It Appears Charlie Don't Surf

City Council member Charlie Winburn is NOT looking to Serf come the end of June. Instead he has a different type of Endless Summer planned.

I think he maybe should go for a swim in the Mill Creek, instead.

Enquirer Prints Ignorant Anti-NPR 'Your Voice' Column

Yes, this is another water is wet blog post, but the Cincinnati Enquirer again published a completely ignorant column.  This one is from someone named Pete Frank from Hamilton. Mr. Frank rambled on against PBS and NPR in something resembling a transcript from a talk radio caller.

It is obvious that Pete Frank hasn't actually listened to NPR or watched his local PBS station.  If he had he would know that his 'column' is about as ignorant as you can be when it comes to public media.  I am confused, therefore, why the Enquirer would publish this.

When you get someone using the phrases 'academic progressive elitist,' 'normal Americans,; and'socialist dribble,' mixed with a frothing at the mouth attack on all journalists, then I presume the Enquirer is actually laughing about this column. They find it comical.  It is so ignorant and filled with extremist talking points that it must be farce.  It makes little sense, but the vocabulary and grammar are no worse than mine, so Pete Frank is not unintelligent.  How else can you explain something to be so willfully ignorant and full of baseless and hollow points? I will not even get into him mentioning PBS, but ignoring it the rest of the 'column.'

There is no other logical reason to publish this for the Enquirer than to be playing some type of inside joke. It basically implies liberals are not "normal" at least not in America, so what gives?

While I know the Enquirer's editorial page is Republican, I don't think they are FOX News nutty. They at times can be full of shit as much as FOX News, but that comes with writing for Exurban audiences and the "Fourth Street" crowd. Are the Exurbanites around here as nutty as Pete Frank? Are local Business interests that closed minded?  Are there no more intellectual Republicans willing to actually speak up for fact and not hide behind their fear of public opinion within their voter/audience base? NPR and PBS are preserving American culture, almost without any help from the for-profit media world.

I'm being serious here. I know there are many leftists out there who see conspiracy from the Enquirer and local Republicans and want to lump them in with the growing insane Tea Party wing of the GOP, but historically that is not the type views they have held. I am sure the editorial staff of the Enquier listen to the NPR as much as I do. Hell, I would bet former Enquirer columnists Peter Bronson listens as well. Most of the Editorial Board would surely find fault with NPR as anyone can with any organization. Would any editor at the Enquirer be able to willingly pander to the Pete Franks of the world and be able to look upon themselves as Journalists when they wake the next day and look in the mirror?  I hope they aren't doing that, and I hope this column was published as more of a joke than anything else.  Something tells me that it wasn't.

Creation Muesum Founder Banned from Home Schooling Convention For 'Ungodly' Comments

The delusional mistaken founder of the Creation Muesum, Ken Ham, had been banned from a homeschool convention to take place in Cincinnati next week.

He was banned for making "ungodly and mean-spirited" comments about another speaker at the convention who believes the biblical story of the fall of Adam and Even can be viewed as an allegory. The speaker Ham spoke against is Peter Enns of the Biologos Foundation. Here's the description of the group from its website:

The BioLogos Foundation is a group of Christians, many of whom are professional scientists, biblical scholars, philosophers, theologians, pastors, and educators, who are concerned about the long history of disharmony between the findings of science and large sectors of the Christian faith

Ham is clearly an extremist, but it takes a special kind of extremist to attack people who are trying to promote harmony between groups who share sometimes conflicting views. That kind of extremism has lead to violence in the past. This convention was wise to ban Ken Ham.

Council Member Amy Murray Discovers Fire, Again.

I don't know what book of clichés Council Member Amy Murray dug this media stunt from, but man it is old. Having the story on WVXU is foolish for two reasons. First it is foolish the local NPR affiliate WVXU fell for this stunt. There are surely better news stories in Cincinnati. The second is that the average listener/reader of WVXU is going to trend more educated, and more likely to see this as a hollow stunt. The NPR audience would also be more concerned about how much more her plan would cost. She's a Republican and won't raise taxes, so how many jobs will she cut to make this happen? PayGo, Amy, Paygo. If she gets this story on local TV news, then Suburbanites will eat this up. Too bad they can't vote for her.

Kasich Cuts Cincinnati Funding, But Increases Exurban Columbus Funding

In case you wanted to believe the lie that Kasich was going to cut the streetcar because we can't afford it, then read the Cincinnati Business Courier article reporting Jon Kasich's TRAC representatives seek to increase the Transportation budget for his home town. From the article:

"Among the projects added is a $5 million improvement to an I-71 interchange in Delaware County and $2.7 million for an “east-west connector” in Pickaway County. Both projects are in the former Ohio Congressional district of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has been an outspoken opponent of Cincinnati's streetcar project."

Kasich's exurban home gets additional fund he can't justify, but Cincinnati does planning, does the research to prove the value of the Street, secures the federal funding, and we get screwed. How can people honestly buy this is not just political payback?

In case you wondered, Cincinnati area projects got 82% of the TRAC cuts, but I couldn't find an increase in funding in any urban area.

By the way, I'd like to hear local Republican officials defend Kasich on this. I could use a good laugh.

Finally, if the Enquirer's Barry Hortsman knew what journalism entails, he might have included the facts from the Business Courier Story. Instead, he got quotes from Winburn and Finney, the Gary Busey and Mel Gibson of Cincinnati Intellectual discourse. Hortsman is not showing signs of being a marginally passable reporter, but showing signs of practicing what ever FOX News does.

More from UrbanCincy.

Lippert Named to Replace Berding on Council and Begins With a Partisan Message

Wayne Lippert Jr. has been named to replace Jeff Berding on Cincinnati City Council. He's wasted no time in putting a partisan foot forward by toting the anti-streetcar (and anti-downtown) message of the Republican Party.  Pretending to be open minded about the Streetcar, but then saying the only way possible to financing the project is "inappropriate" confirms either he is against the project or he doesn't know the details. If there are other ways to finance public transportation (like roads or a streetcar) than through Federal and State grants along with city bonds, then I'll be looking for his financing plan. If he's not looking for another plan, especially now when part of the funding is in peril, then he is just AGAINST the project and is trying to fool the small number of Republican Urbanists into thinking he will act to help develop the urban core.

I hope Wayne is able to avoid caving into "special interests," as the article indicates, but talking about police and fire layoffs as only a last resort to fixing our budget issues is really hollow rhetoric and just spin.  Unless you are going to put police and fire layoffs on the table with equal footing to all other areas in the city budget, then you are caving into the dogma of the police and fire unions, and those are both special interests.  If Lippert falls in line with the rest of the Republicans on council and pushes to outsource as many city jobs to lower paying private vendors, then his hypocrisy will become clear.  The interests of business owners (as big of a special interest as you can get) who don't live or work here shouldn't be more important than the citizens of Cincinnati.

Also, I really question the logic of anyone who thinks the government should be run like a business.  If you know how businesses are run, you know why this is a horrible idea.  It is a common mistake, but makes for a great sound-bite for many suckers out there.

At this point Lippert is sounding like another Leslie Ghiz, he's just not pretending to be more moderate at the beginning and is starting off as a partisan Republican, getting it out of the way.  That's very disappointing.  I don't like partisan politics invading city politics.  I'm willing to listen to others who hold different political views than I do, and find common ground.  When you come out swinging with partisan talking points, then you are going to be viewed a partisan and against finding the Cincinnati community.  At this point the only people Wayne Lippert seems to reaching out to are suburban anti-city Republicans and the largly non-city resident police and fire unions. I dont' know who he plans on getting votes from, but he's not getting mine.

If Republicans Want to Help Voters, Then Include Auto Registratrion

Two local Republicans are pushing a bill to reduce the number of voters, yet claim this will prevent voter fraud. Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party and chair of the Hamilton County Board of Elections thinks by making it more difficult to vote, it protects the right to vote. His logic escapes me and anyone else looking to increase voter turnout.

If Republicans want to make assure their identity, but also are for more people voting, then there two things they can do:

1. Investigate the 14% voter fraud in Indian Hill (I am half kidding on this.)
2. If they require a state ID to vote, make it law that anyone with a valid State ID is then automatically registered to vote and you stay registered to vote as long as your ID is valid. Why would they be against this, unless they really don't want more people to vote?

I'm not expecting either because the point of requiring photo ID is to reduce poorer, inner city, and minority voters. In other words, Democratic voters. Denying that is like denying water is wet or that Germans love David Hasselhoff.