not harm anyone outside his family so it was easier to overlook them. Bush misleading people on this did cause harm to others, and that is unforgivable, even for one of his fellow Republicans. They will still support the ends of the Iraq war and defend Bush on that, but they will not be able to refute the lack of WMD, and thus loose one edge in the debate on Bush’s foreign policy.

This is really wishful thinking on may part for FOX News. I hope this is their tact, even if just for one day it is still a nice respite from the propaganda. The rest of the conservative media will likely still rattle on by downplaying the importance of WMD to Bush's threat claims or by just ignoring it all together. And so it goes.

UPDATE: What was I thinking? I am a sucker. FOX suckered me, well a little. I missed a key word in the excerpt I used above, "weapons programs." I missed the "programs" part and just read weapons, and thought it meant WMD. I should instead be screaming about the clear bias in this story, but it is a shock they even ran it. I guess Bill O'Reilly should get the praise still, even thought he did not really follow up with Rice when she failed to answer the WMD questions.

UPDATE#2: Nothing yet from the 800-pound gorilla nor the Corner on this story. If is from a source they can't claim is "biased," now can they?

Hats Off to Todd Portune

Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, the only Democrat on the commission, has been the GOP's political enemy here for many years. People on the right really don't like his politics and his political tactics. Todd has been going through some very difficult health problems that have left him in a wheel chair. He still has long road ahead before he will be able to walk again, but for now he goes forward and now is able to get around town on his own. I hope people can look at Todd, no matter his politics, and admire the man for this kind of effort. He gets a lot of flack from people, and often it is not underserved, but I tip my hat to him for his courage, ability to face life head on, and his strength to keep on working towards walking to work real soon.