Maggie Downs Missing From Friday's Enquirer

Yesterday I read Friday's Cincinnati Enquirer online, as I do everyday.

Friday is normally the day everyone can read Maggie Downs' weekly column, but I looked all over the front page. I looked in her archived column section. I looked and looked and looked and looked.

I did not find a column for Friday. I "wonder" why I did not find a column on Friday. I guess the bumper sicker column pissed off some West Chester GOP hacks who swear they tore off every Kerry bumper sticker they saw. From their perspective her count of Kerry stickers must be the result of some kind of, oh I don't know how they put it, "liberal bias?" We all know bias has no place in an opinion column.

Why is the Enquirer trying to silence Maggie? What fear do they have of opinion, and a liberal one at that, in their Metro OPINION columns? There is certainly no shortage of conservatives. I would love to know how often they kill a Bronson column for being too right-wing.

Hot Spots?

A request for anyone out there: Where are the hotspots for WiFi downtown? I know of Hamburger Mary's, but where else can I go at night? I am will to pay, up to a point for it, so I don't need just the free-places. There are several around UC also and Panera Bread and a few fast food places have it too. Anyone else been to any and know of good places to go, with good food or beverages if applicable? I have a new laptop, in case you did not hear me say it 100,000 times over the last week, and I want to try out some remote location blogging.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

An official ticket to the Bush rally at GAP.

I am torn on what I should do. Should I go to the event or not? I want to test out the local GOP staffers who may or may not be on the ball enough to keep me out of the event.

I will try to have a Kerry sticker on as I go in, assuming I go, but not a big one or open to see.

My real plan is to try and talk with some of the protestors and see if that gets me banned from going in.

I got the ticket from a friend who did so fairly easily. He went down to the Cincy Bush HQ and they gave him four tickets. He had to say he was a Bush supporter, but I am sure he at least supports Bush on something remote so as to not make that a lie. He had to gave his name, but did not have to sign anything.

The Enquirer gave its typical puff piece on the event showing people torn between trick-or-treating or going to the Bush event. For the record, any Parents forcing their kid to see Bush instead of trick-or-treating is either a fundamentalist (and extremist) or is just plain cruel. That goes the same for the Dems who bring their kids to protest. I hope every kid there at least was able to have beggar's night tonight instead.

19th Century Enquirer Thinking

I guess the Enquirer Editorial Staff have a concept of time forieng to most living in this century as illustrated by their Groppe endorsements:

She has used technology to counter a rush of refinancing when interest rates fell, and has kept a close eye on her budget.

I guess the 2 months it takes to process a title is good by 1878 standards.

Blackwell Asks AG To Bar Challengers From Polls

In yet another surprise move Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has asked Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to ban all challengers from the polls on Tuesday. Blackwell lacks the authority to do so and short of a change in the law, I don't see what can prevent them, short of the Governor using some type of emergency power.

The lawsuit that caused problems with challengers took on a nasty reality when Democrats reported that 250 of the 251 precincts the local GOP registered challengers with were in predominatly Black areas.

Republicans also submitted a list of 251 other precincts where they may put challengers. Of those, county Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke said 250 are majority-black precincts.

I guess I will not see anyone in Cincinnati 1K. I am going to try and look up the possible precincts they could be targeting. It could just most of the City or it could pick out specific places to try and keep minority votes down.

Halt of GOP Pre-Emptive Challenges Upheld

To my surprise the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that the pre-emptive voter challenges can't go on before the election.

The real question about these challenges rests on how these people were identified as registrations to challenge. In the Akron area it appears that the reasons were at best sloppy and at worst partisan targeting.

CiN Weekly One Year Later

CiN Weekly is one year old and wants you know it. Well, what do people think of it after they have lived through 52 weeks of it?

I myself can say it a nice light publication and objectively speaking it serves its purpose. CityBeat is still better as publication, but CiN adds a CNN morning show style cultural feel, which is at least hipper than the Today Show. I hate to say it but there is a market for CiN. Think of CiN as Starbucks to CityBeat's Kaldi's.