Instapundit Referral?
Somehow I got a hit from an Instantpundit.com referral. I can't find my page listed in a post or the list of links on the 800-pound gorilla of Bloggers. A phantom link?

Americans need to know about Ramadan
I don't need to know anything about Ramadan, no more than I need to know anything about Advent, Yom Kippur, or Winter Solstice. There is no reason to say I must learn about any religion let alone another religion. I have no problem with the media wishing people a solemn Ramadan at this time, like they do for Christians, but for columnist to tell me that I should learn about just they want me to respect them is ludicrous. When a Muslim person or any other religion respects agnostics, atheists, freethinkers, and secular humanists, then I might care what they and their religion stands for.

New Cincinnati Based Blogs
Here are a few new blogs that I think are based from people in the Cincinnati Area. Once I have a chance to read them for a while, I might add them to my list of blogs.
DisOrganization
bHjp
Robbernard.com
KMCCARTY
Marcuga
Very Big Blog

McConnell turns his clout against some of his own
I am glad I don't live in Kentucky. This state is in the firm hand of the right-wingers for a long time to come. If you have any intelligence you would consider moving out of the state as soon as possible. Yes, I did just type that, so you can wipe the drool off your chin.

Online service targeted by IRS
I have no love for the Rich, but this smells of a fishing expedition. Why not just pull the phone records of everyone calling overseas to the Camen Islands and investigate everyone for tax evasion? Please note, that was a rhetorical question.

The Miami Student's Website is still not finished. Are they out of money? What gives? Why aren't the SAN classes making this a full yearlong project? We used to call The Student "The Stupid". I think they are earning the name most ceremonially now.

1979 casts shadow on Bruce's concert
With simple precautions, festival seating on the floor of the venue is safe. The panic and fear that lingers around local concerts is only perpetuated by Mother Cincinnati sheltering her little children. She allows no festival seating, no porn, no strippers, no controversial artwork, no beer at Riverfest, but she lets a Judge rule that people can carry around concealed weapons where ever they please.

Former officer sues Cincinnati
I wonder who his lawyer is. I think the city should not give him a payday for breaking the law. The PA's office should not have "pled" him down to no charges and just a "forced" retirement. If Mr. Taylor was innocent, why did he accept the deal to retire? Why did he not fight his charges? I would guess he wants money more than he wanted to be a police officer.

Judge orders Avondale charter school closed
It was only a matter of time for this to be mentioned:

Parents said the school was targeted because the school board and its students were predominantly African-American.

"If the school was all whites, they would not touch it," Ms. Spears said.

Is this the same "they" out to get Ken Blackwell?

Four teens charged in cross burning
The Enquirer shows with this article why it is the best news source in the region. The folks at FOX19 should be ashamed of themselves for the news "article" I posted about yesterday.

Four Arrested in Oxford Cross Burning
A three-sentence article. I know many of my blog posts can be smaller than that, but I would think a professional news outlet could muster up a few more facts on a story like this one. An indication of where these suspects are from? Their ages? What charges are they facing?

Council approves motion to remove monitor
What will the boycotter's reaction be? How will the election affect their momentum? Is this just an issue for Ken Lawson to handle, so the BUF and CJC will just lay low? They have been quite lately. Their website has not had any new press releases for over a month.

BBC NEWS: Press watches Bush waltz to victory
The BBC takes notice of election coverage here in the Queen City.

The victory is embellished with superlatives - headlines such as "Republicans waltz across Texas" in the Houston Chronicle and the Republican "elephant stampede" in Ohio, as the Cincinnati Post puts it.

But the Cincinnati Post also reflects the cynical views of some voters, with a cartoon showing a man reading the newspaper to his wife and saying "the mudslinger beat the muckraker".

The cartoon referenced:

The Godless Americans March on Washington made it on C-SPAN3 taped delayed. I wish they would have carried it live, and carried it on C-SPAN2 at least, but this is better than no coverage. Second class coverage is what we second-class citizens tend to get.

Election opens up judicial, clerk positions
I hope these appointments are up to the voters at the next election. Nepotism is not something that should go over in politics, but around this part of the state it is par for the course.

18-year-old arrested in West End slaying
Most of the murders in this city could be solved if more people, like the person in this case, called into Crime Stoppers and turned in the wanted criminals.

Shots fired outside bar
No one can say that Jim Tarbell does not take action. He not only lives in Over-the-Rhine, he is a City council man who does not just let thugs try and ruin a viable business and residential area. Kudos to Tarbell for calling 911. I would like to know if the kid arrested has job or has finished high school. Why not go home when the bar closes, get some sleep and either go to work or to school.

Mike McConnell Advocates Feudalism
Yesterday on Mike's 700WLW program he agreed with a representative from the Cato Institute in advocating a system of government where only property owners could vote when property taxes were the issue. He referred to the original system created in the USA, where only property owners were permitted to vote. I am sure Mike would predict this type of system would not get the votes to ever occur, but his anti-democratic (small d) ideas are what I find indicative of many conservatives and neolibertarians. Mike wants to limit the right to vote to the public, except those more likely to think like he does. This disgusts me and makes me a bit nervous. I was unnerved by his matter-of-fact conclusion to the validity of such a feudalist system of government. It was not something he saw remotely as undemocratic. To him it was fair. Property owners, gun owners, business owners, and the religious seem to get special rights under Mike's Feudalist system, while the individual who does not conform to his plutocracy gets the shaft.

E-mails between mayor and monitor
I am not sure what to make of this. It is more entertainment than informative. It does provide an overall frame of the relationship between Luken and Kalmanoff. I would share Lukens luke warm and later harsh actions towards Kalmanoff. Based solely on these emails, and other published accounts, it would appear that Kalmanoff put forth little effort to work within he city. He instead came at the city very nonchalantly, charging the city money to talk to the media. Kalmanoff did not even say much of anything of value to the media, so did the city pay him money to create his own positive PR? The selection of this man as monitor appears to have been a mistake, but who is to say anyone else would be better. This position is one prime for making a buck at taxpayer expense. I applaud Luken for growing a pair and standing up to what looks to be a dog and pony show hack, looking to monitor the city out of millions of dollars. Demanding a new monitor sounds like a reasonable action for the city to take. I am sure the chicken-littles and boycott bigots will call into the Buzz and claim Luken is a out to destroy the collaborative. I hope Chaz will ignore their knee-jerk race baiting rants and continue standing up to a monitor looking for PR and a payday.
UPDATE: The Post's Take.

Light-rail plan hits a wall of resistance
Well, I for one hope that I will not being living in this city in 20 years. The city will either be dead, or a parking lot.