Cincy Blogging & Politics

The local mainstream press is giving blogs a little attention today, but instead of discussion more about what we post on, this is more about the efforts of the Bush Administration to limit Free Speech. So this is an article about political blogging. Talk Radio is allowed to attack every Democrat out there, yet no one in the Bush administration lifts a finger. A few Dem bloggers raised a little bit of money for candidates by having a few links on their site, and WOW we have a federal case.

Leave blogs alone. We are the embodiment of Freedom of the Press for the 21st Century. You don't need a corporation or a license to be protected both under Freedom of the Press and Speech clauses of the 1st Amendment. I for one will not be changing anything that I do. I can saw that because on a local level I generally try to cover everyone. I don't do it fairly. I am a liberal and I favor liberals. I can be fair. I am far more fair to local Republicans than WLW is to Democrats. That may have to do with their willingness to bash or just ignore the City of Cincinnati. I respect most Republicans running for City Council in at least as much as I am convinced they support and like the city. They want to succeed. I think many or even most Republicans outside the City would rather see it fail, and come in and scoop up the power for themselves 10 years from now. This is why I believe Metro Government is making a push in Republican circles around here, not Democratic circles.

Council Race

Hey, does everyone remember Cincinnati City Council has an election this year? The mayor's race has been getting the ink lately, so lets at least recap who is on the ballot:

Charter:
Chris Bortz
Chris Smitherman
Nick Spencer
Jim Tarbell

Democrats
Jeff Berding
Eve Bolton
Laketa Cole
John Cranley
David C. Crowley
Samantha Herd
Damon Lynch, III
Cecil Thomas
Wendell Young

Republicans
John Eby
Leslie Ghiz
Sam Malone
Chris Monzel

And the Rest
Bill Barron
Bennie Green
Antonio Hodge
Gerry Kraus
William S. Mathews, II
Paul McGhee
Ishaq Nadir
Michael Earl Patton
Victor Phillips
Ronnie Stallworth
Curtis Wells
Robert J. Wilking
Eric Wilson
Robert Wilson

Tour of Downtown Living

Those living downtown may have had a few vistors today: The Tour of Downtown Living started this morning. Anyone go? Any views on the types of places available?

Midpoint Concert Photos by Scott Preston

Check out a wide variety of Midpoint Photos from Caribou Studios.

Things You Don't Know

A very interesting interview with Norma Rashid. I never knew why she left television, but viral cardiomyopathy does explain why.

Smoked Filled Room

The Ohio Republican party wasted no time endorsing Mike DeWine's re-election bid. You don't suppose Mike's involvement with the Gang of 14 worried GOP leaders that he might face a bloody primary challenge next year from the right wing of the party?

20 Days and 20 Nights: Photo Contest

Send a Blog Entry and Photo to the folks at ETA and you could win a membership. Details are here.

He Just Hates Gays

I will never understand the Log Cabin Republicans. In today’s political climate they are roundly hated by the power structure of the GOP. When I say hate I use it in the context that the GOP Power Structures uses the hate and fear of gays as one of the main issues they use to rally the voters.

None-the-less, the local Log Cabin Republicans have issued their endorsements for council and pick Leslie Ghiz, and to a lesser degree John Eby and Paul McGee.

What caught my eye from Korte's blog post was ending which included a quote from local Log Cabin Republican President Ted Jackson:

Not endorsed were incumbent Republican Councilmen Sam Malone and Chris Monzel. Malone, who ran the campaign last year opposing the repeal of Article XII, wouldn't even talk to the group, Jackson said. Monzel was more receptive, but stuck to his opposition to gay rights.

"That was one, for me personally, that kind of tore me up," Jackson said. "Chris is a great Republican and a good guy."

While I have never met Chris Monzel, I have heard from everyone that is a very good guy. That said, how can you really be so great if you oppose Gay Rights? Or more to the point, how can people be called a good guy by a group who Monzel believes do not deserve equal rights? He is a great guy, I guess, he just hates gays.

I guess this is crutch of many people who are not on board with support for Gay rights. This also applies to some Democrats out there, but not on the scale that it hits the GOP. People can go on about how they are good people and don't discriminate based on race or religion or gender or nationality or even to a degree on sexual orientation. When it comes to granting Gays equal rights under the law, many otherwise good people just say no.

Malone Trial Put Off

Councilman and accused child abuser Sam Malone, had his trail postponed until after the election. I don't know if this will help his election chances or not. If he is "innocent," which I personally doubt, he would gain vindication of sorts with an acquittal before the election. He would get doubly screwed if he was convicted. So, he is likely helped, as much as it can help with his horrible reputation. I seriously doubt he can be elected, even with the GOP endorsement. The GOP I think put all of their chances with getting Winburn in the top two for the Mayor’s race. Once he was crushed, so was the GOP’s chances to gain anything on council.

City Council Candidates Speak

City Council candidates answer your questions

Follow the Money

The battle for the buck

In case you missed it: David Pepper is not Adolph Hitler

Greg Korte has the full background, but evidently David Pepper is not Adolph Hitler. Mark Mallory was happy to point this out and showed humor and a bit of class in how he responded to David Pepper's overzealous campaign staff out to try and blame Mark Mallory for every bad thing said about David Pepper.

The Classy move for Mallory should go down as a classic political move:

Concerned that denouncing mean statements against David Pepper could be an on-going problem, the Mallory campaign has taken the proactive step of requesting that the Pepper Campaign send daily e-mail updates about any new mean statements made by anyone that need to be denounced. The Mallory Campaign is hopeful that all denouncements can be completed by 10:00 am daily, so that the campaign can return to the normal business of discussing real issues.

In one press release, Mallory is able to make Pepper's campaign look childish, make people paying attention like my laugh my ass off, and distance himself from Nate Livingston. Brilliant!

MIAMI 44, UC 16

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.

RedHawks get offensive

Ring that Bell!

Mayoral Campaign Getting Negative

Despite what Pepper is saying, both candidates are playing on the negatives of the other candidate. There is nothing wrong with doing it, but when you say your not trying to be "negative" and then you are negative, well, you look like you are making a very poor argument, and are talking out of both sides of your mouth.

Negative is not being dirty. Negative is saying "my opponent is not good," and then adding something they did wrong or associating them with a problem. Mallory has done it, fairly effectively. Pepper has been avoiding it, until yesterday. Does this suggest that Pepper senses he could lose or is behind in the polls? I know of no polls out there, outside of the 146 vote difference in the primary, to suggest Pepper need worry. The primary result should have made him more than worried; it should have put the fear of Zeus into him. I expect the negative attacks to continue. I don't think they will work for Pepper. They do work for Mallory.

20 Days and 20 Nights

CiN Weekly profiles 20 Days and 20 Nights.

Bronson Misleading You, Again

I know it should go without saying, but Peter Bronson is once again misleading his readers. He tries to claim that it is easier for a kid to get an abortion, than get an aspirin. Well, anyone with a brain can grasp that this is plainly FALSE. I would say he goes father and just plain lies:Public schools require permits, doctor's permission and written consent from parents to give a Tylenol to a student. It's much easier for an eighth-grader to get an abortion.A 14 year old could show how Bronson's comparison is plainly wrong.

1. You can't get an abortion at a public school, no matter what the anti-abortionists say.
2. Any 14 year old kid can walk to any drug store, grocery store, or mini-mart and buy aspirin.
3. There are not abortion clinic's on every corner.
4. There are laws preventing 14 year olds from get legal abortions without parental involvement.
   
5. The example he provided was and EXTREME instance where a clinic was lied too by a man now in jail.

So yes, Bronson is leading off his column with a lie. He then tries to paint Planned Parenthood as being evil. Well, that is not going to work much. Bronson is not going to convince anyone of that who does not already think it. He might get a few donations for the groups out to control women's bodies, but he is not going to change any minds. He has I hope shown to some that he is not honest in what he writes. How can an editor allow this to go into print? It is so plainly false, it is not even funny. Hmmm, you don't suppose there are those on the editorial board who are extreme anti-abortionists?

MidPoint Festival swells to 50,000

Sounds like good news.

More from Rick Bird at the Post.

Term-limit Congress

A guest columnist calls for Term-limits for Congress. I hate to tell them the news, but every two years we have term limits built in. We call those limits elections. Yes, people don't like to use those limits as much as they could. The columnist raises the point of getting people to "forget" party loyalty and try and get an amendment passed to limit the terms of congress. If we could get people to start voting outside of party lines, then the existing term limit program, you know - the elections, would work more often.

Here in Ohio we see that term limits don't work, just look at State government where jumping offices from Secretary of State to Treasurer to AG is not doing much for the term limits already on the books.

MidPoint Day Three

GitoGito Hustler

Hot, fast, brilliant. I was floored by GitoGito Hustler and I was equally floored by the massive crowd at alchemize. I have never been there when it has been so crowded; they had to close off the club to anyone who was not smart enough to come early.

MidPoint was overall great! My last night included sets by, Unfinished Thought, Culture Queer, the Woos and Ryan Adcock as well as the double punk wammie of the Spunks and GitoGito Hustler.

We finshed off the night with a late night Shanghi Mama's feast.

The streets of OTR along Main Street came alive for three days. The crowd was large enough last night to close off traffic late up Main until after 3AM. The traffic all night long up Main was a parking lot.

We were in a mega big city for a few nights and it was great. I don't know if I would want that every night in this town, but knowing we can do it and we do it from time to time makes living in Cincinnati great.

On the Town

Councilman Cruising MidPoint

You never know who is going to be driving around in his car during MidPoint. Here Councilman Jim Tarbell stopped to say hello.