Corporate Wellfare

Luken has sunk to a new low. He now wants to subsidize P&G's corporate jets. What office is Charlie running for now that he has to suck up to P&G's money? What benefit will this bring to anyone other than a few P&G executives? I think the golf course can wait for an upgrade. I think that we need to fund economic development for downtown and reinstate the social service programs Luken wants to cut. If we can expedite some regulation to help P&G get its new hanger built, then great, but they should pay all of the costs, including any modifications needed to the golf course if they want a new hanger for the their pampered executives who don't live in the damn city anyway.

Is David Pepper in favor of this? Does his father still get use of a company jet?

So Much For a Settlement

Mike Allen has counter sued Rebecca Collins. He has come out and is laying on the sleaze. This may help Mike's chances of winning the lawsuit or of getting a better settlement deal, but it solidifies that he had a long term affair and is one big ass liar who really had no commitment to his wife.

Allen does make Collins look really bad. He is using the slut defense and it likely will work to a large degree.

What is laughable is Mike playing the victim. His wife is a victim. He is a man who cheated on his wife. That is a low position in society and his claims that he was ruined by Collins are all bullshit. He is responsible for his downfall. He may have a case that her legal claims have no merit, but his have even less validity than hers.

The legal brief reminds me of the Star report with details of Collins’ alleged sexual escapades. There are even emailed pictures too. It just has a cheap feel to it, and frankly both Allen and Collins come across like cheap tramps.

More Coverage: Post, WCPO, WLWT, AP, and WKRC.

Circus

The "battle" for the city council seat being vacated by Pat DeWine has started a wave of discussion and trepidation over who will take over that seat. Logic dictates that the Republican who got the next highest number of votes in the last election would become the obvious choice. That would be Leslie Ghiz. Some are doing everything to try and stop that from happening.

Peter Witte wants the seat, and every time the crime is mentioned in the media he likely is jumping with joy.

Phil Burrass wants the seat so every time abortion or homosexuals are mentioned he is gets exited, but then remembers he has to get someone to pick Barb Trauth, his surrogate.

Nate Livingston wants the seat too, but I think he understands that the GOP wouldn't pick him in a million years. Neither would any other political party for obvious reasons, but that part has not sunk in and stopped him from a diatribe against Leslie Ghiz.

Nick Spencer has the most honest commentary on what is going on in the battle for DeWine's seat: it is the bigoted wing of the GOP pushing its campaign of fear. Bigot is of course my word of choice, not Nick's. I said honest here because Nick comes from the GOP and knows what he is talking about.

We also get a hint of who is or might be running for Council: Nick, Leslie and Brian Gerry are in. Brinkman may also be in? Zeus help us! Fanon Rucker and Greg Harris would both get on council in a heart beat and are being courted heavily. Any other names of those who are possible council candidates?

Little Tent

Oh, I seem to remember lots of Republicans all happy and gloating that pro-choice Republicans were allowed to speak the GOP Convention, but now we see that words and deeds are indeed two different words in the Republican party. Senator Frist now is applying a litmus test to chairman of the Judiciary committee. They must support the President's choices. I guess advise and consent are just words.

Don't Dis Kos

Does Carl Weiser even read DailyKos

Through Web sites like www.democraticunderground.org, www.blackboxvoting.org, www.dailykos.com, www.indyvoter.org, www.freepress.org and even one called www.recountohio.org, anti-Bush forces are pushing for investigations, recounts and even a retraction of Kerry's concession.

Lumping in DailyKos with these others is like lumping in the OpinionJournal.com with the FreeRepublic.com.

The Rest of the Story Bronson's Not Telling You

After a reader checked up on the Bronson post below I found I did not link to the right story and got the wrong location of where the GOP Challenger became the poll worker. Here is the except from the election day story Howard Wilkinson (a real political reporter) posted online:

As of mid-day, there was only one report of trouble.

At the Holy Name Church Parish House in Mount Auburn, where two overwhelmingly Democratic and African-American precincts vote, a person who was to have been a GOP vote challenger was named at the last minute to fill a vacant position as one of the regular Republican precinct judges who are always on hand to monitor voting.

Voters and vote monitors complained that the GOP precinct judge was questioning every voter about his or her address and "being a jerk about it," Burke said.

Burke and Tony Reisig, a Republican administrator at the board of elections, were dispatched to the Mount Auburn polling place to talk to the poll worker.

"We made it clear that if he did not stop, he would be pulled out," Burke said.

This reads as the same location from Bronson's column:

The fender-bender was at Precinct 8A, the Holy Name Church in Mount Auburn. There were complaints of intimidation - but not by voters in the mostly black, Democratic precinct. The protests came from two white Republican poll workers.

Ah, WRONG PETER! There were complaints from that polling location and the question that I will safely speculate on is that one of the two people you got your story from was the person in question who became a poll worker at the last minute and was the source of the complaints referenced in the Wilkinson article. So when I say Bronson is a GOP Shill, I think people can see where I am coming from. Will we see a revision on this story? Don’t bet on it. Will we see another story about, like a follow-up from Wilkinson, I doubt it. Will anyone from the editorial staff of the Enquirer even notice it and chew out Bronson? I know, I know, I am laughing at the thought it myself.

Now, even if by some odd chance there was yet another GOP person at the that location that the people from Bronson's article forgot to mention, that takes nothing away from a polling location where someone took their vote challenger status and poll worker status to be one in the same. I guess that is somehow worse than people getting help on how to vote. We all are expect to read an all, now aren't we? [Insert Jim Crow reference here in case you missed it]

Bronson Has Selective Hearing, Or Just Likes To Exaggerate

In today's episode of Peter Bronson: GOP Shill we read about the spoon-fed story a couple of GOP hacks gave to Peter. Two white people from the burbs where sent into a mostly black neighborhood. This sounds like a retread reversed episode of Different Strokes. What I would like to know and Peter of course does not say is whether or not these two Republicans were in fact GOP Challengers who at the last minute became actual poll workers. This was the case in Ward 26 where a GOP hack tried to do both jobs of being a poll worker and prevent Democrats from voting. That episode seemed to just pass Peter by, even though it was reported online by his newspaper. I guess voter intimidation is not something he cares about, just white "poll workers" being intimidated by what he claimed were Democrats, drunks, and mentally challenged people. All three titles in Peter's mind I am sure are interchangeable, at least as much Republican, racist, and theocrat are interchangeable.

Why didn't Bronson mention the paranoid poll workers on the east side who thought they were being stalked and called the cops, only to find that the Kerry campaign people where following the ballot boxes to make sure they got to the BOE? This actually, after fact, was a funny story, not in the least because I know several of the campaign people who were there when the cops were called. Stephanie Dunlop's article gives a good account of the misplaced fear people had on election night.

What Bronson missed most was what most suburban whites miss, the realization that if a Democratic black person from Walnut Hills was assigned as a poll worker to work in West Chester or Mason, then they would likely have had far worse stories of intimidation from white voters or other poll workers that from their perspective would be just as negative, but maybe also overstated as Bronson’s tale of woe appears to be to me.

UPDATE: The story involving Ward 26 was incorrect. The story I remember is here and it is about the same precinct Bronson is referring to. I shall post a new post to except the story and show how Bronson should not just accept a Republican's word for it.

Breakin' the Law

Help me out here folks. Isn't "knowingly allowing false testimony": by a lawyer either a violation of the law or at least something you get disbarred for doing?

This happened 11 years ago, so statutes of limitations may apply on the criminal issues
(can a lawyer chime in?), but it wouldn’t have been nice if this little bit of information was known before November 2nd when people were deciding if Joe Deters should be in the same job where according to a judge he "knowingly allowing false testimony," which no matter how you slice it is bad.

I am sure the get a conviction no matter what crowd out there will in so many words claim the ends justify the means, but when they are on the Deter's chopping block, I wonder if they would change their tune.

Based on the article it does indeed look like Deters will have a scandal to deal with:

When Horn testified at Wogenstahl's trial, he said he "never" sold drugs -- something Harrison police later insisted under oath that Deters and assistant prosecutors Mark Piepmeier and Rick Gibson knew was false.

"(I)n August 1992, before the trial, Horn has been arrested and (convicted as a juvenile) for trafficking in marijuana. Wogenstahl claims that the prosecutors knew this but still allowed Horn to testify falsely," Painter wrote.

Harrison police officers swore in depositions after Wogenstahl's trial that that was exactly what happened.

"If proved, the prosecutors' conduct violated the law and ethical rules. And it is something that disciplinary counsel for the Ohio Supreme Court should examine," Painter wrote.

Judge Mark Painter was the judge in this case and is a well respected Republican, so anyone claiming politics is behind this is full of it. What prosecutor will honestly say a police officer is lying? That applies double here in Cincinnati where the police can do no wrong.

New Local Blog

Please welcome Brendan Cronin over at Spacetropic to the Cincy Blogosphere. He leans moderate and so far is focusing on national issues. He has a bio. Give him a read.

IHOP

Can anything bad happen when you go to an IHOP, outside of health problems from long term reliance oo pancakes as a source of food?

An A or and A- ?

Maggie Downs' column today states that with the passage of Issue 3 Cincinnati has passed a test. I agree, but Ohio failed with Issue 1, so the city's grade is at best tainted with the fact that over 46% of the people voted to keep Cincinnati anti-homosexual and to prevent civil unions. That number indicates that people want to keep homosexuals as second class citizens.

Maybe the metaphor I am searching for is that yes we got an A on this test, but we are still failing Humanity 101.

City Services For the Poor to Suffer

The Mayor is proposing budget cuts to programs that will hurt many people. The poor will feel it most. Fire protection Brown-Outs got headlines, but when we cut money to help food banks and women's shelters the news will be muted and the reaction from the public will be nonexistent.

Elections? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Elections

David Broder's column in the Cincinnati Post laments Florida where if you are unopposed and you don't have anyone register as a write-in against you, then you do not appear on the ballot and are automatically made the congressman. I don't know if this applies to all elections in Florida or just Federal Offices. Sounds like someone needs to reform the law. Write-in candidates should not be required to register beforehand, and the public should know who is up for election at least on election day. We have another reason to pity Florida. We in Ohio dodged a bullet this year and would have had total chaos if the vote had been a little bit closer. We still have a very small chance to have that chaos if the provisional ballots go all Kerry's way. Many still hold out hope. I don't and those that do are grasping at straws.

In Case You Missed it

What has been considered one of the most disgusting articles after the election can be read here. It has made the rounds in the blogosphere and if you haven't read it, please do and then understand why I am pissed off.

Now, I am sure that this guy's views are not in the majority among conservatives, but it surely has a significant portion and a growing segment that does feel emboldened by Bush's bare majority win. This write is the type of person I don't trust and for those who silently let him blather on don't make me feel very positive that the country will "heal."

Will the Millworks Kill Downtown?

Will the new mall coming to Oakley in 2006 kill downtown and other retail and entertainment districts around town? This will be more "upscale" so it does appeal to the Mason-Kenwood-Hyde Park crowd, so will that crowd now stay away from Downtown? Are they even going there now?

This seems to make any development for Fountain Square, the Banks, and Main Street back burner efforts.

The only question outstanding: how much will this cost tax payers? In cash, loans, or tax breaks.

UPDATE: Nick Spencer comments in support of the new delvelopment.

Someone is Lying

Warren County Officials are sticking to their guns that the threat on election day was a "10." I think someone might want to mention to someone out in Mason that the Kings Island Eiffel Tower is not real and is a fraction of the actual size.

This is ridiculous. Either the FBI is lying when it says they did not issue a threat against Warren County or that someone in Warren County was looking to make a name for them self and even keep out people from watching the vote counts at the same time.

I says this as I sit in BK, yes BK, blogging during lunch, on the edge of Warren County. This makes me want to laugh, but at the same time cry that people in public office would actually think that a rural county would be a target for terrorism. I know the Bush folks have managed to make a whole lot of people think they, even in their rural home, are targets for international terrorism. Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable, NOOOOO!!!!! People are stupid enough, and these officials show they are, to believe that terrorism is going to hit them, when there is no tangible evidence that anyone is a target out side of major cities or facilities that could cause large amounts of damage. Even then, we are still safe here. Simon Leis and Warren County folks need to take a step back and stop helping Bush mislead the country into living a perpetual state of fear and panic. We all know that is the state of society which makes it easiest to govern. If people are afraid, then they are easier to influence, which in part worked like a charm last week.

Choose and Lose

Korte reports the following from Councilman Sam Malone on who should take Pat DeWine Seat: 'The issues that were instrumental in (President Bush) maintaining his seat are critically important,' Malone said. Translation: Only rock-ribbed social conservatives need apply.Gee, I wonder what Malone will do? Malone has illustrated that he is firmly anti-homosexual, which, campers, makes him a bigot.

I for one would play the gender card on Malone if I were Ghiz. If you want the women's vote, you will do well by putting a woman on council. That might open the door for Barb Trauth, who is in Malone's right wing zone of comfort.

Nick's Picks

Nick Spencer has posted his ideal city council:

1. Me (well, come on, what did you expect?)
2. Fanon Rucker (probably not interested, but he would be great)
3. Laketa Cole (exceptional constituent service, great on Neighborhoods)
4. Jim Tarbell (Commitment to the Center City and the Arts)
5. Dave Crowley (Impeccable Character, Strong Record of Service)
6. Leslie Ghiz (smart, likeable, easy to work with)
7. Damon Lynch III (some really good ideas, represents the unheard voices of our city)
8. Pete Witte (not as bad as you might think, though he has his moments. A working class guy who cares about development and safety)
9. John Connelly (a sincere person with interesting ideas, though I certainly don't agree with many of them).

Now who does Nick leave off off the current list: Sam Malone, David Pepper, Alicia Reece, John Cranley, Chris Smitherman, and Pat Dewine.

Now DeWine got elected to the county commission, so I don't know if Nick would have left him off or not. Pepper and Reece are both likely running for Mayor. Cranley has been toying with something similar but, likely will not. The real losers are Smitherman and Malone. Smitherman gets the special knock because he and Nick both ran on the Charter ticket. Nick is a moderate Replublican and Smitherman is a Democrat, which makes the Charter label rather limited in material impact, but Smitherman has lost some significant support amongst moderates for his defense of extremist boycotters (B and some A's). Malone is a Burress Bigot, so no shock there.

I don't think I could fill out a full slate yet, but I know who on Nick's list I would not vote for: Lynch, Witte, and Connelly.

Lemmie Out?

WLWT is reporting that Cincinnati City Manager Valerie Lemmie may resign.

No official reason or other rationale was given in the report, other than "timing," which makes no sense. The article states that a new administration will be coming in soon. We have over a year before a new administration will be coming in. How is that soon?

Lemmie has been a luke warm city manager. Nothing great, but nothing bad has come down. Her tenure may be short lived, and no one seems to care if she stays or goes. She has few detractors, most outspoken are the boycotters (A and B), but they will denounce everyone even if they don’t say a thing.

I don’t think she will leave, now especially with this report out there. At best this is a trial balloon to gauge the Mayor’s or council’s reaction to see if they throw any support her way.

Enquirer Praises Elizabeth Edwards, but...

They praise her for setting an example, but they don't set an example and condemn Bill Cunningham's spiteful words.