Bush Speech, Little New

There were a few dates that he committed to meeting for elections in Iraq, but other than wanting to demolish the Abu Ghraib, there was nothing new. He was a little bit more specific about what he wants, but how he plans on doing it, well that is still a mystery.

His big lie was saying that on June 30th Iraq will have "full sovereignty." That is just crap and he and everyone else knows that. He knows that having 138,000 troops in Iraq under his control means it is in no way a sovereign county.

Will the media keep the pressure on Bush if what he said does not come to pass? We'll just have to wait and see.

Change any opinions? Nope. It was not carried by the 4 networks, so few likely were to have seen it.

Washingtonienne Picture

"Washingtonienne" is on the right. More from WaPo.

UPDATED by the directionally challenged writer.

Kill the Messenger

We get the typical anti-free press idiot in the Letters tot he Enquirer (2nd letter):

Showing photos aids the enemy

The photographs of abuse of 'Iraqi detainees' by American soldiers are a sad tale. Having served in the United States Air Force for 11 years and now serving in the Kentucky Army National Guard, I know this is not the norm for U.S. troops. I'm not excusing their actions by any means and disciplinary actions have already begun.
But should a man, a non-combatant there to help rebuild a nation in turmoil be decapitated for crimes of others? What is the media's hand in this matter? Anyone with the slightest bit of common sense knows the answer. By non-stop coverage and viewing of those prison photos the media has put every American in Iraq and probably in most Middle Eastern countries at risk. ?
Irresponsible journalism is aiding and abetting the enemy. Please stop handing them ammunition.
Steven Banfield
Taylor Mill

I guess Mr. Banfield prefers only the news that helps out the Army by hiding the truth. We all know that the truth kills people after all. An honest man dies first is what I always say.

He is right about one thing: the US government is just handing this crap to the media. That is however not the media's fault. If he wants to blame the bad actions of the military on someone, why not try blaming it on the military? I myself blame the civilian leadership of the military, which is one of many reasons I do not support this Administration.

Prophetic Woodward

Well, Bob Woodward did not conjure up the claim in his book,“Plan of Attack,” that the Saudis planned on lowering the price of oil in time for the election. He got it from their US Ambassador. So, here starts their "contribution" to the Bush reelection campaign. There may not have been a provable "deal," but Bush is the Saudi choice for President. Their financial contribution to his campaign goes far more than money for attack ads, it goes right into his manipulation of the perceptions of the American people. When the price of gas comes down, what will Bush say? His tax cuts did the trick, but of course. Now, he would be right, if by tax cuts he really meant his personal ties with the oppressive anti-human rights government of Saudi Arabia. A government that turned a blind eye to Anti-American terrorists brewing within its own borders. That is a foreign policy only Henry Kissinger could love.

Details

The keyword to remember about Bush's speech on Iraq tomorrow is details. The media has that word all over the place when describing what he will be talking about. Will he break with tradition and get specific? I seriously doubt it. If we get anything more than "stay the course" I will be surprised. I believe though that if he does not start giving specifics on what his short and long term plans are on Iraq, he will be in trouble, even with many Republicans.

Bush can't just punt on Iraq until November. He has to survive a long hot summer of militant attacks. He must lay his cards out there. I predict he will try what used to be called a “limited, modified hang out.” He will say stuff that his supporters will eat up as detail, but in reality is only a small portion of what BushCo is planning to do in Iraq. That of course assumes they have any plans other than getting relected.

The speech tomorrow is nothing but a political rally disguised as Presidential address, but how will the media react? Is the bar set where reporters actually expect Bush to say something more than the usual "stay the course" and pat the military on the back dogma? I don't know if they will be suckers or not, but my feeling is that they might pounce if doesn't through them at something new to write about.

Why is Bush scared of making this a full fledged national address from the Oval Office? If he really was planning on a change to his policy would he not actually ask for network air time, which he has not, and start setting things up in a true Presidential forum, not a campaign forum? It is just a sign of the double talk from BushCo. They call themselves strong and decisive leaders, but they don’t really want to announce anything, just make people think they have, while not really changing anything. Is that the actions of anything more than a manipulator?

Typical Bronson

So, Peter gets a press release from a right-wing group claiming the "liberal" college campuses have too many liberal speakers. By too many they really mean any at all. Bronson really needs to get to colleges more, and talk to regular students. Don't just talk to the activists who call him and lobby him to write propaganda column for them, like this one.

If he spent an hour in any business class at any major university he would get, as amazing as it may be, Pro-capitalism dogma preached. Guess what, that is just fine with my, I sat through it myself. That is what business schools are meant to do, prepare students for American capitalism. I am "sorry" that the schools of arts and sciences don't preach the religious dogma Bronson wants them to, but that is not why they are about. They are about individual concepts of being human. They are about open ideas. They are not about bible thumping.

Wes Flinn has far more to say on this column, please have a read.

UPDATE: I wonder what Peter thinks of the horrible "liberals" at Hofstra University who booed E.L. Doctorow for making "Anti-Bush" remarks during a commencement address. What is most horrible is the Bronson likely would have been booing as well, even though he complains when others boo Bush Administration officials.

New Local Blog

Nick Spencer, former City Council Candidate has a new blog on Cincinnati politics and culture.

Dem Executive Director Cited for DUI

The Whistleblower NewsWire reports that Adam M. Rosenberg, the Executive Director of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, was cited for DUI May 14th after a vehicle crash on I-71. I am surprised that this news has not made the papers. I am shocked that the local GOP is not all over this, if it indeed is the same person.

I guess this story might be put into the same category as Pat DeWine's divorce, which was barely reported on in the local press.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys

COPS! is coming to Cincinnati. This opens up things up a bit. People will get to see life on the streets of the Nati. I am sure no matter what the overall result of the program, whether it is just the typical shirtless man arrested or a hatchet job on the CPD, people will be pissed about it.

I will put out a challenge. I challenge Nate Livingston or anyone from the Boycott B to get arrested by one of officers working with the TV crews. I would make sure to record that episode.

DeWine Staffer Fired Because of Blog

Sen. Mike Dewine has fired the low level staffer for using Senate computers to write a blog called "Washingtonienne." The identity of the staffer is not known, but Wonkeet identifies her as Jessica Cutler and had al alleged interview with her. In that interview Culter states that her blog posts were not fictional. I am still skeptical, very very skeptical on that.

If she was fired, then I expect someone in the media could identify who no longer works for DeWine that was working for him, and then get an interview that can be vetted outside of an Internet "gossip" blog.

Also, here is an alleged achieve of Washingtonienne, which is no longer online.

UPDATE: DDN has more.

Riverfront Classic Returns

The annual football game between traditionally black colleges will be played this year in Paul Brown Stadium. The only thing that I don't grasp is that it will be on the same weekend as a Reds home series with the Cubs, a home Bengals game, and Oktoberfest. That is a hell of a lot of people downtown. Parking will be non-existent. That might drive down attendance at all of the events.

On the other hand, what would be great is for people who go to the Classic to go to Oktoberfest as well, and for Oktoberfest goers to make it to the game or at least the Jamboree around it. I hope organizers from both events take advantage of that opportunity for cross-cultural experiences. That could go along way to starting what is lacking in this city: cultural integration.

Chopped Liver?

Generation X was the media darlings for a few years. We were seen as an unknown and forgotten generation that Boomers could not understand, thus I guess making us newsworthy. It appears that car makers have moved past us even though we are in our prime of buy cars right now. It seems that we are living up to our image of being forgotten, you don't hear much about us. It is either the Boomers are starting to retire, or the Gen Y “brats” are so big and so different that things will be changing. I guess the mystique of being part of Gen X has worn off on the media, or simply that Gen Y kids are starting to write about themselves now.

Cops Targeted?

An AP Wire report alleges that Cincinnati Police are being targeted by gunman. They report on 7 incidents since last November where gunman opened fire on police. Those situations were not disclosed except to say that three of them were when police were not confronting suspects.

Being a target for violence for no other reason than just being a police officers is reported as being rare, and the number here in Cincinnati are seen as strange:

"I can't think of any where our officers were shot at while they were just out on patrol," Cleveland police spokesman Wayne Drummond said.

Are local drug dealers targeting certain police officers for revenge? Is there a lone nut out there out to kill police officers? If this keeps up, I don't see crime rates improving. Police will be forced to stay in their cars and off the beat.

In the Woods on the Way Out?

WVXU reported this morning via the Business Courier that the restaurant/bar In the Wood is suing to prevent and eminent domain proceeding to take over the property to make way for new development on the south side of UC's campus.

I have only been there once, but it was good cheap food. I don't know what they plan on replacing it, but do they need to? Does UC need this much expansion? Why should a viable business be forced to move for a small project? It is one thing to move someone for a highway or a sports stadium, but for condos?

A Blog that 'Shocked'

Carl Weiser is reporting that a female staffer for Sen. DeWine was writing what is being called an 'explicit' blog.

Wonkette has the story covered best, including a line up of department chief of staffs alleged to have been her "loser john".


This looks and acts like a hoax, but it appears to have legs. The Plain Dealer has more, as well as the Springfield Sun. It hits the big time when it makes the Washington Post.

No comment from Mike DeWine's office. No denials either, so it is likely at least that this person is real and the blog was real. I still would guess that the person was having a little fun, and the fiction she was writing got away from her.

If this is true, then I can only say: holy shit. That scandal would make Bill Clinton's affairs look like Pilgrim Sex.

UPDATE: Greg Mann has more.

Hot Air, Meet Kettle

Ray Cooklis starts off his column Hot air: Raising McCain with a gem of a sentence:

"Some news operations appear so eager to create an anti-Bush political groundswell that they'll grasp at any straw."

Gee, Ray, what can we say about your news operation? Who do you and your management want on the Kerry ticket? Let me guess, Hillary Clinton? How many times has some conservative journalist tried to claim Hillary was either going to be VP for the Dems or some kind of fairy tale last minute candidate? The Enquirer even dragged Hillary into your editorial endorsing Bush back in 2000. When Ray starts harping on the major news outlets that like to gin up anti-Clinton fund raising drives by making fools fear Hillary running for President, at that point I might see this as anything but a political hack job on both McCain, Kerry, and the New York Times.

Moose on Main Shooting

The shooting of bar tender at Moose on Main appears to have followed a fight. This is better than random violence, but it is bad in whole different way. I will wonder if Race was involved? I wish I did not have to wonder that, but this story leaves that out and it there are signs that it could have been an issue. The fight allegedly stated after an "unpleasant conversation" with locals. What was the conversation about? Bad service? Loud Music? What?

Truth from Bronson

We got some truth from Bronson today that no one will dispute:

"My idea of 'high culture'' is the top row of seats at Oklahoma! I live on Square Street with Joe and Jane Burbs. "

Peter however insults Rodgers and Hammerstein with use of Oklahoma. Why not just use something like the musical version of "The Green Berets" as your ideal Cultural production. I can see Pete getting weepy over the finale of "The Ballad of the Green Beret" with the fake smoke doing most of the work to wet his eyes.

The biggest insult Bronson levels is his double talk:

That usually means stuff about AIDS, sex, race, women's issues, sex, gays and AIDS.

I wonder what the actors appearing now think about AIDS and how it affects people? I bet they would not perform for you Pete, after that shot at an issue many in the arts care about.

Bronson is writing himself as a cliché. He is saying don't break new ground, stick to the traditional. In other words, progress bad, the mythical past good.

Oklahoma! is a great musical, I just recent saw the movie, which I recommend. People should also hit the Fringe Festival and see art from the outside of its institutions. See art/theater from perspectives that Peter Bronson dismisses, ignores, and fears.

Bad Reporting

Headlines and leads are all too often the only part of a newspaper story that people read. In the case of the The Cincinnati Post's story from Saturday entitled "Equality remains an issue: Many local schools as segregated as ever" has a lead that along with the headline misleads the public:

Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court changed the course of history by ordering America to desegregate schools, many Greater Cincinnati schools are as racially segregated as ever.

If anyone were to read only the headline and opening paragraph they would have been subjected to a clear falsehood. What local school anywhere in this country is as segregated as ever? There are none. No public school in this country can legally segregate students based on race or ethnicity. That is the element of Brown v. Board of Education that everyone can celebrate 50 years later. Brown is a success on that front. The intention of the writer/editor may have been to say that schools are largely still divided by race, but the language used implies that the legal victory won by Brown was not achieved, and it was, so no school has the same segregation as before.

Those who see Brown as a catalyst of integration, as opposed to segregation, give it too much power and not enough reality. This country is nearly as unintegrated as it was 50 years ago, but to say it is segregated is wrong. Segregation in terms of our society has the implication of forced or required separation of the races. To use the term misleads the public, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to believe that things are largely no better than it was 50 years ago. I am sure that is what the boycotters want people to believe, that brings them power from angry people. That is not the truth. The reasons why schools today are not integrated are because most communities are not integrated. Asking why our communities are not integrated would have been a better focus of this story, if your concern is why many local schools are largely only one race.

'Told You So'

Why do I feel like the hawks are grasping at straws? Well, they jump on anything as a basis for the war and its ever-shifting rationale.

Rob makes a good argument why the UN and the USA should have stepped up the pressure on Saddam and taken a vary hard line with Iraq, including an increase in targeted missile attacks. What he forgets is the threat Iraq was allegedly posing to the USA, a fiction of the gravest proportion. He also again leaves off the rationale as to why War in March of 2003 had to happen. Not to mention he forgets that BushCo. mislead the country and the world into believing that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons. I guess those issue don't matter. I guess it matters not that we had no plan for Iraq after the battle plan. I guess it matters not that we have no plan for stabilizing the country.

I guess I have said these things before, but they bare repeating every time. Let us not forget why we fight....we fight out of choice...'we' fought because it fit Bush's political timeline. We fought because of blood lust. We are acting like barbarians. We don't seem to care enough to say much about it. We are getting 'ours' so we don't care what is left over for everyone else.

Damn, I guess I am really part of everyone else, because I got nothing but shame out of this war. I am no safer, I am no richer, I am no more honorable in the fight for freedom.