Wayne Lippert Is a REPUBLICAN, Don't Forget That

If you have seen Cincinnati Council member Wayne Lippert's political TV commercial (search for it on YouTube) then you can conclude many things about him, but the one that stands out to me is that he is a hardcore national REPUBLICAN. I put that in capital letters to draw extra attention to it. He's not a Cincinnati Republican running for City Council, he is a RNC inspired candidate pushing a National REPUBLICAN agenda. That is not good for the city.

His commercial could have been written by REPUBLICAN House Speaker John Boehner. It is like he knows nothing more about the City than a West Chesterite listening to 700WLW knows. If you use national political GOP talking points like "Job Killing" in your local TV Ad, then I dismiss your participation in City Politics as nothing more than a prelude to moving to the suburbs to run for the U.S. Congress. It is clear to me that Lippert is going through the motions before he runs for higher office, not actually working to unite and better the city. You don't say we are on the wrong track without telling us what we should be doing, but doing that doesn't get votes. Using rhetoric that preaches a contradiction, (refusing to cut police while not rasing taxes), is evidence that you are ALL about getting votes, not about having a plan to improve the city.

I don't know why he did not move to Anderson Township and plan for higher office from there? In the city he is doing nothing but pushing a national GOP agenda that is bent on the destruction of cities and the protection of the wealthy. Lippert is carrying that water so far without any variance.

County Cutting Police Protection, Not Attacked For Funding Sports

So, I find it funny, yet not surprising that when the County leadership is working to cut police coverage (Sheriff's patrols) in some suburban townships, we don't have a circus screaming about the impending increase in crime that would follow. That's what we get when anyone in the City dares state that we should cut our police force. We hear that most from the FOP, the police union. How many of those police officers live in the townships (outside of the city) that are affected by the possible cuts to the Sheriff's patrols?

Chris Monzel, current County Commissioner and former member of Cincinnati City Council, is part of the leadership looking to cut the police. Why is he not cutting funding for the Bengals Stadium? Why would we subsidize a professional sports team instead of funding police protection? Why can't he just do what people like him claim should happen in the City, which is tap restricted funds? COAST, members of Westwood Concern, and the FOP all tried to make various forms of this argument. Monzel played to that crowd and won the County race based in part on his pro-police antics. We don't hear the circus attacking him or fellow commissioner Greg Hartmann for doing the same thing the City administration wants and should do, cut the police force.

I really don't like hypocrisy, but I really hate it when the hypocrisy is enabled. The media enables it by giving a voice to the crazies, who are surprisingly (or not really surprisingly) silent on this.

Finney Takes In Big Money From Suing Governments

Once of COAST's main agitators, Chris Finney, regularly sues local governments. It is my opinion he does this to punish his political foes.  However, there's another reason he does it: money.  The Enquirer is reporting that Finney and another attorney have collected over $150,000 in legals fees after suing local governments over the last seven years.

If this was about civic duty, they wouldn't have collected a dime.

Now to point out the obvious: Why this matters?  COAST is against any 'additional spending.'  Their efforts have been targeted against selected government officials and organizations, not consistent and balanced against all municipalities and political parties.  What's funny is that Finney stated the following in the article:

"We want everybody to play by the rules," Finney said. "I want them to be fearful that if they do something like this, they'll be sued."

The funny part is that when he says 'everybody' I wonder if he means 'everybody I don't like' instead?  I'm wondering if Finney is putting the same scrutiny on Republican politicians.  Did he do the same type of check on the Anderson Township administration and board of trustees?  Did he do that on the County's two Republican Commissioners' staff?  I would bet no and no.

COAST Fundraiser Has Nearly Undetectable Turnout

For all of the swagger behind COAST's efforts to ruin the city of Cincinnati, one would think they could get a big crowd to show up for a Fundraiser to support Issue 48, which would ban all rail projects in the city for at least 10 years.

The Cincinnati Monocle had a blogger on the scene to cover the event and reports, with just a hint of being aghast, that the COAST fundraiser attracted no more than 25 people to the event, not counting the media.  Yes, they had one TV news crew there, along with local bloggers, so the level of coverage is slightly odd for the turnout, but it was FOX19, so....

The only thing not reported was how many donations were mailed in to COAST from the suburbs and exurbs and the Governor's Office.  People to busy to attended, but rich enough to help COAST destroy the city for kicks.

More Evidence COAST seeks to Hurt the City

In case you were wondering, as I know you do, there was more evidence reported by the Enquirer last week demonstrating the lengths that COAST's minions will go to hurt the city.  Left with lots of spare time, Chris Finney went fishing and caught Cincinnati City Council Member Laure Quinlivan's staff from accessing and updating a website from a city owned computer. The cost to the tax payers for this trivial infraction: $0.13. Yes, that would thirteen cents.

The cost to taxpayers for the investigation brought by Finney and COAST, "several thousand dollars." Yes, that is thousands of dollars.  The sense of proportion and sense of justice will go out the window when ever a COAST lawyer walks into a courtroom again.

Don Quixote would be proud, except that Don Quixote character was a man of honor and there is no honor in anything COAST does. They are bent on destruction of the city at all costs, and that costs us, the taxpayers, more in the process.

MidPoint Music Festival Day TWO!!!

Day One of MidPoint was a huge success! Yes, those who missed out still have two full days to hit great shows and really amazing events. If you have not been to the MidPoint Midway, then you are missing out on heart of the festival. The Box Truck events are a fun augmentation to the music, but there is still plenty of music there too.  Tonight my shows of choice include:

Toror y Moi at 9:30 at the SCPA Corbett Theater
Deerhoof at 11:45 PM at the Know Theatre
STRFKR at 12:30 at MOTR


According to Twitter the live.mpmf.com should be fixed, so Tweet on.

CincyPAC Endorsements Announced

CincYPAC has annoucned their 2011 Cincinnati City Council election endorsements. The list is:

Chris Bortz
Kevin Flynn
Nicholas Hollan
Catherine Mills
Roxanne Qualls
Jason Riveiro
Chris Seelbach
Yvette Simpson
P.G. Sittenfeld

The Republicans have only 1 candidate on that list, Catherine Mills, and her YP connections, I believe, were more the cause of her getting the support of enough people at CincYPAC than her positions on the group's issues.

It says much when no other Republican running has anything in common with the mainstream issues put forth by CincYPAC.  The Republicans in this Council race are nearly uniformly running an anti-city platform, which entails enacting policies that benefit people living outside the city more than inside.