John Boehner Has a Choice: Be a Leader Or Let America Crash Into Ruin

Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner has a clear choice. He can be a leader and make a deal with the President or he can follow the insane politics of the backbenchers in his party. These puritanical naive Republican newbies who have created an economic theology worthy of a jihadist supply sider's worst peyote vision quest are knowingly trying to drive the Country off the cliff in hopes of waking us up into their mythical world. This is the world that pretends that the economic system of the pre-industrial south can work without the enslavement of the worker. Feudalism doesn't work without a population of mostly serfs. I don't know why there are so many Repbulcians who don't grasp that reality. They further don't grasp that with Capitalism there will always be poor people. Capitalism is not a positive sum game, where everyone wins. There are winners and there are losers. You could argue that everyone 'could' win, but based on the game, not everyone can.  Therefore as long as we have Capitalism, we will have poor people, the losers of the game. We as a society have to take care of everyone, not just the winners.  The game Republicans are playing is to take care of the winners in hopes of insuring their own status as a winner, while ignoring the majority of America who don't have the means to survive more losses.

Another thing that Cincinnati born John Boehner should do: laugh off Mitch McConnell's punting on 1st down idea.

Lest We Forget: Mike Allen's Past Scandal

It is very possible some people reading about Mike Allen considering running for Cincinnati City Council do not know how big of a scandal it was when he did not run again as Hamilton County Prosecutor. The Enquirer's Howard Wilkinson does do a pretty good job of recapping the torrid past, but nothing can really instill the level of disgust that everyone felt when the Republican Allen was sued for Sexual Harrassment after a multiple year extra-martial affair took place with one of his assistant prosecuting attorneys. The one issue I would point out to readers: he didn't resign from office, instead he did not seek re-election, but served our his term. That is something Wilkinson got wrong in the article.

Here is a little history from my blog and others so people can get a little sense of history and why Allen has no business running for public office:
Allen - Collins Settlement
From Nate Livingston
Enquirer 2004 Top 10 Local News Stories: Mike Allen Scandal was #1 beating out Bush's Win
Mike Allen, Esq.
Both Allen and Collins Want Tax Money
So Much For a Settlement
Local GOP Is Chicken
Collins-Allen Imbroglio
Mum's the Word From Bronson
Lisa Allen: Victim and Pawn?
Mike Allen's Political Career Is Over (Yes, I hope the title doesn't end up being ironic.)

From a pure political sense, this would be harsh news for Republicans. Allen would take votes from all of the GOP candidates and drive votes away from the GOP in general, even though he's not going to get a Republican endorsement. The local GOP made it clear with the quotes in the Wilkinson article that Mike Allen would not be getting an endorsement, both for being too late and for his past problems. Hopefully, the lack of GOP support will keep Allen from running. While I think that Allen running might help some Dems, it will suck the attention from the political landscape into a scandal ridden race that we don't need. That might drive up hits for my blog, but it will not drive up voter turnout.

NPR's On The Media Revisits Chiquita-Enquirer Scandal

NPR's program On the Media devoted a very in-depth segment of the radio program yesterday on the Cincinnati Enquirer-Chiquita voice-mail hacking scandal form the late 1990's.  This was another follow-up piece from the fallout from the News of the Wolrd phone hacking problem in England, which resulted in the most read weekly newspaper in Britain ceasing operations for good.  Yes, a profitable newspaper was shut down in England.

Well, back to the Enquirer historical comparison.The most interesting part of the whole scandal and why it was so sad where two facts:

• The Enquirer denounced and apologized the original story published. 
• The story was damning against Chiquita. The story was a solid story, but due to the need to settle the case, the Enquirer had to run away from the series of articles, getting Chiquita off the hook, actually spinning the company as the victim of the situation.

It goes to show how much the public doesn't bother to pay attention to the facts, just the spin. Marketing works to well. It is a sad reality of humanity. We are suckers for spin.

Why Can't an Opening Day Holiday Just Be a Council Ordinance?

Three is a big effort happening this weekend to make Red's Opening Day into an offical city holiday. My question is why would this take a ballot issue to happen? Is there something in the city charter limiting the number or reasons for a city wide holiday?

If not, I would guess there would be enough votes on Council to pass an ordinance making this official. The only hindrance to full council support might be the existence of ramifications of holidays to union contracts or city requirements, which is where a charter amendment might be necessary to limit the scope of the holiday, making it revenue neutral.

UPDATE: After reading the proposed ballot language, it sounds like it wouldn't take much for City Council to do, it has no teeth and is just "ceremonial." I don't see the need to put this on the ballot.

Countdown for 2012 Wold Choir Games Begins July 11th

The countdown clock will officially start for the 2012 World Choir Games at a Fountain Square event on Monday, July 11th. Cincinnati area native Drew Lachey will MC the 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM event.  Entertainment includes gospel recording artist Byron Cage, The Eleventh Hour Choir from Kettering, finalists in the NBC show “The Sing Off,” and singer and songwriter Kelly King.

There will be an actual clock, housed at Fountain Square that will provide a countdown to the event. I don't think everyone in Cincinnati understands how big of an event this is going to be. Organizers expect 20,000 participants and 200,000 spectators to attend over eleven days (July 4-14, 2012). Most of the spectators will be from out of town, including over 70 countries. That will mean a big boom to business. Hotel rooms will be hard to find. Restaurants will be busy. People from around the world will be enjoying our city.  We will have a chance to show off what an amazing place Cincinnati, OH is and has been for a long time.

The people of Cincinnati need to support this event.

Summer Assignments for Murray and Winburn

To no one's surprise, council members Amy Murray and Charlie Winburn are complaining about council's summer recess schedule, while facing a $33 million budget deficit. If Murray and Winburn think council should use that time to work on a detailed plan of revenue increase or service cuts needed to balance the budget, then they are free to do so on their own. No one is going to stop them from getting a copy of the budget drafted by the City Manager and then running the numbers so the $33 Million can be reduced to zero. They will be paid the same, no matter if council is in session or not.

So, whether council stays in session, or not, Murray and Winburn I believe have volunteered themselves to produce a written document that provides a full solution on how to balance the budget. Nothing would then stop them from publishing the details that get them to a zero deficit?

Nothing would stop them.

They have plenty of time to get it done. They both most remember that getting the deficit to zero means that the cuts or revenues they list out are real, not relying on delinquencies to pay up money owed.

I'll be waiting for a document....

That should take maybe a couple of days, and that is being generous. The rest of the time they could spend doing the audits they want to pay someone else to do. Instead of paying $150,000 to the State, Winburn and Murray could each do one and they could get another one of the Conservatives will to spend $150,000 on three audits. That $150,000 is money that could instead go to pay the salaries of at least two entry level police officers (plus benefits).

So, two more police officers, or the Conservatives do some work this summer, what will it be?

If I were Murray or Winburn, I wouldn't ask Council member Leslie Ghiz for help. Doing the work of the City, isn't her job, so other than pontificating and grandstanding, I don't expect her to do much this summer for Council.

Adweek Remembers Enquirer-Chiquita V-Mail Scandal

In light of the News Corp scandal brewing in Britian where reporters allegedy hacked into crime victim's voice-mail accounts, an Adweek reporter took a quick look back to the 'similar' Cincinnati Enquirer Scandal back in 1998 when an Enquirer Reporter allegedly hacked into a Chiquita employee's voice-mail for story.