Corner Market Crime Ring

Jay Love tried to make this into a civil rights violation during his 1230AM radio show today. He did not like the arrest and/or indictment of 23 people alleged to be involved in a crime ring that fenced stolen goods getting a lot of attention before anyone was convicted. I wonder where Jay's complaints were when the Erpenbeck scandal broke and was front page news for months on both daily newspapers. Erpenbeck got 100 times more attention than this crime ring bust will ever get all before he or anyone implicated went to trial. Why didn't Jay complain about that?

The problem with the news coverage and the headline whoring by Mike Allen and the CPD is that they threw around the "terrorism" charge without any evidence. Money going to the Middle East is not by itself evidence of funding terrorism. Allegations like this WCPO story are more substantial, but it comes from an ex-wife of one of the accused so ulterior motives are something to be considered. Sensationalism is a bedrock of news, but when it could cause a hate crime, then restraint should take precedence.

Rush Limbaugh is Just an Idiot

With apologies to Al Franken I had to mention the Rush Limbaugh tragedy. Ethan Hahn at Queen City Soapbox comments on both of stories concerning Rush. I actually feel sorry for the man at this point. He is either a drug addict or a wrongly accused person. Based on Rush's comments Ethan referenced, Limbaugh sounds like he is hooked on painkillers. If he was not, I think he might have denied being a drug addict, instead of his refusal to talk about the issue.

On the ESPN issue I think Rush's real problem was that he crossed the line that I assumed he was not going to cross when he was hired, the political one. I assume Rush would stick with commenting on sports and not bring political comments into the issue. Topping it off, he makes stupid comments that almost appear to have been more of an automatic machine reaction. He normally just spouts off the usually talking points and Conservative clichés that he just let one slip without thinking about what he saying. The ESPN thing will not hurt his career much. Painkillers could kill his career.

Miami Strike Reporting

John Koval's column from today's Miami Student on the reactions and actions of Miami University students and strikers respectively, was a nice and balanced take on the situation. I am sure the students supporting the strike will hate the criticism leveled on their acceptance of being "radical," which I took as basically being Stalinists like the folks at International Answer and the World Workers Party. These "Transnational Progressives" are the bane of us on the left. Their acceptance of Neo-Communism (including the faux anarchists or just old fashioned communism) had fractured the left into a liberal wing and a populist wing, the liberals being the more libertarian while the populists being the unionists and embracing a form of authoritarianism.

The strikers are a sympathetic group, but confrontation with the school in the end will have been a poor choice. The school has nothing to give them.

Example of Overt Racism from a Blogger

Zee over at SpicedSass seems to just not care about what she says on her blog. I find it amazing that a human being is this racist and bigoted and prejudice all wrapped up in one.

WMD Revisionism

Some local revisionism on why we went to war.

We invaded Iraq because they we thought they weren't living up to their end of the UN resolutions. These finds, without a single WMD find, prove that they weren't.

What Rob does not answer is why the war could not wait until say, now? Why not wait until we had the whole world on our side and we had a plan for what to after we won? What was the rush??? Oh yea, we were under imminent threat from WMD, that is why couldn't wait. Now of course we know there were no weapons, just plans for weapons. There are "plans" for weapons at UC. Why don't we invade Clifton? Those evil Bearcats are a threat to my Redhawks, damn it!

Detecting a Pattern?

Am I detecting a pattern with the latest Maggie Downs column? It is a very well written and a nice column, but why is it in the Metro Section? Is this coffee shop going to advertise with the Enquirer or the new Weekly? When is the weekly supposed to come out? It was slated for Fall and it is now Fall. Is Maggie the poster gal for the Real Life, Real News program? This is real life, but is it news? This column would make a very entertaining piece if it ran with video and was played during the 5 PM "news" hour on any of the Local TV stations. Is Maggie the manifestation of what Gannett wants to make its newspapers into? The print version of the Today Show?

I like Maggie's writing, and she is a really great person as well, but I wish she would write more about what is going on, not on what people could do in their spare time.

UPDATE: Wes Flinn adds some comments.

Young Politics

Greg Korte has a good take on young voters. This part is a bit self serving, but still very very true:

Notwithstanding the Internet, television remains the primary source for news for young people. And television does a poor job covering local campaigns - especially one in which 26 Cincinnati City Council candidates are competing for attention.

Radio does a little better than TV in covering local politics here in Cincinnati, but the internet I think does a great job. And yes, that was very self-aggrandizing.