Good Clooney Story, Dirty Politics Ahead

Here is a good story on Nick Clooney campaign for Congress. It was fair and gave voice to his critics and opponents. What was brutal was this quote about Nick's son George from Kevin Murphy, one of Nick's opponents:

"If Mr. Clooney decides to make his son an issue in the campaign, he will have to live with the positions and the statements of his son, who has succumbed to the Hollywood liberalism that is very far removed from Midwest values," Murphy said.

Now, what does this tell me? If Mr. Murphy gets the GOP nomination, then he will make George the issue, not Nick. It will not matter if Nick brings him up or not, just have George stand next to him a single event, which will make the papers, and that is all Murphy needs to try and play upon the mindless hate for "Hollywood." What do extreme Conservatives hate about Hollywood? Two things: gays and their stance on guns. Guns are the issue that drives hard conservative men into fits of rage, and gays are what make them fear their sexuality. I think that is at the core of this veiled threat from Murphy. I think Davis has enough sense not to make it much of an issue, assuming George is just there for a photo op.

This sounds like good old fashioned Kentucky Politics: down and dirty.

Piousness Sells

Well, I hope someone other than a church made a buck on selling "Kitna hats." I hope some will let me know if this was a big talk radio topic in Cincinnati. This issue has Bill Cunningham's name written all over it. Let's hope Cunningham is on vacation.

Bush's Plan to Not Tax the Wealthy?

Kevin Drum comments on what David Brooks has to say about Bush's up coming State of the Union Speech. In it Brooks claims Bush will unveil his push to "reform" social security, unemployment insurance, and Medicare. Look for a whole new round of "newspeak" terms from Bush. Ownership of one's own "unemployed workers personal re-employment accounts seems to be where insurance is no longer the key element. You will save on your own, and the government and your employer will likely be off the hook for anything, assuming the market does not drop and your actually make enough money to saving anything.

Kevin's final analysis that Bush's intent is just a push to not tax any investment income and not tax corporate income, putting all tax revenue on the shoulders of the worker. That is what Kevin call's class warfare. Funny, I call it the same thing, but by calling it class warfare we will surely be accused of waging class warfare.

Ugh. Reason #5,550 of why I am not a Conservative.

Cranley Out of Commissioner's Race

Cranley's reasons were financial. He just raised 200K for his council run and it is believed he would need 500K for the Commissioner's run. I think he is hold out for making another run for Congress. I have no inside source on this, I am just speculating. John ran against Steve Chabot and for a very young candidate did well. He has become more conservative in his views and could be a challenge for Chabot under the right circumstances. Liberals are no big fan of Cranley, but the 1st Ohio Congressional District has so few Liberals to get votes from, Cranley might be in place to run for Chabot's seat, maybe when Chabot leaves at some point down the road.

Wearing Religion on Your Sleeve

Bengal's QB John Kitna has been fined for wearing a hat with a Christian cross on it during post-game press conferences. I was really bothered by Kitna pushing his religion. It is his right, but I felt it was rude to be so up front about it. I also felt that his choice of hats was poor. Most of the season he wore really cheap hats with "god" awful colors. It was a mockery of hats.

As far as his being fined for doing it, that strikes me as strange. I would have just warned him first. It is unknown if he was warned or not.

I hope the reactionary right does not want to make this into some kind of an issue. I am sure they will, but I hope they complain about the NFL, not anyone else. There actions are totally legal, and the 1st amendment does not apply in this case. The NFL limits what it players can say, it can limit their freedom of expressing their religion.

I am sure will see the freepers and Peter Bronson making an issue of this, and somehow blaming Bill Clinton for it. It must be a sign of the end times, so I guess I better stock up on water.

Damon Lynch IV Arrested

Rev. Damon Lynch III's son has been arrested on charges of breaking into cars. Yes, this is the son of the man who almost became a Cincinnati City Councilman and who is leading a boycott against Cincinnati.

If you find this ironic, then you are definitely not alone. I would guess that "living" in East Price Hill was not the best choice for Rev. Lynch. His son seemed to need more supervision. I will bet that cries of racial profiling or that his son was set up by the police will be used as his defense. Has Ken Lawson been hired yet?

I will have to wonder how many times "the white man" will be blamed. How many times will the Cincinnati Police be blamed? Will it all just be called a CIA conspiracy?

This should be a big news story, but it is getting little play. The Post has nothing online and the Enquirer has been silent. WLWT, WKRC, and the Whistleblower (who I think had it first) were the only news outlets to report it.

Media Merger Mania Beginning?

Scripps is adding 5 more TV stations. I guess WCPO will start recycling San Francisco stories too.