Charter Party to field three for Council
In total that makes 19 candidates from the GOP, Dems, and Charter. I would guess there will be a slew of independents, maybe as many as 10 or 12 more. Whether or not the Greens or Libertarians endorse anyone is yet to be seen.

MEDIA NEGLECT?
Joshua Micah Marshall comments on the most recent terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia and wonders why their are so few western reporters are in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. I wonder why as well. This story is huge and killed at least 10 Americans, but the Media had no pictures to run last night so the coverage was lacking. It appears they had few print reporters there as well, so no information came in, beyond a few phone calls with witnesses. I guess since the U.S. Military is leaving the country, the Press is as well. The other reason for few reporters is the oppressive Saudi government, which limits the access of the news media to the country and limits its movement in the country.

Heimlich blasts police reforms, judges
I always thought that Bronson was the FOP's "Bitch," but move over Pete, there's a new FOP "Bitch" in town, and his name is Phil. Well, Phil Heimlich has been the FOP's stooge for a while, but this solidifies is role as the #1 shill.

BRONSON: Pure Country
If you have never been able to see why conservatives tend to have little understanding of art or music, please let this column be your eye opener. When Bronson says:

I should have known you can't find the meaning of life in rock 'n' roll. For that, you need Country. It's America's music.

you have to wonder if he has ever listened to a little thing called JAZZ! Jazz is America's music. Country music is pure crap. It has few artists that produce anything beyond a shallow cookie cutter song with a twang and a tear. It has the depth of fly paper, and the value of dirt. Now, there are a few "Country stars" that have produced a few good songs over the years, but modern country, like the example of George Strait, is drivel. Peter seems to be ignorant of the music he praises. He needs to listen to blue grass, or Western music, or older country. Old Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline are good. The bland Randy Travis is as fake as anything Hollywood produces. Peter is just searching for a way to praise his new "god" Dubya. The Cowboy he wishes to praise is a myth. I am glad however that Peter did not reference Donny & Marie Osmond.

The Tripods Trilogy
Steve Novotni over at XRAY brings up a book series that reminds him of the War of the Worlds. The 1950's movie version of the War of the Worlds was on TV this weekend, an all time Sci-fi classic. I have never heard of the Tripods, but the premise does sound like a Wellsian type story.

Art museum's new wing tells about 'Queen of the West'
The Louisville Courier-Journal takes note of the Cincinnati Art Museum's new exhibit about Cincinnati area art.

Loner's rage burned after ruin of Web site
It appears the Case Western Shooter was a bona fide nut case. He is 62 year old Biswanath Halder's, originally from India, who lived for his website. The Volokh Conspiracy has a post of some extraneous information on the incident dug up by one of his readers. I am not sure what to make of the information. It reeks of tabloid fodder.

UPDATE: Volokh has more here and here. Both posts are warblogging at their best or worst, depending on your views.

Is this the face of Christianity today? Jim Boulet at NRO linked to this story at a Christian-Right website. The comments that made me take notice are:

This domestic war has been simmering for decades, but fighting has intensified since 9/11 and more recently the Iraqi war. It is the struggle for the soul of America, which is being carried out by two diametrically opposed armies. One is made up of traditional Americans with Judeo-Christian beliefs, who contend as President Bush does that America is a force for good in the world, which is ruled by God.

The other army is made up of the secular left, who don’t like words like “cowboy,” “evil” or “war.” They worship at the altar of the United Nations. Ironically, one of the strongest regiments in this godless army is America’s mainstream Protestant leaders. But they are mainstream Christians in name only for they gird themselves for battle with the breastplate of left-wing ideology.

This is a Hollywood guy to boot! How can any person who is not a theocratic fascist really believe this simplistic contention? Last I checked there were plenty of mainline Christian Churches. They generally do not get very political, at least when I went to one as a kid. Mr. Berg's comments are classic examples of "Themism," where he paints "them" as non-fundamentalist Protestant Christians. I think Mr. Berg also seems to not know much about religious demographics. He states: "Leading the charge for the Protestant fringe left are the leaders of the United Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Evangelical Lutherans, but especially the Methodists." Ok, those four Protestant sects have populations as follows

United Methodists	8,340,954
Presbyterians	3,485,332
Episcopalians	2,300,461
Evangelical Lutherans	5,125,919
Total	19,252,666

When the leaders of over 19 million people take a stand, is Mr. Berg somehow suggesting they are "bad Christians," and are "leftist" anti-Christs trying to destroy their respective sects? What is Jay Leno feeding this guy? Is Mr. Berg familiar with the quasi-pacifist interpretation of Christianity that is very common in mainstream sects? Turn the other cheek was something he missed in Sunday school? If this kind of thinking is common among most fundamentalist Christians, then I honestly think there will someday be a religious war in this country. If people seriously want a theocracy, then there will be problems. I hope Mr. Berg is on the Fringe of Right Wing Christians, but I am starting to have more and more doubts. On the surface today it appears that the only people who are involved in religious churches or groups are the most fervent and/or fundamentalist incarnations. This movement has a parallel in the Roman Catholic Church, were "Orthodox Catholic" is becoming a term that I think will be its own sect at some point, unless a Reformed Catholic Church breaks away.

Bottom line: Religion and politics don't mix well, but it if one sect or party is going to mix the two, then opposing parties have the right and often the duty to mix them as well. We live in a secular state, but with people like this, I fear that more conflict is ahead on this front. I feel like Chicken Little or the boy who cried wolf, but I fear the polarization of ideas, opinion, and ideologies that has plagued American Society today has now found its way to religion. Zeus help us all.

Hamilton soldier shot dead in Iraq
Tragic and sad. He is the fourth Ohio military person to die in the Iraq War.

Pathologist's conviction reversed
Some sense from the Courts. I hope the civil suit pending against the County Morgue is able to take on the senior management, and not pick on Tobias, who appears to have bee the scapegoat Mike Allen chose to make his political hay. I would not be surprised to see Allen sued as well. His office could have purposely chosen to prosecute Tobias instead of Mike's fellow Republican Carl L. Parrott Jr., the County Coroner and Tobias's former boss. It is not like Parrott has a clean record as Coroner either. The pending civil lawsuit against Parrott and company for allegedly allowing Condon to photograph cadavers will have to suffice, bringing justice and closure to this bizarre incident.

Fire captain accused in abduction
Is this guy nuts? Did he crack? Or is he just smart enough to hide his criminal side from the affluent neighborhoods he served? I hope police in every town this guy has ever been in take a look at any similar crimes and determine if this guy could have been the perpetrator.

Suspect Caught in Cleveland Univ. Killing
Only one person was killed, not two as was reported last night.

Why Two Newspapers are Better than One
If you were wondering how the first night of Jammin' on Main went last night you might get a different impression on how it went, depending on which newspaper you read. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that

"Pepsi's Jammin' on Main festival got off to a slow start when the gates opened at 7 p.m. Friday, and did not improve a great deal after night fell."

The Cincinnati Post reported a slightly different take:

"It was a late-arriving crowd, perhaps scared off by the threat of rain, but by 11 p.m. thousands packed the area around the courthouse. Still, attendance was likely down slightly from last year's first night crowd of 20,000."

Both papers agreed however that the one missing element was the boycotters. I guess the main boycotters don't care, and the militant boycotters don't seem to function unless their leader is available.

Here is the review of the first night in the Enquirer.

Univ. Shooting in Cleveland Wounds Two
Information is still sketchy, but the University is Case Western Reserve. Surprisingly this story is not on any of the national cable channels, but kudos goes to ONN for providing live coverage of a local Cleveland station's broadcast.

UPDATE: Two people are confirmed dead. More are wounded, but numbers are not known.

FOX News, among others, has begun the drumbeat for Bush's re-election [sic]. I expect to hear the words inevitable, certain, and anticipated out of pundits' mouths regularly for the next 18 months. The more they say it, I guess the more they think everyone will accept it. The opinion makers could not be more negative on the Democrat's chances. If is as if they want Bush to win. Impossible you say? The so-called "liberal" media could never support Bush? Well, a dirty little secret out in the media world is that conservatives have a large advantage in numbers with editorials pages, columnists, commentators, and pundits. These opinion makers are by definition biased, and they are already letting it show. The presumption has set in, the Democrats can't do anything to win. Bush can't be beat, so they say. I hope people remember what they hear, over and over again this political season. I hope the myth of a "liberal" media bias dies along with political discourse.

Black vote called key for issue win
According to Howard Wilkinson, it would appear the increase in voter turnout was due to a huge increase in blacks voting. In most predominately black neighborhoods, voter turnout exceeded the overall county rate. Targeted campaigning seems to have been effective. This headline is much better than yesterday's spin of: "CPS can thank a small turnout." So the CPS can instead thank black voters.

Iraqi Blogger Resurfaces, Says War 'Sucks'
With this headline, how much longer will it be before "Blog", "Blogger", and "blogging" makes the dictionary?

Activist files suit to halt concert
Well, the "activist" in question is of course everyone's favorite, Nate Livingston. This issue has been raised by many Conservative groups as unconstitutional, so I wonder if they will be happy that a black separatist group is on their side. Strange bedfellows indeed.

Committee system not getting the job done for City Council
It appears that one city council person is still a little green:

Tuesday, Councilwoman Laketa Cole showed up more than an hour late to a Neighborhood and Public Works Committee meeting to ask Police Chief Tom Streicher the same questions about the Sunday morning riots on Stratford Avenue he'd already been asked by other council members.

Hopefully Councilwoman Cole will be on time next week.

Condon's plan no surprise, tape says
Was this tape used at the Condon trial or was it made after the fact? It seems that if it was not used at the trial, and was known to exist by respective concil it might have been enough for reasonable doubt. On the other hand, the torch and pitch fork crowd was out for a hide to sink their teeth into.

UPDATE: Greg Flannery of City Beat wonders about Mike Allen's Letter to the county Coroner's office. Does it also indicate that Condon's actions were legal?