Am I Missing Something?

I am not a fan of Eminem, but the folks at Source Magazine seem to be gunning for him. How do they really think he is a racist? The guy records some racially offensive slurs after he breaks up with this black girlfriend. (Yes, his black girlfriend) This makes him a "racist?" A white man who dates black women is a racist? I guess once again the term "racist" is being twisted, or redefined. I will remember that the next time I hear "cracker" used on 1230 the Buzz.

A White rapper is infringing on the "black man's" world, so he must be taken down, I guess. From this article it sounds like the guys from the Source are the ones who are "racist." This quote I think is filled with what some might call code words:

"Bringing this tape to the public is the latest chapter in The Source magazine's ongoing effort to expose influences corrupting hip-hop, including racism."

Who or What is corrupting hip-hop one might ask? I think the folks from the Source would say: "White Culture" or just "The White Man." I wonder how much they are rooting out racism in hip-hop directed toward non-blacks.

Domestic Terrorism

The CANDLES Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana was victim to arson and bigoted vandalism. "Remember Timmy McVeigh" was written on a wall of the museum. This is terrorism. This story is getting limited coverage. Tabloid stories like the Scott Peterson Trial and the police search of Michael Jackson's ranch are getting the cable news coverage.

CANDLES stands for "The Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors."

New Blog

Give SadGirlSeven a try. She has some choice words about CinWeekly in a post from last week. One suggestion that I think she needs to take under advisement: Permalinks.

2000 Hamilton County Presidential Results

I was just reviewing the 2000 vote totals for President in Hamilton County and they are not what one would have thought. I would have guess that Hamilton County would lean 60/40 Conservative to Liberal. What happened was significantly closer than that.

George W. Bush, GOP*******197,339 54.46%
Al Gore, Dem**************153,227 42.28%
Ralph Nader, Green*********8,871 2.45%
Harry Browne, Libertarian****1,187 0.33%
Pat Buchanan, Reform*******1,042 0.29%
John Hagelin, Natural Law****520 0.14%
Howard Phillips, Const. Party**195 0.05%
TOTALS*******************362,381 100.00%

Right Leaning 199,763 55.13%
Left Leaning 162,618 44.87%
362,381 100.00%

This makes me realize one big factor; Hamilton County is by far the most "liberal" of all of the surrounding counties. Bush got over 60% of the vote in all surrounding counties. I wonder how the city gets the conservative flack when outside the 275 loop has the bulk of the hardcore conservatives. I guess the local conservative control on nearly everything with an iron fist methodology keeps us liberals quiet.

Cranley for Commissioner???

The Business Courier is reporting that Councilman John Cranley is "pondering" a run against John Dowlin for Hamilton County Commissioner in next year's election.

Is it to soon for John to move on? His showing in the recent council race was fairly good, but council's reputation in the rest of the county is horrid, and he one of main faces getting press from council. He did well against Chabot back in 2000, but is there enough support? I guess John's support of the Elkington "Plan" will be a top priority with all of the extra time he will have next year running for office again.

IME Recap

Well, I did not deliver on the level of coverage I had hoped to provide. I was able to attend two sessions on Friday and only my own session on Saturday. I attended the Minority Voices in the Media and the Art of the Interview sessions on Friday. I was impressed with Kathy Wilson. I disagree with many of her stances, but she is really good in this kind of setting.

The most interesting element of the event was Kathy Y. Wilson's revelation that she was asked to take over Laura Pulfer's column a few years back. She obviously turned that down. This I am sure is old news to some, but was news to me.

My session on blogs and webzines went fairly well. I was not a total idiot, but I was not very well spoken. I hope everyone got something from it, but I am not sure if I provided much. I think the time was limited to the point where we did not have a ton of time to answer questions. I guess our presentations went on too long.

I was shocked to read that there was a theft of a camera and TV monitor. That sucks. It sucks that someone had to ruin a good event. I hope this theft does not put a damper on this event, and it is able to grow bigger next year.

For a fuller recap, check out XRay's recap.

UPDATE: In my haste to post this, I failed to comment on Stacey Recht and Amy Eversole's "The Art of the Interview" Session. I was impressed at how prepared Stacey and Amy were. Stacey especially had everything organized, including an excellent web page with examples of interviews she had gotten previously as well as a full audio recording of the session. I myself am not good at interviewing people, so I learned quite a bit on the best practices for giving interviews. If you listen carefully you might hear my questions on the audio recording.

Local Recounts

The Post reports that there will be a recount in the Cincinnati Council race because it fell with in the statutory requirements, where David Crowley beat Damon Lynch for the last seat by 738 votes. The Norwood Mayor's race, which was decided by only 24 votes still did not meet the .5% threshold for an automatic recount. Challenges can still be made, but the challenger might bear the expense of such a challenge.

The more interesting news from the story was that two difference races ended up in ties locally. One was the Lincoln Heights council race were two people were tied for the third seat. If the recount does not change the vote, then a coin toss will choose the winner. The other was an income tax issue that ended in a tie. If that tie is not broken the increase will fail. I can't find in Ohio law how ties are handled, so I will have to take the Post's word for it.