Official Council Results

Greg Korte has the offical results from the City Council race and the same 9 are getting, but the order of finish greatly changes. It Laketa Cole moved up to third, which puts her closer to where people thought she would finish. What this points out is that the election was much more even than noticed. Only a couple hundred votes separated 3-4-5, but the perception of who won changes a bit. Cole did well. She finished strong and gained votes when Bond Hill came in, the same way Mark Mallory did.

The Lies of Rep. Jean Schmidt

Here is her latest statement (and almost an apology, but not very good in my opnion). Let's start with her first lie in the statement:

Last week as I returned to the Capitol Building after attending a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for a local fallen Marine, I found out that the Democrats had just announced their policy position to immediately withdraw troops from Iraq.

The Democrats did not put forth a proposal to "immediately" withdraw troops from Iraq. That is the lie being told consistently by the GOP and the media, but is false. See Murtha's resolution here. Additionally, you know it is a lie because of the simple fact that the GOP created a new resolution. They created a one sentence resolution which put in and created the "immediate" phrase. It was a stunt, but if Murtha had proposed an immediate withdrawal, why not VOTE ON HIS RESOLUTION? Instead the GOP created their own myth of what he was supposed to have proposed with their new resolution. That is a crafty way of playing politics, but it is a misleading and dishonest way.

Next:

Since that moment I have been attacked from across the country by the left.

This is not a lie, just a half truth. The Cincinnati Enquirer's editorial page, a conservative group who endorsed Schmidt, hits her fairly hard in today's paper. She is also being attacked by liberals right here in her own district. (Yea, I mean me)

Next:

I never meant to attack Congressman Murtha personally.

This is the second time she has claimed this and it will continue to hold no water no matter how many times she repeats it. There is no way she could have said what she said without full knowledge that what she was saying was a personal attack. Calling a man a coward is about as personal of an attack as one can get without bring up the footwear of his mother, or by using a few four letter words.

The final lie might be the most telling. It appears that Danny Bubp is cutting Schmidt adrift. He is denying ever saying anything about Murtra:

"There was no discussion of him personally being a coward or about any person being a coward," Bubp said. "My message to the folks in Washington, D.C., and to all the Congress people up there, is to stay the course. We cannot leave Iraq or cut and run - any terminology that you want to use."

Talk about cutting and running. If she has to make stuff up just to get in the Â?cut and runÂ? line into her speech, then she really needs to just stop talking. If you canÂ?t speak truth, then donÂ?t speak at all.

I think this removes any chance she has of betting a ham sandwich in the GOP primary. I think I could run as a Republican a defeat her, and boy that is a scary thought.

Havana Martini Club Moving

No, its not moving out of downtown. Instead they are moving to Tower Place Mall. Yea, this does seem kind of weird to me. I liked the club. It had pricey Martinis, and I am a beer drinker, but it provided an interesting offset to the Backstage area around the Aronoff and CAC. The location they are going to is right on 5th Street across from Macy's. This fits well with the Fountain Square Plan. It does not work for business around 6th street, which has now lost the Masionette, La Normandie, and Skyline recently. Shifting business around downtown is an expensive game of musical chairs, but in the long run is what will have to happen for the Fountain Square Plan to work.

I would like the lower Main Street area to bloom, which comes close to the 6th Street area. That could be a great residential/retail area, with small business thriving on what could be a huge downtown populace.

"I'll Get You My Pretty"

Great cartoon on Schmidt and the GOP from Jeff Danziger. It's several days old, but still good.

Catholic Services Discrimination?

On the surface the Catholic Social Services of Northern Kentucky could be discriminating in against homosexuals. Yes, I am sure that is a shock to everyone. A Christian Church invoking bigoted policies? You don't say!

Well, there is more at stake. In the cases of birth control and abortions, the Catholic services has a default out. They don't perform those services
for anyone, so no clear way to invoke discrimination. If Catholic services does offer couples counseling to non-married people, then that is discrimination to not to so for homosexuals.

If they only offer counseling to "married" couples, then they may have legal cover. It is bigoted discrimination, but it may not be illegal.

The humorous part is that the Agency director Bill Jones thinks that the requests for counseling did not come from actual gay or lesbian people, but instead from those trying to "test" the agency:

"I think there are some other people who will be really distressed that we are serving anyone who is gay or lesbian," Jones said.

He suspects the four phone calls that prompted the formal policy review this spring were from people "trying to catch us," violating church teaching, Jones said. "In the past people have called to ask where to get an abortion and to ask us to buy birth control pills. ...

"We feel some of those were test calls, to see what we would say."

That sounds like the prudes don't trust the "liberals" who well are feeding gay homeless people. I guess they are supposed to die in the streets like the heathens they are. WTF.

Schmidt Roundup

Westender has a great round up on all things Jeannie-cakes over at Clark Street Blog.

They're in College

I have to wonder how embarrassed this kid is after his parents are pissed that their goody-goody son saw people having sex on a video in a class IN COLLEGE.

It's college! They are adults! Let them grow up and stop babying them! Also, just so we are clear: THIS IS FUCKING COLLEGE. The woman complaining, Mary Lenke, went to the length of withholding her son's name. Lucky for him. Not because it will affect his grade, because it will save him the trouble, for now, of facing the horror of public embarrassment from his classmates. Where will the idiotic prudes end their crusade against porn? Is this woman connected with Phil Burress?