Showing posts with label Smitherman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smitherman. Show all posts

11.06.2013

Cranley Wins-Shortsighted Cincinnati Has Spoken Again

When the Hamilton County Chairman of the Republican Party goes on television and says he is very pleased with the results of last night's mayoral election...and both candidates running were Democrats, there's a big, big problem in Cincinnati and Black people, this is your doing.

Once again, the Black community followed the religiously based Pied Pipers and professional black politician/hustlers down the Yellow Brick Road. It remains to be seen what will be lost this time, although after so many years, there is not much else left to lose.

In Cincinnati the best man for the job of Mayor was a woman, but the male in the race won. He won handily, I might add. Some are even calling it a landslide.

Only 23% of the electorate bothered to exercise their privilege, telling the rest of us that they don't really give a damn about what happens here.

A “landlside” of 23% of all possible voters is an embarrassment. You can read the sorry details here,

So don't walk up to me, message me on FB, text me about any problems you may be having with current events, because I'm going to tell you what to do with your bogus concern.

Ya didn't vote...I'm telling you what you told me by your lack of action...”fuck you. Fuck you very much!”

But back to John Cranley. Cranley campaigned on two issues, stopping the streetcar and leasing the parking meters. He promised that his first action would be to stop the street car project. However, in his victory speech last night, he said he would see what he could do about stopping the project. That is different from stopping something. It shows that Cranley really has no idea what he is going to do, if anything, about the streetcar.

It is being built with federal money. Federal money allocated for the project in question. You can't just take that money and spend it somewhere else. Cranley should know this. Yet he promised exactly that and shortsighted Cincinnati, the ones who can't see across their own street much less the big, down the road picture, bit on the lie hook, line and sinker.

This AM he has asked City Council to suspend all spending on the streetcar until he takes office next month. The streetcar is already under construction, by the way. People are already working.  That is different from when Governor Kasich derailed light rail a few years ago. When Kasich pulled the plug stateside the project was still on paper and in the planning stages. Here it has already begun.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the Feds ask for their money back-money already spent and in the ground, that is. Maybe the City can begin giving paid tours of the Cincinnati Subway and Cincinnati streetcar projects-the people mover projects that never were, sort of thing, in order to raise revenue.

As for City Council-voted sorta clueless. Sittenfeld led all voters. That is a good thing. Seelbach won too. We've still got the openly gay man on council. That is good. Young and Simpson return. That is good. David Mann, former mayor, Councilman and Congressman returns. That is great. Winburn and Smitherman, Cincinnati's version of Herman Cain and Alan Keyes are back for yet another encore. The newbies are Republican Amy Murray, who is also a returning Councilmember and Kevin Flynn, an attorney who had been running unsuccessfully for a few years now.

So now what? Everybody gets sworn in next month and then let the games begin.


11.09.2011

2011 Ohio Election Results



Well, Ohio still can't seem to get it right on federal health care, but never the less Ohioans did get it right more often than not, in this off year election last night.  Issue 3, was largely a symbolic vote against what the GOP calls Obamacare. It was really on the ballot so that the GOP/teabags can mount a court challenge to health care. Issue 3 spoke to the mandate requiring that all Americans have health care.


If the federal health care mandate is wrong...then so is the requirement for having insurance, in general, Right? Think the business driven GOP is going to kill one its staunchest allies, the insurance industry? I think not, in the long run. So we will have these skirmishes until SCOTUS rules.


Ohio did get it right on SB 5, Kasich's first and blatant attempt at union busting. SB 5 or Issue 2, went down in flames, which was a good thing in particular for the LGBT community. In addition to union busting, if SB 5 had been allowed to stand all hard won domestic partnership rights would have been flushed down the toilet. This is because domestic partnership benefits are negotiated rights in Ohio and SB 5 would have turned back the clock and prohibited unions from negotiating for them in the future. This is what SB 5 said:
The recognition or extension by the state of the specific statutory benefits of a legal marriage to non-marital relationships between persons of the same sex or different sexes is against the strong public policy of this state. Any public act, record or judicial proceeding of this state, as defined in section 9.82 of the Revised Code, that extends the specific statutory benefits of legal marriage to non-marital relationships between persons of the same sex or different sexes is void.”
Don't think Kasich is done. I'm sure he will now take a page out of President Obama's book and attempt to piece meal this travesty through the house, when he thinks folks are no longer paying attention.

Voters in Cincinnati elected a democratic majority to City Council. The field was led by Roxanne Qualls, followed by newcomer PG Sittenfeld, Wendell Young, Cecil Thomas, Charlie Winburn, Laure Quinlivan, Yvette Simpson, Chris Smitherman, and Chris Seelbach.

Incumbents, all of em GOP, were unceremoniously retired. Those would be the Bortz family scion, the immature and mean girl Ghiz, the Japanese speaking Murray and the very bland and vanilla Lippert.

The fact that voters returned Winburn and Smitherman to council means the city must still need some comedy relief mixed in with its politics in these dire economic times.

Another good sign that the city is waking up is the vote on Issue 48, which was a COAST driven amendment that would have destroyed all city development until 2020 if it had passed. It didn't, thankfully. The street car will go forward and that is a good thing.

Cincinnati's school levy failed....not surprised...there are not enough homeowners in the city to make this an equitable tax. This statewide taxing system is well past its expiration date and needs to be changed.

The war on women is still raging, but with a little less steam, today. The personhood amendment in Mississippi, failed by a wide margin. However, the papers to resurrect it have already been filed here in Ohio. This very bad law criminalizes sex, and pregnancy, putting all burden on the woman while exempting men and their sperm from all childbearing and child-raising consequences.

Overall a good night.... now if we can just get that Kasich recall going for real..