"Unhip" Cincinnati

The Christian Science Monitor has taken a hard look at Cincinnati and our Young Professionals. I don't like being called "unhip" because that is a really bad rap on Cincinnati, but one we can't easily avoid. We are a "cool" city surrounded by some of the most stale minded people in the country. The majority of suburbanites want to live in a stoic life with the PTA, youth soccer, high school football, church festivals, and tolerance for theocratic fascists like Phil Burress.

The city needs to start looking out for itself more. The county does nothing to help. The suburbs sponge off the big city aura, but stay locked in their sheltered cul-de-sacs. Groups like Cincinnati Tomorrow, featured in the article, are in my opinion (biased as it may be) are the foundation for a vibrant city society. Social structures are what societies are built on and by combining our efforts our market share will become more attractive to business and then to government officials.

Nick Spencer got a great mention. I seemed to not seek John Cranley's name mentioned. I wonder where he stands on young professionals? I would guess he would want us standing outside a Hard Rock Cafe behind the velvet ropes, waiting for the West Chester crowd to go home.

Arnold Yes! Local Politics No!

I am watching WLWT-NBC at 11:00 PM today and I saw a report during the first ten minutes on the California Governor's recall election. In case you missed something, WLWT is the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati, Ohio. That was OHIO.

Ohio does not border California. When the governor of Indiana died, that was very relevant to Cincinnati area views, which includes parts of Indiana. Stories on Kentucky government are also fair game. If might be nice if we got a story on what Bob Taft was doing up in Columbus (again the one in Ohio).

Now, I seem to remember something about an election right here in Cincinnati. 26 people are running for something? Instead we get an "Around the Nation" report and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" update. What the Fuck? Where is the local news? Damn it folks, a "Tall Stacks" commercialnews story giving the menu? I guess interviewing the candidates for next month's election is just not interesting enough for the brain dead "Reality" Show junkies hoping they finally merge the Bachelor, Fear Factor, and Dirtyhotelmaids.com into one television program. Watching a single guy tempt fate by picking a wife from a group of dirty hotel maids that eat sheep balls for money is a formidable match for picking the city's leaders.

Reformation II?

With groups like Voice of the Faithful, is a Roman Catholic split far way? American Catholics have a large segment pushing for change in the church much like Martin Luther did nearly 500 years ago. Couple this along with radical traditionalist Catholic, like Mel Gibson, who prefer to turn back the clock and be "pre-Vatican II" Catholics. Orthodox Catholics, who might also be called conservative Catholics, fall in as the "establishment" Catholics who like the Church as is. I don't know where moderate or liberal Catholics will go if the church does not change. I would predict that the choice of the next Pope will be critical for the future of American Catholics. I would not be surprised to see a break-up/schism or massive defection to other protestant sects for American Catholics. I of course don't really give much of a damn about this or any religion, but the Catholic Church does wield influence in the world, and it is the biggest Christian denomination in America.

Timing of Iraq War

Rob Bernard points out that he did address why we went to war when we did. His answer was:

We attacked when we did because it appeared those opposing our timetable weren't opposing when we were doing it, but that we were doing it at all. Might it have been better if we had waited for a better postwar plan? Sure, but that's 20-20 hindsight talking. There was not a single person, either pro or anti, talking before the war about the postwar plan.

Rob makes part of my case for me. No one was talking about post-war Iraq. Why was that? Well, that is not true, many were asking about the post-war Iraq, those questions came mostly from Democrats, like Joe Biden in this 02/11/2003 NewsHour segment, but also Senator Lugar (R) asked questions that no one in the Bush Administration answered significantly then and still have not done much of it to date.

Lugar's initial comment:

How long might U.S. troops conceivably remain? Will the United Nations have a role? And who will manage Iraq's oil resources? Unless the administration can answer these questions in detail, the anxiety of Arab and European governments, as well as that of many in the American public, over our staying power will only grow.

Biden's initial comment:

The one lesson universally learned from Vietnam is that a foreign policy, no matter how well or poorly articulated, cannot be sustained without the informed consent of the American people. The American people have no notion what we are about to undertake. This is a gigantic undertaking in what the word that we don't like to hear: nation building -- nation building.

Rob's comments still do not pass muster as to why we had to fight then. If they only reason was that France was not going to support us, then I still can’t find what harm would have it caused if we instead waited for more troops to arrive, waited for Turkey to come around and let us stage troops from our bases there, and waited for everyone other than France to come around and support our actions? We might have reduced the number of causalities significantly, especially from the post-war violence. We would have kept Saddam in power for 6 to 8 months longer, but Bush left him in power from his inauguration up through this year without any significant fretting as to the fate of the people being oppressed in Iraq.

MIAMI 45, Akron 20

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.

Coverage: Enquirer, Hamilton Journal-News, and Akron Beacon-Journal.

Corrupt Empowerment Zones & Terrorism?

Leave it Howard Wilkinson to write about the story beneath the story. Franco Wantsala is wanted as part of the crime ring fronting stolen merchandise at local corner markets. Mr. Wantsala is the staff accountant for the Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation which is the local agency that awards funds to entities in empowerment zones. This “little” connection might give the boycotters something to crow about, assuming they are paying attention and don’t jump to this man’s defense out of knee-jerk reaction.

Wilkinson was able to get a high ranking authority, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, to honestly comment on the crime ring's link to terrorism:

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, whose Organized Crime Investigations Commission launched the probe nearly two years ago, said it was not at all clear that Saleh and his alleged co-conspirators were funneling money to Middle East terrorists.

"There is no hard evidence of that; there is just hard suspicion,'' said Petro. "That's something for the feds to investigate. We were investigating an organized criminal activity."

I wonder who locally was pushing the terrorism connections? The original Enquirer story has this reference to terrorism:

Federal authorities are following up on the $37 million to see if it funded any terrorism, Humphries said. Officials here believe it did, Chief Tom Streicher said, but have no proof.

The Post reported Streicher's direction quote on the link to terrorism:

"We can document that money is being sent to the Middle East," Streicher said, adding there is a "strong suspicion" the money is being used to fund terrorism. He acknowledges, though, "there is nothing concrete -- yet."

This quote is presumably why the Post used this headline for the article, "Theft ring, terrorism linked." Since when does "suspicion" mean a link? AG Petro said there is no hard evidence, so basically these guys are guessing terrorism is involved. If there really was terrorism involved, where are the National news stories on this issue with a press conference from John Ashcroft? Now there is still the report from an ex-wife of one of the accused were she says, "I think they're involved in terrorism, I've always have." Who tipped WCPO off as to location of this ex-wife? They had very little time to get this story since the men were only arrest on Thursday and the story is filed on Friday, complete with a "shaded" video clip. Now, WCOP could have the fastest staff in the world, but I would bet someone in the CPD or Prosecutor’s office let a name slip.

Threats from "Evildoers" (UC)!

Rob Bernard quips: "The reason you don't invade Clifton is because UC didn't invade Oxford 12 years ago, lose, and promise to get rid of those plans in order to get Miami to stop shooting." Well Rob, "someone" did steal the "Victory Bell" for several years until it "magically" appeared again. Our intelligence has said, and I am sure Senator Mike DeWine will back me up on this, that it was member of the UC Cabal. The Bell is under threat, and we must crush that threat before something happens. We can't wait until next year's game, we must act now!

That leads me into what Rob did not address. Why couldn't we wait to go to war? Bush's claim was that we were under threat (I say imminent was the Administration talking point until they could not support the claim), and that we could not wait. We could not wait because Iraq was a threat, which as we now know what not true.

The bottom line, the only reason we could not wait to go to war was that Bush knew he could not fight one in an election year, and still get the credit for it without a Wag the Dog charge. We could have gone into battle this Fall with the entire world on our side and with a plan for the post-war. We also would not have had the 87 billion dollar bill to pay, or at least not nearly as big a one.

Why does this matter? Well, I am a person who does not believe the ends justify the means. Do I regret the ends? No, I am glad Saddam is gone. What I refuse to let happen is for George Bush to be praised for his actions and then reelected by an ill-informed and ignorant public. Now I of course have virtually no real influence beyond the small number of people who actually read my work, but I think I am part of a chorus that must sing and show that the President acted poorly, made political choice in the timing of the war, and seems willing to spin his "victory" into some grand battle that illustrates his "brilliance."

Now, are you with us (Miami) or with "them" (UC)? (cough, cough)