Rock the Vote at the Public Library

The Cincinnati Libraray, one of the best libraries in the country, is a stop next weekend for Rock the Vote.

At the Main Branch:
1 to 5 PM will see "open discussions and information booths staffed by area organizations."

6 to 9:30 PM will have music from locals musicans:
Brenda Weiler
Animal Crackers
The Walker Project
Marvin and the Experience
KMS
Seven
Uneek
NSPCrew


At the Groesbeck Branch: Rock the Vote a lo Latino
2 to 4 PM Salsa dancing contest to music provided by DJ Rudy Alvarez

Not Even Conservative Fox News

I don't think that conservative FOX News would be this partisan in its programming, and for a network as biased as Fox that is saying something. The FOX broadcast network has generally kept to entertainment and has not let the news division interfere with its programming. Newscorp, after all, has to make a buck.

What would the usual suspects (right wing bloggers: i.e. Instahack) be saying if say Raycom was going to Air a Michael Moore Film on its stations the night before the election? We would be hearing the calls of bias and calls for Raycom to have all of their broadcast licenses revoked. Here we have Sinclair doing the same thing, from their side, and we hear nothing from the right. That is expected, but it shows how bias is only in the eye of the partisan. If you hear what you want to hear, then it is not biased in the mind of conservatives.

Kevin Drum has more along with Atrios.

The LA Times has the details.

Let local Sinclair station WB64 know what you think about this unprecedented action bordering on campaign contribution. Tell them objectivity is a goal that can't be achieved when you do one side's bidding.

Phone: 513-641-4400
Contact "local talent" and ask if they agree with their corporations tactics.
KOS has the info about contacting Sinclair directly.

What's Up With Bronson?

Did Naomi Wolf get to him? Is this his alleged former hippie side coming back to haunt him?

MIAMI 47, Kent 27

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

Details here.

Queen City Soapbox Returns!

Ethan Hahn is back and blogging. Welcome back!

Kerry Won

On the issues and on style Kerry won last night's debate. Bush's only benefit was that he was actually appearing to be participating in this one, as compared to last week's debacle. He was angry and showed his naked aggression quite overtly in the first part of the debate. It smelled of desperation. The kind of desperation that I fear will trickle down to his storm troopers and cause some problems with the violence issue I keep bringing up.

Kerry performance was even with his performance last week on style. I think he had better points and gave a great answer on Abortion to use with someone radically opposed to it.

Bush was overcompensated for his numb performance last week. He did was Gore did for years or rather what the press said he did, over-react to the spin.

Bush made several gaffs that have not been reported by pundits after the debate. The biggest one was when he flashed back to this youth and though he was Richard Nixon in 1960 when he called Kerry Senator Kennedy:

BUSH: Let me see where to start here.

First, the National Journal named Senator Kennedy the most liberal senator of all. And that's saying something in that bunch. You might say that took a lot of hard work.

The political reasons for Kerry winning are that he seemed Presidential. He was consistent with his prior performance. He showed that he could be trusted as the President and people would be comfortable with him as the commander-in-chief. Bush's only plus was to re-energize his base, which is where conservatives think he won. Bush hurt himself with moderates. He pushed on right wing social issues, was very angry and at several times lost his composure, especially in how he pushed around Charlie Gibson. Bush just took his extra time to speak with out asking for it. That was a sign of complete arrogance. It make have been a minor violation of the 32-page agreement, but it was to me a sign of Bush thinking he was above the rules. He is think he is more important in the discourse of American politics.

Bush gave me the creeps at the end of the debate with his allusion to what I fear is the goal of social conservatives:

These are reasonable ways to help promote a culture of life in America. I think it is a worthy goal in America to have every child protected by law and welcomed in life.

I also think we ought to continue to have good adoption law as an alternative to abortion.

And we need to promote maternity group homes, which my administration has done.

Culture of life is really important for a country to have if it's going to be a hospitable society.

"Culture of Life?" Is that the new phrase being used for the culture wars? What is a maternity group home? That sounds like something out of the 19th century where unwed mothers are forced, forced to go off to homes to have their kids. I guess this a government program some conservatives will want if they are able to stack SCOTUS and remove the rights of women, further giving an excuse to criminalize women who are not married and get pregnant.

The spin game and overall impact of the debate will be greatly diminished by having the debate on a Friday night. I believe fewer people watched it last night and if they did, they are not going to be watching TV about it today or tomorrow.

Overall I think the race remains even, but Kerry is getting back his electoral vote edge. The national polls will stay within the margin of error the rest of the way to Nov 2nd, which will raise the level of tension and I fear still cause some isolated incidents of significant violence.

The real test of Nov 2nd will be the ease with which people can actually vote. If we have widespread screw-ups on Election Day, then there will be long-term repercussions on the country that will cripple our Democracy.

Bait and Switch

In the front page of the Enquirer's website we find a link with the hypertext of Transcript: In their own words. Go to that link and you get an article entitled "In their own words" with the first sentence of "Excerpts from Friday's debate:".

The front page said it was a transcript, not excerpts from the debate. Come on guys, label your stories correctly. If you want a transcript of the debate, the whole thing, try the Washington Post.

Deters vs. Rucker Is Back On

Their debate scheduled for a downtown church this past Wednesday was canceled for unknown reasons, but the Business Courier is reporting a debate will take place between the two write in candidates for County Prosecutor at Xavier University on Oct. 12. The article states no tickets are needed for the Cintas center event, but the time is not listed. I think the time is a rather important element to getting an audience to show up.

Deters does have a campaign website and just opened his HQ this week. Rucker is going to have a website, but is is not up and running yet. They both are using a similar web site name. Will both be using the pencil as the campaign handout? A friend brought that up as a great tool, have "Fanon Ruck for Hamilton County Prosecutor" written on the pencil. I don't know if pens are allowed or if they are cheaper.

Signs

Here in Cincinnati the Kerry signs/stickers are in my opinion disproportionally more visible in the places I visit than Bush signs/stickers, slightly contradicting .this sotry. Any rationale to why the Bush campaign has not flooded Cincinnati with signs? I assume they feel they have this area in the bag. I would think turnout might still be a challenge they should worry about. I hope they just take us all for granted.

Bush vs. Kerry II

We have a Town Hall debate this time. The questions that remain open are: will Bush be so aggressive that blowback hits him? Will Kerry appear stiff to the audience? Will the audience's questions be bland, pre-screened, or pointless? Do the candidates know the questions in advance?

Bush's bar is very high for this event. He can't play for a draw. He must go for a win, and he really has no rhetoric that will win it. He can only hope Kerry is flat or makes a gaff.

The race is basically a tie at this point with Kerry having the Big Mo.

The Basics

No WMD
No WMD Programs since 1991
No Threat to America
Bush either misled the public(lied), or has really bad judgement.

I would say both.

Who is a GOP Puppet?

Answer: Geoff Davis.

Wes Flinn has more.

Tall Stacks Debt Gone

Carl Linder is paying half and the city will write off the rest. A good deal for the city, for Tall Stacks, and a big kudos to Car Linder. Hey, that is $125K that will not got the GOP, but that is not like he doesn't have a few spare millions lying around the bathroom that he could spend from his budget for q-tips.

Bronson: More of the Same

Bronson's column today sounds like a broken record:

If Cincinnati and Hamilton County keep leaking population to the suburbs, we might need a sign on Interstate 75: 'Last one out, please turn out the lights.'

Why does this guy want the city to fail? Why does he want a big black hole to exist inside the "loop of stale dreams" (I-275)?

Ken Blackwell Being Watched

Well he certainly has better style than Katherine Harris.

97X and X97

Separated at Birth? Good title for the City Beat Article. I have not tried woxy.com new stream yet. I have occasionaly listen to X97 while out in Mason at work.

I guess I listen to NPR more often, so my radio habits focus on news and current events programming. I however, while in Flordia I listened to a great station playing good 80's music, and nothing but 80's music.

More on Cheney's Lies

Keving Drum runs down the whole list of the VP's lies, misrepresentations and general untruths.

Factcheck.org also give a check on the facts.

Yes Virginia, Dick Lied

I guess everything changed after 9/11, including Cheney's memory. He did not recall meeting him, I am sure. Just like he did not recall implying at every turn that Iraq had something to do with 9/11 and had strong links with al Qaeda.

Tall Stacks Debt

Should the City of Cincinnati forgive it? I can't help but thinking of Third World Debt, and the efforts to have that debt forgiven. Both situations have a very vague parallel, mostly on terminology.

I say forgive it. It was a great festival, and the city needs more like it. This is the not the best time to write off debt. Why not wait a while? Maybe have them pay some of it off? This would make a great election year issue for Fall of 2005.

"Steve_Fritsch_God"

Yea, that is the page title for Steve Fritsch's BCR column about former Judge Roy Moore's fundraiser visit to Cincinnati.

Roy Moore is a theocrat. He is in my opinion a fascist, but I am willing to debate that. His theocratic beliefs can't be denied.

Roy Moore is wrong and so is Steve Fritsch. What causes this is ignorance. Now, I say that word and it may seem harsh, but I mean it in a truly literally way. Fritsch and Moore are ignorant of other religions and of those who have no religion. Moore used a classic theme Fritsch recounts about not being able to define religion. Well I can:

Religion: A belief or beliefs or set of beliefs or system of beliefs in a god or gods or supernatural creator(s) or supernatural entities.

Was that so difficult?

Moore's claim that Christianity was the basis of our government, our laws and our country is just a lie. Our laws are based laws that predate Christianity by hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Our government and country were in part founded on the right to practice religion or not practice it as we see fit. Moore celebrates views akin those those of the Puritans, but seems to leave out the agnostic/deism of Jefferson in his review of history. If the founding fathers wanted to insure that we were going to be a theocracy, we would have in our constitution direct articles on the matter. We don't have such things. We instead have a body of case law that has thankfully grown beyond the mentality of the Scopes Trial era Moore longs for and into one where religion is a private matter. Government is a public matter. The two should not mingle.

Fritsch goes off the deep end in his column in this paragraph:

You see, the Constitution is not the problem. God is not the problem. In fact, He is the answer. The problem lies in those individuals who hijack what is good. The problem is the agenda-driven, morally empty activists, and the corrupt judges who grant their wishes, that attempt to remove the "Creator" from all things American. For if they succeed, an alarming prediction can be made: If God goes, so does America.

I for one do not need any religion, let alone Steve Fritcsh or Roy Moore's, to be "moral." I have my own morals I live by, and do quite well. I find it odd that Steve goes after "agenda-driven, morally empty activists," when he is writing about one. Roy Moore's agenda was, and still is, to promote his religion by using his government office. He chose to push his religion over all others in his state. He decided what was best for others. Now, people might counter that by keeping religion out of government, out of schools, and out of state houses is deciding for others how to live. Well, there is a simple answer to that. We do it all the time. We allow people to live their lives as they please, and keep others from interfering. My right to not have religion superimposed or forced on me as an individual supercedes another individual's actions to try and use government to force religion on others. I can't force you to like my blog. I can't force the government to make you like or even read my blog. My blog will should not get special treatment from the government over other blogs or people without blogs, even though I have the Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech on my side.

Religion has a place in society: in churches, homes, private property, and in your own mind if you so choose. It has no place in government. You can carry your bible around all you want. Just don't post it on public property.

Steve's final thoughts are without question very troubling:

In the words of Judge Roy Moore, now is not the time to flinch. We must stand up and fight for the reasons this country was founded to begin with. We, as a land of free people, dedicated to liberty and doing what is necessary to make it endure for countless generations, must restore and protect that of which has been lost. For the fight against those who seek to eliminate God from public discourse is a necessary battle. Because if we lose to this amoral nihilist agenda, we will not only be putting ourselves in danger, but our children and grandchildren as well.

Has a church been raided by the government for anything they preach recently? Have private schools been forced to keep bible study out of the classroom? NO! Who the hell is Steve worried about? I fear the Roy Moores of the world far more than I fear a fellow atheist or Wiccan. By the way, Steve might want to look up the difference between nihilism and atheism. Two very different things.

I did not think Steve was this far over the edge on this issue. This sounds more like something Brinkman might write.