Cranley Promotes Lax Law EnforcementCincinnati Mayoral Candidate John Cranley proclaimed that fines for illegal, anti-social behavior are a "hidden tax". As part of the old school Cincinnati Democrat machine, coddling unions & brushing crime under the rug probably just comes naturally to Cranley

Fishwarp article here.

Everybody's Gonna Die
Here's how to get to Ohio's last casino - and probably the last place you will ever go ~ you won't be going home.
As you can see by the map, it's a veritable gauntlet of thugees, assasins, dacoits & C.H.U.D. . The streets of Cincinnati will be rivers of blood and gore when the casino opens March 4. The fires, like mass pyres, will light the night sky for miles while inhuman shrieks & howls will echo off brick walls - gorges of madness and pain.
Go ahead, roll the dice….

∃ ∀ ∈ ⊕

Chinese Graves
United States society is a blend of conservatism, enlightenmentism & capitalism. Our English roots are the conservative part which include a dedication to our society, traditions and spirituality. Our enlightenment aspect rejects class, nobility & superstition. Capitalism helps us grow & become greater people both as individuals and as a society but has a common pitfall of overshadowing our commitment to our society & individuals & becoming a soul crushing path to avarice, lust & gluttony. We have a bit of a balancing act & we see Americans slip one way or another every day. We also tend to see some of the greatest successes in the world.
A hallmark of commieism is a spiritless soul crushing arbitrarily defined pragmatism. While China was, for thousands of years, an incredibly conservative society, about 60 years ago, they did a complete 180 - bypassed enlightenmentness and went full throttle commie. In later years they started going capitalist but without the traditional human factor to govern their velocity - no balancing act at all. So where's that get ya?
The rampant desecration of over 2,000,000 graves

Two million tombs in Zhoukou, one of the oldest cities on the mainland, have been removed over the past few months under a new provincial government policy to make more land available for agriculture.

The above video was made to protest this action. Some of the words the kids added wereFor thousands of year, we have visited our ancestors’ graves.
This is our tradition.

You wipe your ass, dig up our ancestors’ graves
and they are homeless.The spirit is still there, it's just being trampled by the lust for money & power that consumes the soulless government billionaires.

More translation here

And to clean Gangnam Style out of your noggin, go here
"

Happy Birthday, OhioBorn March 1, 1803 sorta....

Ohio legislator Dale Mallory, impeached by his neighborhood community council, riding on his family's coattails to Columbus & whose political opponents have suffered arson attempts has co-sponsored legislation restricting cash strapped cities, counties & townships from using inexpensive technology to fight crime & promote safety. With Columbus tax breaks to the rich, made on the backs of local governments & new taxes for the middle class, this will add yet another burden to the taxpayers.
Apparently, the statist neocon Columbus mentality has rubbed off onto him. Thankfully this disgrace to the Queen City is in his last term. We need people in Columbus who will restore liberty to the people and remove the shackles from local governments so they cn be more competitive.

H. B. No. 69

The Bonomini Bakery
Get down. I have never seen this place so empty.....
But everyone there is friendly.

1677 Blue Rock Street
FaceBook

SORTA Gives Up On Money GrabWVXU reports Cincinnati city Council & SORTA have settled their disputes.

Connecting the Dots
eventually…Because Blogging Isn't Cool is always on the ball…..
I just noticed that The Lloyd Library in psychedelic downtown Cincinnati was showing an exhibit of 'psychedelic' mushroom stuff called What Makes the Reindeer Fly?. Unfortunately it ends on 2/28. What is interesting about this timing is that it coincides with the Union Terminal Museum Center exhibiting The Dead Sea Scrolls that goes thru April 14.
What ties these 2 exhibits together is the work of John Allegro, one of the original Scroll translators who put 2 & 2 together to surmise that Jesus in the Gospels was actually a code for a type of hallucinogen, the Amanita muscaria, and that Christianity was the product of an ancient "sex-and-mushroom" cult.
His book, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross is fairly beat up but available at the Hamilton County library.
It was from this book that I learned a lot about the different mind altering effects of various mushrooms and that really bothered me when the Cincinnati police, Hamilton County prosecutor and the press so cavalierly used the term 'magic mushroom' in the David Hebert murder case.

Spun Has Begun
Watching business start ups can be pretty grueling just for the potential customer. Here in bucolic Northside we have seen the American Can retrofitting take years to complete. There was supposed to be a restaurant open there back in September/October of 2012. The space between the apartments & Hamilton Avenue, The Old Myron Johnson lumber yard, has gone nowhere. Plans for a micro brewery there kinda came & went. The Clifton IGA is over a year late & still not open. The Listing Loon craft beer & wine store opened almost 6 months late. New tenants of the old Charles Miller funeral home were a couple months late. A Mexican restaurant on Spring Grove, in the old Kay's location never even opened.
But Spun Bicycle, after announcing a 3/9/13 opening date, has already opened! And they are already selling bikes!
Hopefully, this will mark the beginning of a new trend.

Why Invest in Ancient Technology Like Bridges ?
Bridges harken back to earlier and simpler times. They're nostalgic. We love them. But do we love them to the tune of SIX BILLION DOLLARS ?
The fact is, within the next 10 years, we'll all be flying around with jet packs like the one being developed by the guys at SkyFlash.
Indeed, the obsolete old rusty bridges will eventually just be obstacles and liabilities. After spending almost TEN BILLION DOLLARS to build a new bridge that nobody wants, will we be able to afford to tear it down?
A cool new bridge would be nice but, let's face it, we're broke & new technologies are coming along every day. Maybe it would be best to take pictures of these old bridges for coffee table books - they're not the way of the future.

SkyFlash on PhaseBuch

BBC Goes Zombie
The BBC has done a number of low budget touchy feely horror mystery series in the past & now they have one with a zombie theme that seems to be in the Warm Bodies vein with, maybe, a touch of Dexter. Has the CW got a teen zombie show, yet?

The Bizarro World of the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of AppealsThe Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard a case where a non-state resident was denied a concealed carry permit. The law enforcement agency claimed it could not do a sufficient background check on the non-resident's history. The court was ok with that but then went on to say nobody really has the 'right' to carry a concealed weapon.
In my mind this second part is ass-backwards. Nowhere in the constitution does it say how you bear arms.
Still, the local law enforcement agency has a point & we would probably all be better off with better inter-agency communications between state law enforcement agencies. Maybe the NRA could come up with some system & the cash to implement it for police to do inter-state background checking.

Bizniz Inside story here

Saturday Round Up

WWE Challenges Glenn BeckWWE challenges cartoon character, Glenn Beck, to explain why he thinks the audience of the pro wrestling comic book is stupid.

WWE went on, explaining its creation of an overtly racist character: "WWE is creating a rivalry centered on a topical subject that has varying points of view. This storyline was developed to build the Mexican American character Del Rio into a hero given WWE's large Latino base, which represents 20 percent of our audience."

Pope Resigns Amidst Voter Fraud ScandalPopeBenedict XVI resigns as the Catholic church reels from even more scandals as gruesome Cincinnati nun is accused of voting for her dead room mate.

Cincinnati Plans Needed Grocery StoreA new development at 4th and Race Street will have a grocery store - something absolutely needed since the nearest one is 0.9 miles away and, as such, is non-existent.

"Mike Ziegler, senior vice president at Colliers International, said many people who think about moving downtown don't because they’ll still have to drive to get to a grocery store."

The grocer will be one curently not serving the area. Why the city ignores other neighborhoods or drags it's heels helping local grocers in communities with less choice in grocery store remains a mystery.

Tweet From the Grave as a Cyber ZombieBecause the suggestions from Amazon & iTunes really reflect your interests, why not use the same lame tech to send out tweets & FaceBook posts & likes after you die - just when everybody agrees you are a nice guy - annoy them some more….

Bulgarian Government ResignsAmidst protests against austerity measures, the Bulgarian government resigns.

Sitting at the light, the motorist has GOT to want to inch up a little bit at a time while waiting…..
Never got that.
While the cyclist sitting in the middle of the lane at the light is a good idea, after getting through the intersection, she, as a slow moving vehicle, should move to the right to make it easier for motorists to pass - it's called "Sharing the Road".

Zombie Gals Are the BEST!

POTUS to Address Ohio State CommencementI didn't vote for Obama. I didn't go to Ohio State. But I live in Ohio & the President of the United States is going to speak at the main state University.
Headlines at some Ohio newspaper websites:

Obama to give commencement address at Ohio State
Cox News - Springfield News Sun & Dayton Daily News

Obama to give Ohio State commencement speech
Columbus Dispatch

President Barack Obama to deliver Ohio State University's commencement speech
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Obama to speak at OSU spring commencement
Youngstown News

Obama Coming to Ohio, Again
Fishwarp Politics blog

While SW Ohio residents gnash their teeth, pound their fists, stomp their feet and wail about dumbass politicians squandering their money on a streetcar, everybody seems pretty satisfied with a replacement bridge over the Ohio River as long as they don't have to pay for it.
One thing seriously pissing people off is Duke Energy wanting to pass utility relocation costs for the streetcar project off onto users outide of Cincinnati. But that's a mere $15M compared to the $87,000,000 needed for utility moving for the bridge everyone is vowing to avoid. And their rate hike? It should net around $100,000,00. hm….. 87 + 15 = 102…..
While estimates for the streetcar were to the tune of $12M/mile, the bridge is coming out around $375,000,000/mile ($71,000/foot). Somehow that doesn't seem steep. But bids for the streetcar came in as much as twice the estimated cost. But is this government stupidity? Maybe. The various governmental agencies that came up with these projects worked with pro engineering firms to come up with these estimates. In fact - the same engineering pros. So, if they were that far off once, why not twice? Might the replacement bridge nobody wants to pay for actually wind up costing $6,000,000,000 ($142,000/foot)?
Before we spend all this money on a duplicate bridge (ancient technology, BTW), we should try a temporary pontoon bridge, with tolls, across the river. If people use it, well maybe a bridge is needed.

Top 10 TV Comedy / Horror Mash-Ups I Would Love to SeeMixing up horror & comedy has been very successful in the past, it seems to me that in these trying times, provoked by right wing militant zealots around the world, this kinda shit would do particularly well today. Since corporate media can't come up with anything original, I propose resurrecting these proven American television comedies for makeovers with horrific twists.

Beverly Hellbillies
The family decides to go Frankenstein. Jethro moves up to an AD in biology, Ellie is working hard on human animal hybrids, Granny is always cooking up golems, resurrection potions & such while Jed, as usual, is just trying to hold things together with good old common sense. Meanwhile, Mr Drysdale thinks he will eventually get rich on military contracts from the creations the hellbillies are cranking out week after week to the audiences great comical delight. As usual, Miss jane will preach prudence and decency while falling for each and every depraved whim of Jethro Bodean.

Vampire Junction
The crazy hijinks of a trio of beautiful vampire sisters in Hooterville - a small rural town of vampires, werewolves & other supernatural creatures.
yeah - that's never been done...

2.5 Weremen
This would follow the lives of 2 shapeshifting brothers & the one hapless brother's son in Malibu following his humiliating divorce. Meanwhile the other brother would find himself in all sorts of zany predicaments in his drunken oversexed escapades with strange & dangerous supernatural creatures.
You could also call it True Blood - Malibu.

Route 666
2 handsome young guys who travel the U.S. in a sports car & are never suspected of being gay, seduce, kill & eat the lonely & disturbed people who they meet along the way. yeah - it doesn't sound funny, it would need a comedic rewriting of Stirling Silliphant's way cool monolouges.

The Brady Cult
Mr & Mrs Brady, childless widowers, recruit runaway children & force them into all sorts of evil, depraved hijinks including supplying the maid's boyfriend with product - always under the threat of bodily abuse.

Loa Ed
Wilbur has a talking goat that channels various loa, getting the eccentric & clumsy architect into all sorts of madcap predicaments.

Will & Grace & Zombies
Just that

Hell's Heroes
Madcap humor about an ethnically diverse group of souls trapped in hell who deal with the oafish yet sadistic demons & devils who command them.

The Third World Theory
2 anthropologists move into an apartment building across the hall from a Vodou mambo who seduces one & zombifies the other, who, subsequently says the same things over & over again to great comedic effect.

M.A.S.H.
Mobile Anguish Suffering & Horror
A U.S. military post of drunken, over-sexed interrogators & vivisectionists stationed in a camp in Korea where captured North Korean prisoners & nearby villagers are tortured - all the while keeping their devilish hijinks a secret from higher military officials & the press.

Assholes on TV
This is pretty humorous. These clueless dumbasses would be headless if they talked this crap about Islam.
As it is, the school is not issuing any new policy, anybody who knows anything about this shit knows there's 8 sabbats - not 20. Maybe they should ridicule all the Catholic "Saint's days" while they are on a roll. Does the Mormon they supported for president do anything a little funny?
When you find yourself in a hole - quit digging.

There's a petition you can sign here, dunno if it will do any good considering these guys thrive on sensationalist douchebaggery.

Cincinnati City Hall Mobile AppI think Cincinnati was talking about this maybe 2 years ago.....
Anyhoo, Cincinnati has a 'connect to city hall' app, you can
Look up trash, recycling and street sweeping days
Locate and report problems by address
GPS-enabled, so you can report issues even when you don't know the address
Bookmark locations for quick reporting
Track the status of your complaints
Searchable map with Property Owner information

iOS & Android

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman Makes a Spectacle of HimselfThe Fishwarp reports:

"Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, announced Thursday that he would support a GOP filibuster of Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary."

But is Portman & his radical GOP cabal just embarrassing the core of the party?
The American Conservative suggests:

"No one outside of a small core of hard-liners sympathizes with what Senate Republicans are doing.
The entire episode shows them to be hopelessly beholden to people whose foreign policy views have led to disaster for the country and contributed to three major Republican defeats."

.Just another political failure from SW Ohio…..

Springfield Summer Arts Festival Schedule ReleasedThe schedule for the place once called the stage in Cliff Park:

• June 13: Who’s Bad: A Tribute to Michael Jackson, 8 p.m.
• June 14: Phil Dirt and the Dozers, 8 p.m.
• June 15: The Motown sounds of the Dayton group Touch, 8 p.m.
• June 16: Mad River Theater Works, 2 p.m., at the Springfield Center for the Arts at Wittenberg
• June 16: Springfield Symphony Orchestra, 8 p.m.
• June 19: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, 8 p.m.
• June 20: Urban Jazz Coalition, 8 p.m.
• June 21: Parrots of the Caribbean (Jimmy Buffett tribute), 8 p.m., with the Parrothead Party in the Park at 5 p.m.
• June 22: Night Fever: The Tribute to the Bee Gees, 8 p.m.
• June 23: The Young Lions, a jazz ensemble from the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, 2 p.m., at the arts center
• June 27-30: "The Wizard of Oz," 8 p.m.
• June 30: Teenage singer-guitarist Noah Back, 2 p.m., at the arts center
• July 1: The U.S. Army Field Band and Chorus, 8 p.m.
• July 2: Russian folk groups Moscow Nights and Golden Gates, 8 p.m.
• July 3: Hotel California: The Original Tribute to The Eagles, 8 p.m.
• July 5: Yesterday: The Beatles Tribute, 8 p.m.
• July 6: Cirque Zuma Zuma, 8 p.m.
• July 7: Hayseed Project Farmers Market, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the arts center, with music by the Tarheel Boys and Wild Carrot
• July 7: Singer-songwriter Susan Werner, 8 p.m.
• July 8: The Dark Star Orchestra (Grateful Dead tribute), 7 p.m.
• July 12: Springfield native Griffin House, 8 p.m.
• July 13: Brass Transit: The Musical Legacy of Chicago, 8 p.m.
• July 14: The Gary Geis Dance Company, 2 p.m., at the arts center
• July 17-20: "Footloose," 8 p.m.

More from the Noose Son here

hey - Let's Hose CincinnatiCincinnati's streetcar infrastructure bids are in & all are higher than what the city & their engineering associates had budgeted.
The bids are for more than just tracks but they are coming in to the tune of $19.6M - $24.3M per mile. The city had budgeted $12.3 per mile.
In a report by Paul Weyerich & William Lind titled "Bring Back the Streetcars - A Conservative Vision of Tomorrow's Urban Transportation" a good price is about $10M per mile. They point out what other cities paid

• Portland - $12.4M/mile
• Tampa - $13.7M/mile
• Little Rock - $7.1M/mile
• San Pedro - $4M/mile

San Francisco paid $30M per mile but they were using granite, marble & planted palm trees along the route.
While the report is old, inflation in general can't account for the price difference as Portland's cost would come out to less than $16M today.
Is Cincinnati planning on palm trees? A car palace?
Or are the bids padded to take into account the threat of legal actions that might be pursued by rabid litigious elements of Hamilton County?

Come ON, Dayton !
This video discusses the Cleveland Arcade which is seriously awesome. I grew up haunting the much more modeest but still cool Springfield Arcade which was left to rot, mismanaged, denounced as a haven for hippies and subsequently demolished & replaced with a weird 7/8 scale hotel.
Cincinnati killed theirs way back in the 20s.
The Gem City still has it's arcade but it is falling apart & could easily disappear despite the valiant efforts of the Friends of the Dayton Arcade.
This should not happen. It doesn't have to. Maybe the Dayton Arcade could someday host a Libertarian or Green convention.

More School Violence
Unfortunately, faculty & staff were not armed to the teeth when Precious Allen & posse stormed into Withrow High School & beat the shit out of a student. Were the school not a gun free zone they might have left the family looking like Bonnie & Clyde.

WLWT story here

Racial Separatist Condemns Critical Analysis of SmithermanRacial separatist Jim Clingman, famous for his giggling diatribes on Media Bridges espousing 'Blackenomics' in Cincinnati, has spoken out against detractors of megalomaniac Cincinnati city councilman Chris Smitherman, decrying them as 'shameful'.
While I applaud his efforts to convince people to 'shop local', his passive racist boycott of non-black businesses is completely unacceptable. If this is the face of a Smitherman supporter it doesn't speak well of the councilman and his other allies like COA T.

Cincinnati Harold article here.

2/9/1113

The Face of Voter Fraud
Dunno if this chick is just simple or off her rocker. She should definitely never work a poll again and should never vote again. Jail? Dunno, I'm kinda thinking mental institution.
What blows me away about this case, however, is that absolutely none of the measures taken to combat voter fraud & improve voting would have had any effect on her. Moving poll locations, changing hours, tedious ID requirements and poll worker gag orders - none of it would have changed a thing.

Is Cranley Shutting Out Berns ?The Fishwarp reports that real estate speculator John Cranley has issued a debate challenge to Cincinnati vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls but has opted to not include Mayoral candidate Jim Berns. Is this Democrat elitism or does Cranley just want to make the debate exclusive to candidates who haven't submitted signatures yet?
or…….
Did the Fishwarp just forget / omit Berns' invitation?

Maybe You Can Take it With You
Cool idea - hope it catches on. I'm thinking I'd be torn between Taco Bell or White Castle.....
Definitely would have a mix CD for the procession, although I can't imagine how to synch 'em all up.
What's sad is that there would still be people who would complain.

Jim Berns has Libertarian FartCincinnati Mayoral candidate (so far the only one) has challenged the Cincinnati City Council to eliminate the need for a primary vote for the office.

Let’s see if they can do something as easy and sensible as this

The primary was part of the plan to change the system of electing mayors directly that the public voted on. That is - it's not up to council & any attempt to circumvent the voters is certainly not libertarian. His obvious disregard for the public and the democratic process is troubling. Has Berns' years at DAAP made him an elitist? Has his view from the hill filled his head with delusions of grandeur? Does he want to be mayor...
or king?
Fishwarp story here

TPB - AFK
Coming to a terminal near you 2/8/13, The Pirate Bay - Away From Keyboard. Hopefully, it will have more likable characters than Social Network…..

Springfield Snags Convention Business from CincinnatiNo doubt due to downtown Cincinnati's collapse Springfield won the 2014 Ohio Travel Association conference over the Queen City. Springfield has been touting their new Hollenbeck Bayley Creative Arts & Conference Center on the Clark State campus at the south end of town.

More than 300 people from Ohio’s tourism industries will come to Springfield for a statewide conference that is expected to bring $200,000 in revenue to the city.

The Marriott Courtyard hotel has been working with the Clark County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau to lure more conventions to the area.

"Springfield is a very workable location," [CVB director, Chris] Schutte said. "You can leave your car in one place and walk to the convention sites or to places like the Heritage museum or our dining options."

In fact, the conference center is less than an hour's walk from the 120 unit hotel and Heritage Center with Hardees, McDonald's, Rally's, Springfield Bar B Cue, Casano's, Wendy's, Taco Bell & Schuler's along the way.

Noose Son article here

An Interesting ContrastPerhaps it's the difference in generations but Tea Party rookie Senator Rand Paul is saying foreign policy needs to move to the legislature & away from the executive branch. Meanwhile, conservative veteran Pat Buchanan asks if the GOP legislators are even capable of handling foreign policy

Is the Republican Party, as currently constituted, even capable of conducting a foreign policy befitting a world power?

Rand

Pat

Reflecting on Imia
Thousands of Greeks rallied to remember the deaths of 3 Greek soldiers who died in a border dispute on 2/2/96. More bloodshed was averted when the US stepped in and negotiated a truce based on the standing that nothing had changed. The land in question was a rock out in the sea called Imia.Or Kardak, it depends on which side of the border you're on. Or which side of the border the island is on…..Battling over a couple barren hunks of rock might seem silly to folks in the US but you have to draw a border somewhere. It's just that the borders in that area have changed and the bosses have changed so many times in the thousands of years people have lived in the area. That border isn't as benign as the Ohio - Michigan border either. It represents a significant ethnic & cultural border as well with religious differences preceding Christianity & Islam.Americans have no real cultural or ethnic purity. We might be European but that's about as pure as it gets and our history? At best, 500 years, The Turkish capitol of Istanbul, once a Roman city, was founded about 2,700 years ago as the Greek city of Byzantium. it's all just history of a land thousands of miles away for us but it's home turf for these guys.
I'm babbling now, but, can a nation with such a historically shallow culture as the US even be 'conservative'?

HAH!
Why do these preachers say, "HAH!" at the end of each phrase? I can't understand the words but it sounds like she's talking about food - pizza, potatoes...
Which is probably why the thirty something pastor is clinging to a railing…..

Suburbs Offering More Lower Paying JobsThe suburbs of Cincinnati, long known for not having high paying jobs, are becoming centers for low paying jobs.
Read all about it at the Fishwarp

The Wall Street Journal did a pretty superficial article on the effectiveness of red light cameras. The most important thing in the article was Kimberly Eccles statement,

She added that red-light cameras generally are effective when deployed correctly. However, "because of the controversial nature of red-light cameras, I do believe an agency should consider everything else" before installing them, she said.

However the article was marred by bistro statistical nonsense like

Simple before-and-after comparisons also won't do, researchers say. For one thing, intersections typically are chosen for camera installation because they have had a spate of accidents. That makes them due for a fall just by statistical chance.

One of the problems towns have faced is doling out the cameras in a political way. The tech needs to be deployed by the traffic pros.
One thing that happened at a light in Washington DC is that, while citations went down, virtually all the people later cited were from out of town. Safety was achieved as locals adjusted but out-of-towners (DC is a huge tourist town) kept screwing up. This indicates to me that there was a problem with the intersection. Monitoring the intersection, however, could lead designers to find a better solution.
Of course we can't do this in Cincinnati since voters, after a fear campaign spearheaded by COA T & NA CP, threw the baby out with the bathwater. Now every red light related crippling injury & death in Cincinnati can be laid at their blood drenched feet.

Read the whole article here

The truth about Cincinnati's plan that counters the FUD perpetrated about it here

Horror Sells

there - have a nice weekend

Cincinnati - Duke Agree to Disagree
Cincinnati & Duke Energy have decided to let a judge decide who should pay to move electric & gas lines under the cities streets. This could also settle who will pay for utility moving with the Brent Spence Bridge replacement boondoggle. This comes after Mayoral hopeful Roxanne Qualls challenged the administration to get moving & get the project done. But what does Mayoral hopeful John Cranley have to say about all this progress?

""No matter the motivation, rushing to complete the streetcar while there are millions of dollars in unresolved issues and a looming mayoral election is just not a good idea," he said in a statement."

So, after 10 years of studying & planning he wants to slow down because of some unanswered questions? More of Cranley's FUD.5 years ago he issued 9 pages of mostly inane questions about the project in an obstructionist ploy to stop the project he had initially supported.

More from the Business Courier here

Portman's Dollar-for-Dollar Deficit Reduction Amendments DismissedPortman, a veteran of a myriad of budget battles, proposed a plan requiring spending reductions equal to any future increases in the debt ceiling. His half assed thinking is not appreciated.
Southwestern Ohio has been plagued with superficial, half baked representation in Congress and the Senate; Portman doing his best to be worse than Chabot.

Fishwarp article here

ChallengesOn May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade.
On July 20, 1969, we sent Apollo 11 238,900 miles to the moon & back.
On January 31, 2013 Cincinnati vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls issued a similar challenge to build a 3.5 mile streetcar line in 2 years, by July 2015.
This is the kind of leadership & can-do spirit we need in Cincinnati.

oh, Come On, Gem City…Dayton is considering aerial surveillance cameras. Unfortunatly, nothing cool & futuristic - no rat-brained drones or anything, just some guy flying around over the city. I'd think that the clowns at Wright Pat would be offering all sorts of high-tech Homeland Security surplus gear to experiment on the domestics.
oh well….

Going High Tech on the CrowsSpringfield has employed a number of strategies to deal with their crow population but now downtown merchants have banded together & gone high tech on the problem.
Well, actually, they are just using a technique similar to what convenience stores use to shoo away teenagers by playing sounds the crows may not like. It is, perhaps only a temporary solution, the sounds need to change every so often as the crows get accustomed to the sounds of predators & crows in distress.
Maybe convenience stores should play the sounds of teenagers being tortured….

Rearranging the Deck ChairsFailed Hamilton County Commissioner, Chris Monzel, has decided to actually do something in office - redefine the Hamilton County Commission's mission statement. What does this mean to Hamilton County residents? Nothing.
City Bleat article here.

Can you imagine what this would have been like if all these guys had been driving Ford Nucleons ?

Should Debe Terhar Resign ?
Debe (dēb?) Terhar shared a PhaseBuch meme comparing Hitler to O'Bama. I don't know which one but I am thinking it's one a vegetarian O'Bama hating 'friend' of mine posted. If I knew for sure which one it were, I would post it here.
The Tea Party O'Bama hating fete is pretty bizarre. I'm surprised they never depict him as Voodoo with some weird commie stylized veve.
If Terhar had circulated the image in a mere email to select friends it would be a non issue.
There are people calling on Terhar to cede her post but I kinda like the rede a Fishwarp commenter offered.
Indeed, as a person in education, an essay contrasting Hitler's & O'Bama's gun control policies would be a good idea. People frequently argue that Hitler disarmed the Germans in 1938 but he only disarmed the Jewish people - he liberalized gun laws on the rest of the population. O'Bama? He ain't done nothing - yet.
She should also write an essay on using social media.
History, modern policy & social media are all concerns for today's schoolkids, if a president of the state schoolboard isn't up to speed on these things, she needs to go.

Jobs - What the Hell?There's currently about 12 million people in the US who are unemployed. Some people are saying half of the employed are under employed and others are saying there are 3 million jobs that nobody is qualified to do. Some cite the problem of filling jobs is that qualified candidates refuse to take mandatory drug tests.
Could it be that HR departments are staffed with crazed mutton heads?

This is probably worth going full screen on.

Jim Berns for Mayor ?Jim Berns a DAAP codger & a Libertarian has filed his signatures to run for mayor of Cincinnati. This means we will have a mayoral primary in order to whittle the pool down to 2 candidates. Berns is opposed to the primary and I agree with him on that. He might even be able to change that bit of legislation. He also advocates gay equality & legal, regulated marijuana. A municipal official can't do much there, however.
I've Babbled about this before, but the libertarian philosophy is much better suited to the Federal level than the municipal level. It is best suited for a President. As you get closer & closer to the municipal level you have to deal with nuts, bolts & fire extinguishing. In my contention that a libertarian leader should work as a matchmaker for the private sector, I wonder if someone like Berns has those skills or even desire.
Laissez-faire is a different thing on the macro & micro levels.

Noose Record article here

Murray to Run for Council AgainEx City Councilmember, defeated in a re-election bid after being appointed to council after an unsuccessful election bid, Amy Murray will be mounting another election bid.
Murray, who gained a lot of attention ramming a zoning variance through council for a popular Oakley eatery hails from Hyde Park where residents fight tooth & nail against any and all zoning variances.
Murray works to foster better business relations with a nation that killed over 2,000 Americans in a sneak attack and killed 16,000 POWs thru abusive prisoner of war policies.

Fishwarp article here

Got Your Flu Shot ?
Got the Flu ?
If our only hope of thwarting the takeover of the planet by the robot army is to mutate ourselves into half human - half space-alien super soldiers, is it really worth it?
Sure, you're probably thinking that that flu shot actually was just an influenza prophylactic - you don't feel funny ~ yet. But what if I told you that it sits dormant til the dark overlords actually need your chimeric warrior abilities? That your mutations wouldn't actually begin til triggered by reagents carried in chem-trails…..

The Last Man on Earth

Give it Back, Kentucky
A letter writer at the Fishwarp asks why Senators Paul & McConnell take federal money but deny it to New York & New Jersey in the form of disaster relief.
Indeed. Kentucky gets $1.45 on their tax dollar while New York & New Jersey are two of the leading donor states in the U.S., receiving respectively $0.79 & $0.55 on their tax dollar. Why should they routinely subsidize Kentucky just to have their senators block emergency aid?
Paul & McConnell need to clean up their own back yard.

Rise of the Robots
I see it in your eyes - take one look and die
Is the inevitable rise of the robots even a question anymore?

The Unborn Dead ?People are getting weirder & weirder.

AVOIDING TOLLSPeople have been writing LTEs to the Fishwarp saying they will use alternative routes over the Ohio River if a new bridge requires the payment of tolls. The paper just ran an article detailing how professional drivers will, among other things, use alternative routes.
So, my question is, if these alternative routes are so viable, why pay $3 BILLION dollars for the daggone thing if nobody is going to use it?

Lance - My 2¢I never liked Lance Armstrong. Greg LeMond? - I liked him. Armstrong always came off as a self serving arrogant jerk. I don't even care about doping - maybe it is rampant in pro cycling (& every other sport). An example of what really irked me, and I am not a big Sheryl Crow fan, was the way the egomaniac would barge onto her stage, maul her and act like he was the natural center of attention. I never understood why she didn't punch him in the neck - it was her stage. Hell, that's what he would have done to her if she crashed into one of his races & mauled him.
I can only imagine his "coming clean" & grandstanding with Oprah (who I also never liked) is to prime the public for a 'tell all' book that he will use to take down with him as many people as possible.
This article kinda nails it although I am into cycling in general & not really into pro sports of any kind.

Sure, Give Kid Monzel the Reins
Hamilton County's biggest failure as a county commisioner is the new president of the commission. Might as well have the Headless Horseman in charge...

Fishwarp story here

A fracking company in Grapevine, TX wants to ship it's dirty water, brine, over 1,100 miles to New Matamoras, Ohio for, well, dumping.

"GreenHunter wants to use a tanker barge that can hold 10,000 barrels"

What could possibly go wrong? Pennsylvania has been doing it for awhile but, hell, at least they're right next door.

"State records show that 12.2 million barrels of fracking waste and brine were injected in the first half of 2012, 56 percent of which came from Pennsylvania and West Virginia."

There's no place closer to Grapevine, TX?
Glad we scuttled solar in favor of becoming a toxic waste dump.

Columbus Dispatch story here.

I guess that, at the Cincinnati Enquirer, IN DEPTH means 'fluff'.

School DangerHow dangerous are America's schools? Do we need assault teams mounted atop the schoolhouses? Armed teachers? WCPO reportsCincinnati Public schools has decided to go ask ALICE.
Looking at the numbers, however, your kid has about a .0001224899598% chance of getting murdered at school & a lot of that has to do with the recent horrific massacre in Newtown. Taking that out of the equation your kid has a .0000702811245% chance of not coming home.
But getting to school? On a bus your kid has a .0002307692308% chance of dying. That's about twice as likely as a murder but doesn't take into account car accidents & those deaths are probably all operator error and not due to anger, jealous rages or mental illness.
So, by all means, let's arm & train our teachers (& pay them accordingly for their new skills & responsibilities), make schools more like prisons than they already are, employ more armed guards & make our kids utterly paranoid so we can create more mentally ill people who might go out & massacre folk.

Paranoid About Revenue ?For all the folks wailing about electronic traffic enforcement technology being a cash grab - here's the solution - GO TO JAIL.

Fishwarp story here.

Dunno if this plan will really improve business for these businesses but it can't hurt. One thing I noticed is that, while I generally like the cluttered chaotic look in Northside's business district, all the wires & cables DO detract from these signs.
Due to psychotic zoning laws the signs had to conform to certain size restrictions but these are larger & more readable than a lot of the signs over new businesses in the downtown/OTR areas of Cincinnati.
While the initial plan was to do 3 Cincinnati area neighborhoods, funding fell short so only one neighborhood was blitzed. Who should be next?

A Sneak Peak at BiC HQ
Unfortunately we can't post a pic of the outside due to Homeland Security rules.

∃ ∀ ∈ ⊕

Bridge Construction to Cut Unemployment 1/3The Build Our New Bridge Now Coalition is reporting that their boondoggle bridge will create 24,000 jobs. With about 74,000 unemployed in the region, this would bring our unemployment rate down to about 4.35%. The $30B bridge will rake in over $160M in tax revenue.
No mention of pigs flying.

WCPO story here

Department of Numbers (?!) info here

NPR Discusses Fantasy World BuildingSaladin Ahmed talks about the popularity of fantasy world building & cites The Hobbit books at length.
This is what Stan Lee did with Marvel Comics (among other things) that catapulted Marvel sales over DC's in the 60s. DC figured it out & did the same, of course, later. It also explains the popularity of Fox News, I guess.
So, what I don't understand is, why the heck doesn't television do this? Once in a while there is a crossover but establishing a real universe where characters of one show are aware of characters & events in other shows & crossovers are more frequent and season finales are so interconnected the viewer HAS to keep the dial on ONE channel?
They'd clean up.

Graffiti, Crime or Culture
The short video asks if graffiti is an art form or vandalism/destruction. The frumpy lady points out that it's a personal property issue which pretty much nails it. The DAAP students issue came up but they didn't show their lame tagging, or at least, didn't tell you that's what was on the screen.
I have heard of tagging being described as the equivalent of dogs pissing on poles. I'd say that's about right. Then again, a lot of modern architecture doesn't offer much either.
Anyway, if Michelangelo started painting on the side of my house, I'm pretty sure I'd be after him with a baseball bat.

What Are John Cranley's Motives ?John Cranley, after leaving Cincinnati city council over ethics issues, has decided to run for mayor.
While out of office Cranley has been busy developing real estate, his Incline Village, in East Price Hill. With his handy government contacts, he has managed to finagle almost $7M of tax payer money for his real estate scheme.
While Cranley has supported the Cincinnati streetcar project in the past, he later denounced it & is now making his opposition a central point of his mayoral campaign.
Why?
Cranley knows government dollars are limited. If dollars are spent on the streetcar, the Banks or Madisonville, they will not be available for East Price Hill. If these areas attract people, they will not buy into his development gamble. What other neighborhoods will he shaft to further his personal gain?
He's definitely not the kind of person we want at the helm of Cincinnati.

fuckin' Illuminati, maaaannnnnnn…….

∃ ∀ ∈ ⊕

Pelosi Again ?While the Rebloodlicans have defined themselves as the party of crazy, the Dmocrips have done a great job of seizing the mantle of the party of dumbassedness.
In the last couple elections Rebloodlicans have made a habit of running against Pelosi & not their actual political rivals. Steve Chabot barely mentioned Steve Driehaus, but made a lot of noise about Pelosi. The thing is, she's become a liability for other members of the party.
I don't know who'd they would put in charge & I don't think it's particularly her fault and, since I'm not a Democrip I really don't care. Boehner, as a Republican leader is actually doing a pretty good job of herding the GOP - a job akin to herding cats. I doubt he's a liability to most Rebloodlicans, tho.

The City of Cincinnati MUST Hire an Exorcist NOW !How many businesses have to fail at 7th & Race before the city admits the place is cursed? The latest looking at moving or closing is the fairly itinerant Blue Wisp Jazz Club. I have been to this location in a number of incarnations & it is just unbelievable. The presence of some evil force is palpable. Clearly the problem is rooted in the kitchen but it permeates the whole facility & who knows what mischief it has wreaked in the rest of the building which is apparently owned by the city.
It is only a matter of time til we start having problems in the Washington Park garage. It was never ghost proofed which is about dumber than poop when you bury a garage in a cemetery.
Maybe Winburn can pull something off with a bag of salt.

Business Courier article here

If teachers were armed, the teachers lounge would look something like a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie.

My Gift to Cincinnati
Because I'm a nice guy I decided to do some divination for the town I call home nowadays. Although it's not exactly a rosy outlook for 2013 - to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
I used a standard pentacle spread applying 5 elements to the points.
In the spirit position I got the 8 of Pentacles, 'Prudence', in Hod, the Sun is in Virgo.
In the Fire position I pulled up the Knight of Pentacles
In the Air position, I drew 10 - the Wheel of Fortune which is generally attributed to Saturn.
In the water position, I turned up 4 - the Emperor, associated with everybody's fave, Ares.
Finally, in the Earth position, I was presented with the 9 of Swords, 'Despair & Cruelty', in Yesod with Mars in Gemini ~yikes~
So, I think it's pretty clear financial matters and some strong emotions & personalities are going to be the way of '13 here in Porkopolis.
Did I really have to shuffle up some cards to know this???
LUX

Ohio's Bloody RoadsTraffic deaths grew 4% in 2012 from 1,015 in 2011 to 1,056. Compare that to Ohio's homicides in 2011 of 513. Sounds like your chances are better stiffing your pimp than driving to work…..
While police fall all over themselves patting themselves on the back when fatalities go down, the Fishwarp reports:

A patrol spokeswoman says it’s too soon to tell why the number of fatalities rose.

Ohio's roadways are a killing field. The bloody folly must end. BUILD PASSENGER RAIL NOW.

Fishwarp story here

Happy New Year

Uncle Dave Lewis @ the Rake's End 12/28/12

2012 in Blogging Isn't Cool

The Sidebar Girls of 2012
Or 400 posts later…..
Popular searches are about the same, Krampus, Grace Slick, Ashley Bulgari, Gestapo Training, Halloween Sex, Ron Paul tattoos, Köprü Tasarımları….
Visitors are from Cincinnati, San Diego, Unknown City (Pakistan)….
Top pages include Hot Robo Cyborg Babes & Hot Star Trek Chicks.
The Sidebar Girl has been a tremendous hit.
My Knowlton's Corner collection hasn't moved a muscle but it's a contender in Northside's Brand Evolution thing. The power of blogging…..
Nobody has sued me
My use of Google Web Fonts has really shaken up the internet in general.
I got rid of the &%^$#! Captcha thingamabob. Now I keep getting notifications of posts that aren't there, tho. whatever….
I have taken to embedding media with html 5 tags which has worked ok except in (surprise) Internet Explorer.
So what's up for the future? Just read this:

There are more abandoned blogs online than there are stars in our galaxy.

And as 'uncle' Al Crowley pointed out, "every man and woman is a star".
So I plan on plugging away, asking all the tough questions, imparting my wisdom & wit to the masses & maybe one of these days I'll spring for that storefront & start a cult church.

LOOSBuilding Cincinnati reports the City of Cincinnati is interested in providing citizens public restrooms. This is something the Cincinnati Beacon proposed awhile ago. It's fine by me but the cost seems kinda high. BC reports that the cost of building, shipping & installing one of these things comes out to about $135,000 apiece. On top of that, maintenance is projected to be around %14,500 (11%) / year.
Now contrast that to the median home value in Cincinnati of $180,000 & general industry estimates of $1,800 (1%) / year.
These loos are 3/4 the value of a typical Cincinnati home (about twice the value of my home) & will run more than 10x the maintenance.
These facilities will be open at the top & bottom so rats, snakes, bats, birds and other vermin can enter freely. The reason for this is so police can watch your feet & make sure only one person at a time is inside. Forget about accompanying your child or helping your disabled parent from wheelchair to commode & back.
One of the problems with people peeing & pooping in public now is that, since we have to hide their pelvic areas from public view or risk being labeled sex offenders, we hide to perform these natural acts & wind up concentrating our bodily waste in small areas. If we could get over this hang up & people could let loose anywhere & maybe pick up their poop as with their dogs, we would not have these offensive areas & would not be looking at spending the cost of a goram house with hugely inflated maintenance rates.

and a child shall lead…
Looks like the face of the end of humanity is going to be pretty cute. I doubt Skynet would be so devious. But the folks at Roboy are predicting a boy robot in 9 months - less than a year before the robot overlords begin to take over the earth - if they get their funding. Couldn't they have stuck with the Summer Glau model? Hopefully a 1A will find someplace to hang out at in the mountains.

PopSci article here

It's All Fun Till….
Well, to each his own, but this ain't for me.
The Learning Charnel was going to air this show on 12/26 but decided to wait a couple weeks in deference to the people killed in Connecticut. That decision makes about as much sense as the show in general.

A Christmas Tale

from The Queen of Romania's Fairy BookQueen Marie of Romania was born in Kent in 1875 & later married to Prince Ferdinand of Romania in 1893. They later were made King & Queen of Romania. Queen Marie is considered directly responsible for Romania's military, well, not getting totally creamed, in WWI & subsequently making substantial territorial gains after the war. Later she took to writing & in 1923 published 'The Queen of Romania's Fairy Book'.
Chapter 4 was titled A Christmas Tale.

This is a very strange tale I have got to tell you today. It is about a mysterious well - a deep, deep well which lay in the centre of a dark forest. It is also a Christmas tale. No one knew why that well was there, nor who had dug it, nor how old it was.
The peasants from the villages around stood in great awe of this well, because from its depth a weird sound could be heard, a sort of moan, half sob, half gurgle, and sometimes a sound as though someone were knocking against its sides, which made you think of a lost soul in distress, perhaps held captive down there and unable to get out.

You can rad the whole story here

More on Queen Marie here

$6B - 'B', Like in BRAINSThis WSJ 24/7 article is about a year old (whoever said BIC wasn't on the ball?) and guesstimates the zombie economy at around $5.74B. But that's a year old & the article only goes down to grade B movies & doesn't address grades C-Z or even porn or the crazy Japanese stuff. Interestingly, the article points out:

George Romero’s 1968 cult classic Night of the Living Dead is royalty-free, and does not add much to the actual economics of the zombie genre.

For Porktown gore fiends we can look forward to bloody Milford's Horror Hound's convention at the shiny Sharonville Convention Center in March (when the ground starts to loosen up a bit) to add our share to the zombie economy.

Are Republicans Really the Business Party ?The CintiBizCourierJournal thing reports that area Rebloodlicans donated almost $2.5M to political campaigns in the last election cycle while Democrips only ponied up a little over a quarter million.
Romney got 10 to 1 over O'Bama and Mandell got over 10 to 1 over Brown. Both Rebloodlicans lost.
Jeff Sinnard told people he didn't want their money and, while losing to Steve Chabot, he actually beat comboverboy in the city of Cincinnati.
So, if the Republicans are betting so much money on the wrong horses, what does it say about their business acumen? Do they really know what to invest in that will sell to the majority of the people?

The Biz Courier article here.

Frank Zappa 1940 - 1993

Tolls on Bridge ?
While the KYTease protest a libertarian funding of a new Ohio River bridge & promote socialist subsidies, it seems the Nolanists are going to trump the Trotskyites.
But how do we console these embittered travelers?
I suggest giving the fleeced bridge users with some entertainment. yup, holographic robot go go dancers!
With this enticement, people will flock to the new bridge & the incresed use of the bridge will pay off the construction costs in a fraction of the time John, Steve & Ray are predicting. As a bonus, the reduced use of other bridges will cut the amount of maintenance spending that they require. All in all a win win situation for everybody.

Media Bridges Needs Your Help
George Corneliussen, star of local access cable & the Fishwarp's letters section, discusses how he got started in his media empire.

Ohio Casino Revenue Disappointswotta surprise…..
The Ohio casino plan was doomed to, maybe not failure, but certainly not a rousing success. Las Vegas isn't just about gambling - it's an entertainment destination that relies on everybody in town participating. In Ohio we got 4 casinos & everything else is pretty much the same.
It was a bad plan & expecting humongous riches to come from it was ridiculous.
I STUB my plan was better.

Dismal news from WCPO

Horror Sells

Another Boring Ass Weekend in Soul Sucking Cincinnatiugh - this burg is DEAD!
well…..

Friday
Sister Cycles
6:30 PM
MoBo Bicycle CoOp

Mountain Music Squeeze with Anna & Elizabeth
The Hoffner Lodge (old Art Damage Lodge)
4130 Hamilton Ave

Clifton on Ludlow
6 - 9 PM
Clifton
on Ludlow

Hopnosis
The Comet
Grotesque Brooms & John Wesley Coleman

The Northside Tavern
Bethesda, The Mitchells, Josh Eagle & Harvest City

Saturday
Northside Second Saturday
6 - 10 PM
Hamilton Avenue & various side streets

Make a Milk & Cookie Plate for Santa
10 AM - 5 PM
Happen Inc.

Cincinnati Holiday Art Show
10 AM - 4 PM
North Presbyterian Church
4222 Hamilton

Art Openings @ NVISION & Fabricate
both from 6 - 10 PM

The Northside Tavern
The Cliftones

Ohio Lesbian Archives Open House
1 - 4 PM
Clifton United Methodist Church
Clifton @ Senator Pl.

Hopnosis
The Comet
Playfully Yours & Action Camp

Karaike @ Junker's Tavern

Sunday
Compassionate Friends Candle Lighting Ceremony
Soggy Spring Grove Cememery
4389 Spring Grove Ave.

Brunch @ Honey
The Comet
Brunch & The Comet Bluegrass All Stars

The Northside Tavern
Faces Without Places Chili Cookoff

Brunch at Melt

Brunch @ Take the Cake

Brunch @ Sidewinder

Bear Boy!
2 PM
Clifton Cultural Arts Center

MONZEL BREAKS PROMISE
RAISES PROPERTY TAXIn what has become the most failed Hamilton County Commission term ever, Chris Monzel has gone from being useless & ineffective to being a liability. His decision to raise property taxes is just the latest in a string of catastrophes engineered by the man endorsed by a failing Newspaper and a fringe element of a dying party..
Monzel promised to balance the county budget by finding efficiencies - he has FAILED at that.
He voted to give away Drake hospital for a fraction of it's value.
He blocked health department money for HIV/AIDS testing.
He blocked voters from voting on a Union Terminal levy.
His cockamamie plan to sell the stadiums was still born - good thing because he probably would have given them away for a fraction of their value.
He vowed to stop the Cincinnati Streetcar project - he has FAILED at that.
Monzel has FAILED at establishing shared services between city and county as he promised.
Monzel has FAILED at renegotiating stadium leases.
After being elected to the commission (and hiring his florist) he fled his Cincinnati neighborhood of Spring Grove Village whose community council was frequently at odds with his city council positions that included increased government regulations.
And his hope for reducing the county budget in the future is pinned on Obamacare.
Chris Monzel is a disaster. Can we afford for him to finish out the worst term on the Hamilton County Commissioners ever? Monzel needs to admit his failure - cut the county's losses and resign now.

There was a time when everybody in the park had this on an 8 track.

Help Kill HB 171H.B. 171 would ban human cloning and animal-human hybrids in Ohio. it was introduced by Representatives Andy Thompson and Terry Johnson. This bill is promoted by anti-science religionists and has been in committee for over a year. It needs to die there.
Here is a list of committee members to petition to stop this paranoid legislation in it's tracks.

Previous post on the senate version

Fröhliche Krampusnacht alle !

Horror Sells - Walking Dead #1 ad-supported TV show
Walking Dead season finale rated top broadcast/cable TV show.
and, no, I don't particularly like it…..

Deadline Hollywood story here

Will Cincinnati be Destroyed ?Word is that some Earth city will be destroyed in the next Star Trek movie. Could it be Cincinnati? Cleveland? Tremont City?

Yahoo conjecturism here

Happy B-Day Ozzie !!

A More Business Friendly Hamilton CountyIn 2012 the Hamilton County Recorder's Office cost taxpayers $1,410,746 & in 2013 their budget will be $1,060,400, almost a 25% cut.
But in 2012 the office billed more than $7,000,000. Our government is not supposed to be a for profit entity. The Hamilton County Commissioners are using overly high fees to turn the department into a cash cow. It's on a par with speed traps to enhance revenue streams, but in this case, the victim isn't some scofflaw, it's businessmen following the rule of law. Fees collected by the government should only cover the administration of that department's duties. In this particularly vulnerable economic time we find ourselves in, the Hamilton County Commissioners should not be engaging in this immoral anti-business gouging. They should lower the department's fees to reflect the true cost of administering the office. They should not use one department to fund their pet projects & entertainment complexes.
UPDATEThe Fishwarp reports More gouging in the works.

Fishwarp's county budget breakdown here