05/05/05

I am surprised I have not seen much about this year's Cinco de Mayo historic date. May 5, 2005, 05/05/05 is surely gain attention from end of the world types. The Police and UC are prepare for the worst just off campus for what has been called Cinco de Stratford in prior years. Mini-riots akin to an Ohio State football victory riot have plagued prior year events. Will this bring out the hooligans? Yea, I don't see it being avoided, but I see police being out in force and ready to clear the streets at the first sign of anything.

If anything does happen, this will be an interesting test of Robert Wilson and Andrew Warner, two UC students running for city council. They walk a fine line on this and will have to make choices in how to reactive if anything happens and most importantly they should leap in front of the local TV news programs who will be out in force just in case something happens. Calling for calm does no good for the calm, but it can be free advertising if they news crews credit you as a candidate.

Mid-Day Mike in Iraq

I wonder if a military controlled Junket to Iraq by WLW's Mike McConnell will be what he says is good enough for him to judge the situation there? If he was unable to go off on his own, then how can he say they country is safe? If an average person has to take extreme actions in order to travel around the city of Baghdad or if foreigners are such danger that they can't leave the Green zone without a military escort, then how is the situation considered moving forward?

In the article most all of the comments attributed to Mike related to the troops, their quality of life and morale. He has not yet, to my knowledge, commented on state of Iraq, based on his visit. The issues he was quoted on are far different than the state of Iraq. I do have to wonder if Mike is naive enough to think the troops he met were not screened for his junket? The military is not going to show him the grunts just off the line. Also, the soldiers are smart enough to know that you don't rock the boat, especially with a bunch of conservative talk radio hosts who would likely happily point out any solider complaining to his superiors for being disloyal to Dear Leader and buying every last bit of propaganda the Pentagon can produce.

I can't listen to Mike during the week, and rarely catch him on the Weekends. If any listeners of his show can summarize his comments on his visit, please chime in. Mike in the past was willing to not just spout off GOP propaganda, unlike most other Talk Radio hosts, but when it comes to issues of War and the military he is one who is unwilling to question the President (generally any president) or the actions of the military. That is a head in the sand attitude that many on the right have, and often leads to a lack in oversight of the military.

Independent Streak

Michael Altman of Queen City Forum has published a column with what I will call his opinion, but which likely will become a fact that when the GOP endorse Charles Winburn for mayor, Leslie Ghiz will put her support behind David Pepper.

If this happens, which like Michael I believe it will, then Ghiz could get more votes than the winner of the mayoral race will. That might be a stretch, but Independent Republicans do well. She would sweep the affluent Eastern Neighborhoods. What I find most interesting is that this will do her a world of good, but I don't see it getting Pepper than many more votes in the General election. It will help him in the primary, where a Winburn would eat away some solid GOP votes. A GOP candidate's endorsement might keep some of those votes in Pepper's camp and make him an even bigger winner come primary day.

Off We Go into the Wild Blue Theocracy

I know people will attack me for posting on the report that the Air Force Academy has aggressive religious indoctrination taking place with alleged instigation and participation by some faculty. I am going to do it anyway of course. I really would like to know if people honestly find this kind of thing acceptable. If you don't, like say a Roman Catholic might under these alleged incidents, do you have any idea then how those of us who have no religion or have a religion that is not monotheistic might feel when government is used to promote any variety of monotheism? Yea, it is not a warm feeling to be an outsider for your beliefs or lack there of. If this is not a case for people to hopefully be respectful of others when make choices in government related activities and institutions, then I don't know what would be. The government does not and should not have a stance the Jesus character nor any other religious concept. Keep it in the private world, and certainly out of the military.

This is not the first time that allegation of aggressive religious indoctrination have been made against officers of the U.S. Military. Is there a problem that needs to be investigated?

Xavier Manipulating Donors?

Did Xavier manipulate donors when they held a pledge drive knowing they were close to deal to sell the radio station? I think they did and especially with the likelihood that WGUC will destroy much if not all of the local programming on WVXU, it is disgusting that an education institution would do something as unethical as that, which trying to instill ethics on young adults.

What was missing from the story was reaction from WGUC. They have been very quiet about this and all we hear is that they are seeking WVXU listener opinions on their website. Let them know your opinion and I advise you to pressure them to keep local programming on the air. Keep the old radio on the air. Keep the BBC on the air. Keep local news on the air. Don't just make it into NPR 24 hours a day network feed, that I am sure would be cheaper to operate, but would contribute to the destruction of the American Culture so many are crying about dying out.


Full Disclosure: Yes, that is a WCPO banner ad at the top of my front page. They are a paid sponsor. Does that mean I have sold out? I thought when I had the Google ads I might have done that already, so save your anti-commercial rant for someone without a bachelor's degree in Finance. Does this mean I was paid to place this post on their news story, most certainly NOT. The topic is one I cover regularly and as a WVXU listener I am very interested in. There, you can't call me Armstrong Williams now.

Wes Flinn, NKU Today, Filmore East Tomorrow

Pretty soon NKU professor and now Concert promoter (and blogger) Wes Flinn will be pulling in act like the Rolling Stones and Deep Purple. Just no Foghat, Wes, if you please.

CFS in Trouble

Bad times for the Cincinnati Film Society. The big question is who was the donor who failed to pay up? Why did they not pay up? Is the CFS's mission what it should be? I am not a member and have never seen any of the films they put out. Looking at the current schedule it looks as though maybe they went with too many foreign films. If they planned on an audience they should have maybe gone for the Film School items or other similar English based films. People really are against subtitles. Now, if in stead you mission was to promote film making, you could use the group to show local aspiring film makers, which they may or may not have done.

Getting out from under the over $125K debt will take an act of Hollywood.