Robot Republicans

It is sad yet true that so many Republican voters are mindless drones who are driven to vote by code words:

Winburn is using direct mail and recorded phone calls aimed at Republican voters in an effort to remind them that he is the endorsed Republican in the race. As a councilman, Pepper often did better in Republican wards than the endorsed Republican candidates.

Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Westwood, have been targeting Republican households in recorded messages that campaign operatives call "robocalls."

"Charlie Winburn was a strong conservative voice on City Council for eight years," Chabot says. "As a family man himself, Charlie believes in the family values important to Cincinnati Republicans. Charlie Winburn is the only endorsed Republican candidate for mayor."

I know that Dems can be swayed too, but Winburn is trying to ring a bell in hopes that his base will start salivating. The sad part is, as the last two elections show, it works with mindless drones out there who vote either by party line or the "family values" drivel.

New WVXU Website

91.7 WVXU's website has a new url (www.wvxu.org) and a really new look. The site is much better than the old site. The X-Star website was not very good and was in a really old format, never getting much of an update.

This site is dynamic and offers quite a bit. It could use more first hand local news, instead of WCPO syndication. They are set up for it, but have not produced much yet.

An Enqurier guest column remembers the old WVXU.

CEA's This Friday

Make sure you buy your tickets now for the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for Theater this Friday. Come out and support Local theater!

DeWine in Trouble?

Interesting speculation on next year's Race for the U.S. Senate. Mike DeWine should be worried both about Taft bringing down the GOP in Ohio as much as he should worry about the old conservative guard not forgetting his independence streak against killing the filibuster.

This Is How You Shill For Big Oil

I know sometimes that reporters use Press Releases as the basis for their articles, but since when editors allow columnists to just write a story based on a Oil Industry Lobbyists? If this was not so straight forward I would say someone was paid. Instead of it being a columnist, that someone may be Gannett, Inc.

Home Town News for Wes Flinn

Just weeks after he left town, Wes Flinn is already making the newspaper in North Adams, his new home. It is a great article.

More Bad Journalism

In the same article about the Reeces we get this side story:

"Suburbanites for Winburn

Suburban Republican leaders endorsed Charlie Winburn on Thursday for mayor of Cincinnati, calling him the only candidate who can make Cincinnati a safe place to live.

The supporters included Mayors Robert Bemmes of Reading, Rick Bryan of Blue Ash, David Collins of Deer Park, Richard Ellison of Elmwood Place, Jay Gohman of Terrace Park, Brad Greenberg of Loveland, Virgil Lovitt of Sharonville, Dan Policastro of Mariemont, James Rolfes of North Bend and Theodore Shannon of Fairfax.

Others included Township Trustees Cliff Bishop, Sycamore; Tom Bryan and Joseph Honerlaw, Springfield, Keith Corman, Colerain; Russ Jackson and Peggy Reis, Anderson; Jodie Leis, Kathy Wagner and Eric Minamyer, Symmes; and Chuck Mitchell and Tony Upton, Green.

Vice mayors include Joe Schickel, Loveland; Clara Pugh, Forest Park; and Joe Schickel, Loveland.

Clerks: Heather Harlow, Colerain Township, and Tom Straus, Green Township.

Council members include Jim Sumner and Henry Stacey, Blue Ash; Kerry Rabe, Sharonville; Mark Quarry, Silverton; and Mike Mestemaker, Cheviot."

Now, the nice editors created a totally misleading subheading saying "Suburbanites for Winburn" which misleads the reader. It should have read "Suburnban Republican Leaders for Winburn," but that ends up sounding like a "Water is Wet" headline. What also is bad here is that the rest of section just lists the leaders out. This is right from a press release, not original reporting at all. This is not even news. This is a free campaign commercial for Winburn. At least the Pepper section on this article had quotes from the campaign. They could have gotten something from Winburn to use. Hell, there should have been quotes in the press release that they could have used.

This goes to show that the GOP leaders in the rest of the country are either stupid or just loyal partisans. I hope it is the latter, but it could of course be both.