Big Time Blogger in Town

Kevin Drum of Calpundit fame, one of the best bloggers in the land, will be visiting our fair city of Cincinnati. Kevin is here on business, that is, non-blogging business. If you happen to run into him while he is here, please be kind. Also, Yesterday was his birthday, so wish him well.

Mocking Springer

It seems that some liberals outside of Ohio are none to happy to see Springer think about running for Ohio Governor. I don't think he will, but why exactly is he bad? Ok, I don't mean his political positions, so you conservatives don't bother bringing up that. If "Arnold" can get a pass on his past from all of the conservatives, and in fact when a "liberal" newspaper brings out the story, conservatives start attacking it. If a man who likes to get freaky with women on movie sets is ok, why isn't a man who puts freaks on TV ok?

TheHegmo's Council Analysis

Sarah at theHegmo has listed the candidates she likes, is leaning towards, and is considering in the Cincinnati Council Race. I will not be listing my choices. I will list my analysis as the race gets closer, but I guess I want to try and be semi-objective, as objective as a part-time amateur journalist can be.

Schadenfreude

Barney F. McClelland comments on Rush Limbaugh, Rush's comments from the past, and getting to use the word Schadenfreude.

Pols and the Bikers Who Love Them, Part II

The Akron Beacon-Journal is reporting that Jerry Springer might consider a 2006 Governor's run in Ohio. This passage in the article is key to understanding the direction of Springer's comments is:

Springer said Thursday at the University of Akron that if he decides to run for governor, he will quit doing the Chicago-based syndicated show, which he called the "silliest show ever."

Jerry needs to quite his show now or at least after this season. Reports were this summer that he signed a 2 year contract. He can't go beyond that. He must quite the show and start campaigning, and try and regain some level of credibility. He could try and get WLWT News broadcasting gig again. They seem to attract politicians, or hopeful ones at least. The Democrats have no one on a state level to challenge the GOP at this point. What will be more interesting is how much of a battle will the GOP nomination be? If there is a blood primary fight, the Dems might have a chance.

Long Live the Curse

The Yankee's Win!!

Speaking of Tall Stacks

I went last night as part of Cincinnati Tomorrow's "After-5 Walks" and I really had a good time. I was very impressed with the event. The food was good, beer was ok, the boats were cool, and the crowd was huge. We saw Changeling, a Celtic duo, and Ricky Skaggs. I am not a huge blue grass fan, but I do enjoy the music and I really enjoyed Skaggs. Changeling was excellent. A husband and wife team using a fiddle and guitar sound bigger than their number. They managed to mix in the "Smoke on the Water" riff from Deep Purple in their final song. It sounds weird to mix with Celtic music, but worked nicely.

I will likely head back down this weekend and check it out in the daylight. For full coverage of Tall Stacks in the media, the Enquirer has the full load.

German Ambassador Visits Cincinnati

The German Ambassador was in town and WLW, Peter Bronson, and Steve Chabot did not organize a boycott, or at least a protest of the event? No Freedom Potato salad?

The Ambassador went to Tall Stacks, so I guess the international sanctions declared by both the boycott A and boycott B were ignored by one of the target European governments. I guess they will say they don't care, because he is German, you know, the boycotter’s code word for "Nazi." "White Man" is the boycotter's code word for "racist" in case you wondered.

A 14 Year Old Girl?

A 14 year old girl is causing people trouble? Is this girl somehow "Supergirl" with the strength of 10 men? I don't see how any average adult could not detain this girl until police arrive. What is the challenge? I also have to ask, are "hate crime" charges being considered?

People along the Short Vine strip complained for months about unprovoked assaults by teenagers, often followed by racial slurs , that business owners say make people afraid to come here.

I assume she is black, if not, 1230 the Buzz will be ringing with cries for someone's head.

Red Dust

Have we been invaded by Martians? This story is either really serious, with nut or terrorist doing something bad, or a teenage kid is pulling some weird prank.

Anderson Township Moron

I have to ask a question to this Anderson Township Letter to the Editor writer:

Kerry not fit to be president

As I picked up the Oct. 13 edition of The Cincinnati Enquirer, I read the cover page with interest. Then I turned to page A2, "First Stop" and that's exactly what I did.

But the "First Stop" was the last stop for what stared me in the eye: a picture of a wannabe, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., known as the "unknown soldier." The headline, "Unknown soldier' now makes his voice heard" was right. I just had to respond.

I put this "unknown soldier" in the same category with Hanoi Jane Fonda, and find them both useless.

I hope Kerry crawls back in his box and takes it back to Massachusetts, where he belongs. No way could I cast my vote to support for president. Kerry is a legend in his own mind.

Earl D. Corell, Anderson Township

Mr. Corell, did you serve in Vietnam? If you did, then did you see any fighting?

Guess what Mr. Corell, Senator John Kerry served on the Mekong delta in a small gun boat fighting the VC. He earned a Bronze Star, a Silver Star, and three Purple Heart medals. How Many medals have you won?

Where was George Bush? Oh, right, he was protecting the skies from a Mexican invasion. I am not big on military records and they don't change my vote, but when ignornat morons like this letter writer, and the idiots who put the letter in the paper, must be corrected.

I am guessing Mr. Corell is the same man referenced in this Enquirer Article from 1999. Does Mr. Corell think Iraq is another Vietnam? He sure thought Kosovo might be

“They say we have another Vietnam in Kosovo,” Vietnam vet Earl Corell told the 47 people and one dog gathered for the ceremony. “I sure hope the hell not.”

A Hamilton County sheriff's deputy, Earl Corell went to war in Vietnam in 1970. Ten years later, he came up with the idea for Cincinnati's Vietnam memorial and raised funds for the project.

Earl thought of rededicating the monument after U.S. missiles slammed into Kosovo.

“There are so many parallels between Vietnam and Kosovo,” Earl told me as we stood by the memorial before his speech. “We didn't know why we were in Vietnam.

“And nobody has told us why we are in Kosovo. Or how long we are going to be there and what we hope to accomplish.

Hmmm, does he want to extend and revise his remarks or just live with the contradiction? I am assuming his position is that of a Bush/war supporter from his knee jerk anti-Kerry letter. I think I have made a logical conclusion based on the evidence presented.

Dog Pile on the Bigot

The Elkington outrage has reached a peak with 100 Chinese-Americans attending yesterday's city council meeting. Cranley has gone out on limb:

Councilman John Cranley, Elkington's biggest supporter on City Council, said the remarks were unacceptable. Elkington made the remarks last month.

"Let me say in unequivocal terms - and I know I speak for all of council - that I condemn the statements made by Mr. Elkington at the Over-the-Rhine chamber luncheon," Cranley said.

He seemed to satisfy the crowd when he said City Council "has no intention of putting Mr. Elkington under contract with the city."

John Cranley knows one thing better than anyone: when to cut your losses and go with "popular" opinion.

CityBeat was mentioned again in the Enquirer article. That is amazing. Twice in about a week.

Cranley still wants Elkington to come to town and develop McMain street. I hope his role is limited. I also hope we get a new Chinese-American owned business on Main Street as soon as possible.

Military Theocracy?

Conservatives bitch constantly that the media is filled with liberals, which I am fairly sure they think is a bad thing. I want to know, why doesn't anyone bitch about the level of conservatives in the Officer Corps of the U.S. military? If you read about the general in charge of the fight against terrorism, Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin's, comments you might be concerned that we are closer to a Bush lead theocracy than even I thought. Atrios has the details.

Luken and Cranley Jump Ship

John Elkington will likely not be setting foot in Cincinnati for a long time. His anti-Chinese comments have created a big stink. When you get quotes like this from Mayor Luken:

"If he said this, he's disqualified from being hired by the city," Luken says.

and from Councilman Cranley:

"I thought that his joke was inappropriate and I have told him the same," Cranley says.

then I think it is safe to say that he will not be hired. Elkington is denying the CityBeat quotes. I think he should quit before he sinks the whole plan for Main Street.

Crime Ring Was Not Involved in Terrorism

It seems that ignorance ruled the day. The local police were looking for headlines and failed to see the whole picture. The Judge in this case, Thomas Crush, belittled the contention that terrorism was involved:

But during the Tuesday hearing, Crush said: "The money was not sent to terrorist organizations. There is no jihad here."

He said some of the men are Muslim, some Christian and some Hindu. Four of the men, the judge said, sent money to family members in Kuwait, Bulgaria, Jordan and Hungary.

"I hardly believe they're sending money to Muslim terrorists," Crush said.

It sounds like the local police are taking a page from Bush's playbook. If you can't account for where the money went, that must mean it went to terrorists. Money, WMD, it is all just a faith based assumption.

Cincinnati Fire Chaplain Reinstated

From the start of this mini-controversy this seems like something screwed up. A man is trying to help pull the fire fighters together, and the chief shoots him down. I think the bottom line problem with the Fire Fighters is that the black fire fighters don't want to join the union unless they get blacks in positions of leadership(power). What issues does the union have that would require representation of every race? Are women represented in the union? Are Asians? Are Latinos? Are Russians? Is Mt. Lookout represented? Are cats represented? It would appear that a whole bunch of asses are getting representation.

Bronson commented on this situation too, before the reinstatment.

SNL Found Its Balls?

Did Saturday Night Live find its balls again? Tina Fey, Weekend Update and head writer, took some big stabs at the actions of the Lawyer for Kobe Bryant. It was sharp, to the point, and a clean cut. (And Scene)

Freudian Slip, Political Style

It seems that Dan Klepal of the Cincinnati Enquirer has promoted Councilman Pat DeWine to the office of U.S. Senator:

Reps. Steve Chabot of Cincinnati and Rob Portman of Terrace Park, along with Sens. Pat DeWine and George Voinovich, all Republicans, say in the letter they were unaware of the proposed change until reading of it in the Enquirer Oct. 4.

Of course Mike DeWine is the current Senator from Ohio, who is Pat's father. I hope Pat got a good laugh from that one on his dad.

FOX News Religious Bias?

In their latest poll FOX News is trumpeting that 92% of Americans believe in "God." Now, why this is something for a news group to poll I do not really know, but FOX does cater to religious right. The bias in this article starts with the following:

Fully 92 percent of Americans say they believe in God, 85 percent in heaven and 82 percent in miracles, according to the latest FOX News poll.

That was from the first paragraph in the article. That says that based on the poll 276 million out of 300 million or so people in America believe in "God." Now, I will try to forgo the problem of lumping "God" as a singular and monolithic title to something that has such widespread variations in definition and belief. Asking if people believe in "witches" is by itself insulting to those who practice Wicca, but I “digress.” (But not really)

The real meat comes later in the intro to the specific polling data results:

Polling was conducted by telephone September 23-24, 2003 in the evenings. The sample is 900 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of ±3 percentage points. Results are of registered voters, unless otherwise noted. NA = national adult

Please note the part that I made bold. This poll was of only registered voters. This poll does not mean that 92% of Americans believe in "God", it should have read 92% of Registered Voters. So the leading poll question, one that does not define what they mean by "God," is limited to a subsection of the populace, but is passed off as the results for the entire population.

Polling registered voters is fine, when polling on political issues affecting elections. They are only ones who can vote, so the results are valid. This poll, even beyond the leading "concepts" of "God, Heaven, Hell, and the Devil", is flawed and misleading. I wonder if showing as high a possible percentage of people "believing" in "God" provides support to those who want state religion by popular vote. Well, I don't need to wonder, because I can see no other logical rationale for spinning this story that way, beyond incompetence of course.

Next Time a Tea Cosy?

Peter Bronson's column from Sunday seemed a little forced. I think he was going for a Midwestern Martha Stewart style word picture. I expected him to share his burch beer recipes or maybe his plan for a great pattern for a new wool blanket to warm him and someone special while they root for the home team....ah...good times. (Cough, Cough)