Ohioan's For Fingerhut

Jesse Taylor of Pandagon is behind Eric Fingerhut for George Voinovich's Senate seat. Ah, I will likely vote for him too, and I hope he wins, but who else would Jesse have endorsed?

Local Tie to Bush in 30 Seconds Contest

I missed this article from a few weeks back on the local ties to the MoveOn.org contest to create a 30 second commercial on President Bush. 2 people from Cincinnati were among the finalists who produced commercials for the contest.

The MoveOn.org contest grew added attention recently when CBS refused to air their commercial during the Superbowl this weekend. The reason given was that the "spot violated the network's policy against running issue advocacy advertising." This seems odd because CBS is airing an anti-drug commercial funded by the Bush Administration which if is the same one that aired on FOX in 2002 links drug use to support for terrorism, a highly dubious and discredited claim.

UPDATE: Rick Bird reports the controversy in his media column.

'Liberal' Hawks

Eric Alterman in a Nation column hits hard on the big media journalists/analysts who are professed or perceived to be liberals, but were supporters of the Iraq war, in general principle. I like the last line of the column:

America is truly Groundhog Day Nation: insisting on our right to ignore our own history and forever condemned to repeat it.

I would pose an additional question: what makes a liberal hawk into a Bush supporter? There are many bloggers out there who are not conservatives in the least, and have in the past been liberals or a "liberal-libertarian" or neo-liberal, who side with the Democrats most of the time, or at least feel most comfortable with Democratic leadership. They still will mock leadership, but mocking leaders is something that I hope everyone does from time to time, just to keep them from growing iron feet.

This group I think includes Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Jarvis, Dennis Miller, and others. Increasingly I read or listen to what they are saying and it is becoming a personal attack on "liberalism" or Democrats or it becomes homage to Bush on an issue, mostly 'War on Terrorism' or the Iraq War related. Is this division an anomaly or a trend? On the conservative side there is a growing split against Bush as well, on the War and on his domestic spending plans. Is this a period of political realignment or of conception of a four party political system?

One note: the term ?liberal hawk? traditionally would include me. I am not a peacenik in any sense of the word. I supported the Afghanistan War, the Kosovo War, and Gulf War I. I think in this case the term is meant specifically on the Iraq War which initially I was open to using force, but not in a pre-emptive non-UN sanctioned manner.

Are You Threatening Me?

BushCo pushed the "Threat Meme" to a constant stream of propaganda. The Center for American Progress has a list of many of big public mentions that Iraq was a "threat" to America. No WMD, No threat. Who in the administration read the intelligence and let all of this dogma go on? It couldn't be a specially created group in the Defense Department, could it? Who did the "Office of Special Plans" report to, and where they the filter of the intelligence that spun the level of "threat" of Iraq?

Former Campaign Treasurer for John Boehner Sentenced

Republican Rep. John Boehner's former campaign treasurer, Russell E. Roberts, was sentenced to two years for stealing $617,562 in contributions. Roberts reportedly took to the money to feed a gambling habit. He has been ordered to pay for restitution. If you hire a dishonest person, does that mean your judgment is lacking, and maybe you are not the best person for public office?

Mike Allen on the Stand

A Federal judge has ruled that Mike Allen, Hamilton County Prosecutor, can be required to testify in a lawsuit filed by families of individuals involved in the incidents surrounding Cincinnati photographer Thomas Condon's action in the county morgue. Allen, and others can be questioned "a possible cover-up of an investigation into the county morgue that resulted in serving a prison sentence."

The judge went out of his way to say that his actions do not mean he thinks there was a cover-up, but that questions may be asked in a civil suit. What is at stake here is that no senior county morgue officials, especially the coroner, have yet been prosecuted for allowing Condon to photo graph corpses in the morgue, and that theories have been floated that the Prosecutor's office did not pursue or knowingly quashed an investigation into anyone other than one low level morgue employee.

97X Owner's Speak Out

Sledge has direct comments from Linda Balogh, who along with her husband Doug own WOXY. Sledge also has some additional detail on what will happen with the staff of the website.