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Springer or Nick Lachey?

Who would make a worse Mayor of Cincinnati? Jerry has already been mayor of course and beyond paying for a hooker by check, his term in office was not considered bad. Springer also, well, was a reasonably qualified politician. According to his bio Nick was going to Miami (damn it, why did have to be Miami?) when he joined in on 98 Degrees. I assume he did not finish college. Based on Nick's age I would guess he was there while I was going to Miami. Odd.

A Bully Brooklynite's Head in the Sand

Ken Wohlrob, Publisher and Editor of Bully Magazine, has put out Bully's "Ten Worst American Cities To Live In" List. This magazine is new to me, I had never heard of it before reading about this list on the Cincymusic.com boards. I therefore am not placing much credence in its finds, but I still have few bones to pick with it. Here’s the list:

10. Seattle
9. Toledo
8. Los Angeles
7. Salt Lake City
6. Cincinnati
5. St. Louis
4. Atlanta
3. Miami
2. Phoenix
1. Cleveland

Now, I don’t mind that Cincinnati made the list, but I really have to wonder how this list was complied and if actual residents of the cities were interviewed. What was written about Cincinnati is just plain wrong:

If you took Chicago, sucked out every last ounce of culture including its thriving music scenes and quality restaurants and bars, leaving a graying hulk of skyscrapers and a complete lack of night life, then you would have Cincinnati. To some Cincinnati is the greatest city in the U.S. - usually these folks are old, white, Christian fundamentalists, confined to wheelchairs, and are very scared of "coloreds." If you are not this type of person and you live in Cincinnati and like it, you have mental problems and should seek professional help.

Now, Cincinnati has a shit load of conservatives who don’t know a Dali from Dogs Playing Poker or Gershwin from Jessica Simpson, but Cincinnati has as good a culture as any City its size if not better. The CSO, Cincinnati Pops, Ballet, Opera, CAM, CAC, Taft, just to name a few of the MAJOR cultural institutions that this city has to offer that are as good as any in the country, except for New York and other mega cities. We don't have places that would get the girls on "Sex and the City" wet, but for a Midwestern city of nearly 2 million people we have plenty to do and plenty of good places and cultural events to go. In fact with the conformist and stale society in this city I would argue the artistic and cultural groups here have more courage, are more cutting edge than New York. Throwing horseshit on a painting or laying in the street nude is rather innocuous in the Big Apple. Here in Cincinnati, dying your hair pink still gets you looked at funny. We have far more people per capita here willing to be "truly" unique, than say NY or LA. Uniqueness is of course relative to the situation, but the variation is still part of the equation. We here in Cincinnati don't have to go to the extremes to gain attention from the blue hairs. Other places they have to damn near blow their brains out to cause a ruckus.

Has Mr. Wohlrob ever even been to Cincinnati? I am guessing he has, mainly because three Ohio cities were on the list, Cleveland being #1. I would guess that is where Mr. Wohlrob was beaten up for dressing up like member of the Cure back in the 1980’s. Now, while I don’t like Bullies either, it just strikes me as funny that he would call his magazine Bully and then proceed to condemn 10 cities basically because they are not New York. Well, they are not Brooklyn. That is the high land of culture where Mr. Wohlrob’s is based. We all know the fabulous cultural wonders that make Brooklyn the vibrant hub of American culture.

I really have to wonder why cities like Buffalo, Jacksonville, Tampa, Houston, Dallas, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, St. Paul, Detroit, Portland, San Diego, Lexington, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Eire, Richmond Va., or anywhere in the State of New Jersey.

Cincinnati does not deserve to be on this list. The city is made a laughing stock by the mainstream media who live on the coasts and think the midwest is where they escaped from after college. Life is not dull here. It is vibrant. We are not New York or Chicago or San Francisco. We are, however, not a bad place to live.

Pontus Pilate

5th/3rd Bank has announced that it is putting the decision to its shareholders whether or not to include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy.

Gee, how nice of them. I guess it is a real "ballsy" thing to do. (Cough, Cough)

This is not only horrid; it reeks of fear of offending someone with a big bank balance. What company the size of 5th/3rd does not have such a nondiscrimination policy? This should be a no brainer. 5th/3rd lists its policy:

"Fifth Third offers equal employment opportunities, regardless of race, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability or veteran status."

Now, if they were to say put religion up to a vote and allow discrimination against lets say Roman Catholics or Mormons, who would be screaming about it? Yes, that is right, the Conservative Christians would be. Those same Conservative Christians, like Phil Burress, who are against equal rights for Homosexuals, demand “special rights” for the religious.

What don’t understand is the need for the vote. Why doesn’t the CEO just add in sexual orientation to the list above, and forget about pretending that shareholders votes are somehow democratic. Why would they not want to adopt this policy and try and shield themselves from lawsuits? It is poor company management to not have such a policy.

Fundamentalists Protect Child Abusers?

Why are Fundamentalists Christian Churches against a law requiring members of the clergy to report child abuse? The mainline churches, including the Roman Catholics, support this law. What gives?

Blame?

Who will boycotters blame for this? Yes, another rhetorical question.

Puff

Well, a former President and father of the current President is in town and what do we get? We get a puff piece on a fund raiser with Bush talking about Dana Carvey and sky Diving.

Sam Malone: Anti-Gay

Why is Councilman Sam Malone questioning the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission choice to support a repeal of Article XII? Yes, that is a rhetorical question. I think I know why.

Bush: A Bigot

Yes folks, sources say it is true, Bush is admiting he is a bigot.

Headline: "Kucinich not ready to quit"

Dude, get a fucking clue. Stop wasting money. If you want to be Ralph Nader, then quite the party. Otherwise, just shut the hell up already. Leonard Nimoy needs his persona back.

Now and Then With Peter Bronson

Then: 1998:

[...]
The president who has done everything from Waco to Filegate "for the children" is now the one president we can't stand to even talk about with our children.
And here's one that gives me the creeps:

The president who lied to us, insulted our White House and demeaned his office has the gall to tell us what is "the right thing to do" -- staying in office, of course. And he has enlisted ministers to sermonize about forgiving him, so we can all move on.

I get squeamish stirring politics with faith. I'm certainly no preacher. But Bill Clinton dared us to judge him. And that troubled me. I searched my soul. I asked other Christians I respect. I studied the Bible. And finally, I agreed with Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who says that Mr. Clinton's most serious sin may not be violating the commandments against adultery and bearing false witness; it's the one against taking the Lord's name in vain.
[....]"

And Now:

[...]
The rest of the story falls into the "strictly personal'' file. I can't speak for everyone in the press, but mucking around in private lives gives me the creeps - unless it's unavoidable.

I know, I know: Fanatic Clintonistas still insist he was impeached for moral misdemeanors that were "only about sex.'' But that's fiction from the Bill Clinton library. He obstructed justice and lied under oath. His own reckless stupidity forced even his friends to cover Wild Bill's Scandal Outlet.

And let's face it, there are two sets of rules. Most of the press had no problem ignoring a rumor about Democrat John Kerry's "intern scandal." That turned out to be bogus anyway. But the slimy accusation that President Bush was AWOL from the National Guard was just as bogus - and big media recycled that sack of dirt in breathless headlines for a month.
[...]

So let me get this straight. Clinton was horrible for lying to "us." Hmmm, I have to wonder why Bush's lied to me, I use the first person because that is how I feel about it. How is Bush's lies about why we went to war are so forgive able. Why has Bush "enlisted ministers to sermonize about forgiving him, so we can all move on?" Why does Bronson seem to want to avoid the obvious, Bush lied about WMD. He lied about the level of threat from Iraq to make the USA think going to war could not wait. Bush claimed we had not other choice but to go to war. That was, as we now know, was wrong. It was not wrong because Bush was given bad info, it was wrong because he knowingly knew that Iraq was not going to hit the USA in the next year, let alone the next 10 years.

I agree with Bronson on keeping personal lives personal unless they affect the office. Clinton's personal life would have stayed person if Clinton's enemies had not tried to set him up and force him to "lie" about that personal life that should have been left personal.

Bush's past service is fair game. His less than stellar service would be used to tar and feather any Democrat who sent the military into battle. Bush's service in the National Guard has holes that are wide and unaccounted. We went to war over WMD's being unaccounted, so I see no problem with the Press dipping into Bush's past. They seem to be whimping out because bush pulled a document drop on them, classic move for a guilty man. Kevin Drum has a round up of facts and has a report that Bush's witness's credibility is losing credibility by the second.

Spy vs. Spy vs. Willie

Dowlin and DeWine were both on the Bill Cunningham's radio show on Wednesday. I only caught the last 2 minutes while out for lunch, so if anyone heard it and has thoughts, chime in.

Pat's dad was on with Jim Scott running interference Wednesday morning, and there is a rebuttal commercial from DeWine. Pat has filed a complaint claiming the original Dowlin commercial was false. Dowlin's commercials are on his website. Pat's site does not have his commercials, yet.

Dean Gone

Wes Flinn Comments.

Dean was an interesting candidate. He had too much of a media infused campaign and paid the price for it. His organization was big but lacked experience and influence inside the Democratic Party’s core voting block.

More from Calpundit and Oliver Willis and the Hegemo.

Traffic Tickets Are People Too

An FBI agent testified in court that LaShawn Pettus-Brown sometime over the last year paid off a Cincinnati Traffic Ticket. I guess he could either find the City Hall mailing address or the City’s website, but could not find a phone number to call and say why he had not done anything about the near $200K he wasted away. Will he have any defense at all?

His lawyer seems to want to blame the city:

Pettus-Brown's lawyer, Kenneth Lawson, said his client did nothing wrong and should be freed from jail. He said mismanagement by Cincinnati city officials was the real reason the theater project collapsed.

It is amazing what a Lawyer will try and claim to try and get a client off. Lawson would try and claim the Ohio River was running with Vodka, if it could help a client.

Convergys and Betty Hull Sitting in a Tree

Greg Korte writes City Council lobbyists requirement to file an annual registration statement. He reports that:

Marie Gemelli-Carroll of Communications in the Public Interest, Louise Hughes of Procter & Gamble, Lynn Marmer of the Kroger Co., Doug Moorman of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Victor A. Needham of Cinergy Corp.

Greg points out that no lobbyist from Convergys filed a statement. That refers to John Dowlin's recent commercial suggesting that Pat DeWine was or is dating a lobbyist for Convergys, namely Betty Hull. DeWine's campaign has denied that Hull was a lobbyist for Convergys.

Perplexing situation. Shouldn't it be easy to determine who was a lobbyist or not? Couldn't the city subpoena Convergys and find out? Will the City do so?

Cause for Protest?

A teenage kid was killed after loosing control of an allegedly stolen car while being chased by police. The sawed-off shotgun under the seat is the biggest concern for me. Where do teenagers get such a thing?

Correcting Conservatives

In a letter to the Enquirer a neighbor of mine wrote:

Borgman cartoon was a cheap shot

Once again, Jim Borgman flies his flag with a cheap shot.

The illustration (Feb. 11) of Sen. John Kerry in uniform and medals versus President Bush in uniform with a beer medal is typical Borgman.

I don't recall in 1991 the same scene with ex-president Bush in uniform and medals versus Borgman's man Bill Clinton the draft dodger and his conquests.

An illustration of Kerry and his many faces would be interesting.

Edward Mohr, Mount Washington

Mr. Mohr should rethink his timing. In 1991 no one thought Bill Clinton was going to be nominated for President, let alone win. If you had put 1992 in your situation might have been reasonable. What you seem to forget was the HUGE flack Clinton got. He was called a draft dodger by every fire-breathing Conservative out there. Now we get Bush, who unlike his father, pulled strings to get into the National Guard. I would have done the same, so I don't personally mind that fact. What I do mind is Bush prancing around on an aircraft carrier like he was his father, who was a war hero. I don't hear many conservatives complaining about Bush's less than stellar military career.

Oh, Borgman is not being inconsistent, he is being Ironic.

Dancing Bronsons

Bronson ponders why two GOP primary candidates can't realize that they both can carry on the conformist views of the local Republican party. I was waiting for Bronson to dig out the old Ron Reagan axiom "Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Any Other Republican." I guess the Golden Rule is a double edge sword in internal GOP politics.

Boycott Over?

The National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc. has announced that it will hold its 2008 national convention in Cincinnati.

The only caveat is that in February 2002 they said they would hold a convention in Cincinnati, only to come back in March of 2002 and change their minds.

Now, I am sure this post will get Nate's panty's in a bunch, but if this sticks, I think this may be a nail in the boycott coffin that no one can pull out.

Local Passion

WCPO reports on 'local' reaction to Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion." The article does not really report reaction to the movie; it reports what people who are promoting the movie are saying. Where's the local Jewish viewpoint? You walk 10 feet in the local media without stepping on a Catholic touchy feely story.

I was laughing at this quote:

"The message to Hollywood is we want movies like this and we want to see historical truth brought to the big screen," Giroux said.

You can call it religious truth, but to try and say, with a straight face, that biblical stories are 'historical truth' is really just wrong. There is some "historical" fact in the bible, but to say "The Passion" is historical truth is a misnomer. It is not history; it is religion. It might be "true" religion to a particular sect of Christianity, but clearly it is not factually to many Jews, non-Christians, and even various sects of Christianity.