Lack of Ethics Starts With Smitherman

Why couldn't COAST pay for an ethics lesson for Chris Smitherman himself? That would do hopefully do the most good, as long as COAST is not conducting the ethics lesson, since they don't have any. This would be a great alternative to Smitherman's motion he submitted to council requiring training sessions for council members and their staff, something the City already does. Smitherman needs a lesson in ethics. Some of things he should learn:

• Don't threaten to have your non-city-employee lawyer sue the city because council didn't vote your way.
• Don't even consider frivolous lawsuits that are more about getting legal work for your anti-city lawyer than a valid legal issue.
• Don't go on the Radio and falsely claim a member city council works for the CIA.
• Don't claim that a reason to vote for a position on the waterworks ballot issue would be to prevent the government from lacing the water of black residents with drugs.
• Don't make up numbers about how much the Streetcar plan will cost.
• Don't lie to the public when you claim Streetcar funds could be used to avoid police or fire layoffs.

Those are just the start of the many thinks Smitherman could learn. They are mostly just common sense, but a bright examples of what not to do. I really hope Smitherman can learn from these examples.

Hat Tip to Quimbob

Differences in District 31 Statehouse Race Clearly Shown on Women's Rights

Bill Sloat of the Daily Bellwether has an interesting article that outlines the Differences among the candidates running for the Democratic nomination for the newly redrawn District 31 Ohio House seat.  Women's rights comes forward as the most striking difference where only one candidate, Luke Brockmeier, is in sync with the district's overwhelming belief in protecting a woman's right to choose. Sloat describes at length the record of Denise Driehaus and exposes her support for a GOP sponsored anti-abortion bill.  Tranter, the third candidate, was endorsed by Ohio Right to Life, something previously held by Denise Driehaus when she ran on the west side of town.  The new 31st District is not a Westside haven for Conservative Dems. The issue of choice matters in progressive neighborhoods. I'm guessing Driehaus and Tranter don't know much about the district or just hope no one notices their anti-women's rights beliefs.

Monzel's Failures Exposed

Quimbob at Blogging Isn't Cool brings up the campaign Mantra of Hamilton County Commissioner Chris Monzel and points out that Monzel failed to balance the county's budget through "efficiencies." Yeah, Monzel actually claimed he could do that.  The Suburban Republican Monzel has not appeared to learn much while in office, other than how to screw over tax-payers.

Tranter Loses Challenge to Driehaus Residency Move

The Hamilton County Board of a elections has rejected the challenge to the residency of Denise Driehaus who moved into the new district 31 district after leaving her old district after the Republican made her old area more difficult for her to win.  Tranter, another candidate was challenging her residentcy via proxy because, as this quote from Tranter in the article from WVXU puts it

"It was perfect for me to run in. She decided to move over into it even though she has no familiarity with the district or it's constituents."

Yes, Tranter has a political point to make. Driehaus is not from this district. She's lived on the Westside her entire life and fits in with the Westside Conservatives, not this progressive district. That is a reason not to vote for her. It is not grounds for a  legal case. The challenges Tranter made via his neighbor were frivolous and a waste of tax payer's money.

The even bigger waste was in the challenge to the ballot signatures for Driehaus and candidate Luke Brockmeier. 50 signatures is the low requirement and both candidates had more than enough valid signatures.  There was no evidence of any problem and other than getting some media attention, served no purpose.  Tranter is making a huge mistake. He should not focus on being bitter that he has to face off against two other candidates. He should face the fact that along with Denise Driehaus, he's not living in a conservative Democratic district. He's living in a really progressive House district. He might want to ponder how to climb that Mt. Everest before playing political games.

Anti-Tax Extremists Take Tax Payer's Money

COAST lawyer Chris Finney has successfully shaken-down the City of Cincinnati on an invented scheme that gave his law firm $10,000 of tax payer's money.  Yes, let's get this straight.  A self-professed anti-tax group sued the city on a non-issue worth a few dollars and managed to get paid $10,000 to do it by the City.

Yes, to repeat, again: an anti-tax group staged a frivolous lawsuit over a few dollars and then collected 10,000 dollars worth of tax payer money.  The anti-tax group who claims to want to reduce spending, maneuvered the City into paying it's lawyers $10,000 of money they don't want the City to Spend.  The anti-tax group forced the City to waste tax payer's money.

Is it just me or is the level of insanity and hypocrisy emanating from the area around Chris Finney's fat head causing earthquakes in Youngstown?

COAST has one goal: Destroy the city.  They are not yet forming an army or planting bombs, but their goal is clearly the destruction of the city.  If they think that what they do is anything else, then they are even more delusional than they appear.

Some Old Wussy In the New Year

Is COAST Bleeding Quadrophenic?

CityBeat's Kevin Osborne has an interesting blog post detailing the many varied stances of COAST since they got beat in the November election. I agree with Kevin's general assertion. It sounds like either a single member of COAST has a hardcore split personality disorder, or there is conflict in the ranks.

A silver star goes to anyone who got the reference in the title.