Category: Politics

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Poor Findlay City Councilman David Cliffe

All Councilman Cliffe wanted was to chair a public hearing on a proposal to ban smoking in public areas in the city of Findlay. A group of students from Glenwood Middle School were to present their ideas on the ban as part of a class project.

The proposed smoking ban has been a hot topic of late in the city and an ad hoc committee chaired by Cliffe has been holding a series of public meetings to get community opinion on the issue. The committee has mostly private citizens participating.

Crews from several Toledo television stations showed up to cover the hearing and the students presentation. Toledo’s council passed a smoking ban that has caused a lot of reaction from the bar and restaurant owners there.

Councilman Cliffe, acting on a misunderstanding, decided to kick out the news crews after the student presentation. The city law director had advised Cliffe that the city shouldn’t record the meeting but Cliffe took it to mean that he could close it to the media as well.

He found that wasn’t the case.

A reporter from WTOL 11 in Toledo refused to leave. It was a public meeting concerning a topic of interest to the public. Councilman Cliffe then adjourned the rest of the meeting.

In the Courier report of the incident Cliffe tried to justify his action. He said, “I think it’s very sad that a media group from Toledo has come down and undermined Findlay folks’ opportunity to express their opinion.” and he also thought since the ad hoc committee is mainly comprised of private citizens they shouldn’t have their faces publicized.

He is wrong on both issues.

One great thing about our democracy is that we require our governmental bodies to have their meetings open to the public. The media is part of the public and they report on the meetings for those who can’t attend. Ohio has an open meetings law, aka the “Sunshine Law”, that has been on the books for 30 years. The only governmental meetings that can be closed to the public are those dealing with personnel matters or competitive bids.

If you are a private citizen and don’t want your face in public then don’t participate on governmental committees.

Councilman snuffs out smoking ban hearing

Access spat shuts down forum on smoke ban

Findlay Leaders Back Away from Dispute

Originally posted on the blog “Hancock County Politics Unfiltered”

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Prison abuse is disgusting (addendum)

The Islamic insurgents in Iraq beheaded a American hostage as revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops.

Killing is NOT revenge for abuse.

The morass expands.

Will there now be Apache gun ships streaming missiles into residential buildings to target the insurgent leadership?

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Prison abuse is disgusting

The Iraq prison abuse story keeps spinning out of control and it seems to highlight what is wrong with humans today.

From conservative pundits comparing the abuse to fraternity hazing to the family of one soldiers who is in the pictures telling the world that the soldier was just following orders to Secretary Rumsfeld sitting on the reports for months, it seems everyone involved or who have knowledge of the abuse don’t want to take personal responsibility.

The National Guard unit that lacked the proper training and who carried out the orders given by superiors who should have known better will end up taking the worse heat while the commanders in charge all the way to the Secretary will go on in their jobs as if the incidents were just bumps in the road.

I wrote the following in a letter to the editor of my local paper to express how I really feel about the issue:

I am writing today to comment on the Dispatch editorial “Keep it in perspective The U.S. will atone for its human-rights sin, but what of the world�s other sinners?” and the related Cal Thomas column “Keep despicable photos in context of a despicable enemy” that appeared in the May 7, 2004 edition of the Dispatch.

It is simply unconscionable for anyone to even try to rationalize the despicable actions of the soldiers who appeared in those Iraqi prison photos.

Humiliating and abusing prisoners, not just POWs, is dead wrong. There is no justification nor rationalization for those actions.

All though the build up to the war and even during the war the Bush administration took great pains to explain that our values and actions were better than that oppressive regime in Baghdad that we needed to remove. Was that a lie too? It seems it is to the average Iraqi, not to mention the other Muslims in the Middle East, who saw the pictures of the smiling and laughing Americans while “playing” with their charges. What better recruiting material is there than having proof that Americans are despicable people.

The argument used by the Dispatch and Thomas that they did it first or what about the other people just doesn’t hold any water.

Remember our playground days when the bully would cause you to lash out and hit him? You almost always got in trouble for hitting him yet you might say to the Principal, “He hit me first…” or “Why am I in trouble? They were doing the same thing…” Did such excuses work. Of course not and it doesn’t work here for this issue.

You leave the moral high road as soon as you start the “Yes, but…..” explanations. We should know better. That’s what we tell everyone else.

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When will Bush’s lies end???

I read an article on Yahoo News today that ticked me off. It was an article about John Kerry’s reaction to Bush’s so-called press conference on Tuesday.

Here is what ticked me off:

“The president made clear what we all share, which is a sense that the United States of America is going to be resolute and tough and make certain that we accomplish our mission,” Kerry said.

Other nations share the U.S. goal of stability in Iraq and, if elected president, Kerry said he would use his powers of persuasion to convince them that their interests demand they share in the effort.

“Our soldiers are bearing the brunt of this operation,” Kerry said. “Our military is to some degree overextended. American soldiers are bearing the huge majority, the lion’s share of this.”

Republicans rejected the criticism, with Bush’s re-election campaign chairman Marc Racicot calling Kerry’s comments “a political attack that is very, very seriously undermining our efforts in Iraq and in the war on terror.”

In a conference call with reporters, Racicot said Kerry simply blames America for provoking the attacks in Iraq without offering a competing vision that addresses the war on terrorism. 

The full story here

First of all, Kerry’s criticism is not “undermining our efforts in Iraq.” The radical Muslims don’t care what Kerry says about Bush’s Iraq policy. All they know is the devil is in their house and they must die.

It is interesting to note that the current outbreak of violence has nothing to do with Saddam or his supporters. It is probably the first volley in a renewed power struggle among the different religious sects in Iraq. Each sect believes they should be the only power in Iraq.

The person who us actually undermining the US in Iraq is Ahmed Chalabi.

Ahmed Chalabi, the neocons’ choice to run Iraq, appears to have been responsible for the disastrous decision to move against Muqtada al-Sadr.

Why did they do it? It seemed a safe bet to the civilian echelon policymakers at the Department of Defense when they approved Coalition Provisional Authority administrator L. Paul Bremer’s fateful decision to close down the newspaper of Muqtada al-Sadr and to arrest an aide to the young firebrand Shiite cleric. Even after Shiite Iraq had erupted into fury over the moves on Saturday, April 3, top-level Pentagon policymakers were privately still convinced it was all a storm in a teacup.

Chalabi, longtime exile leader, has never had a power base within Iraq. He is a smooth operator, convicted of embezzling millions from the Petra Bank of Jordan — sentenced in absentia to 22 years of hard labor — but championed by the neoconservatives of Washington.

Just as Bremer will not make the slightest move without the approval of his Pentagon bosses, the Defense Department policymakers continue to rely on Chalabi alone for their political assessments on Iraq. In private conversation, as in public, they remain amazingly enthusiastic about Chalabi’s supposed political skills, and even genius, and proclaim repeatedly that he is the only man with the brilliance to hold Iraq together and make it work. Give Chalabi a free hand after June 30 and give him all the U.S. firepower he wants to crush his foes — this is their master plan; there is no other. 

Complete article here

Marc Racicot says that Kerry’s comments are “undermining our efforts in Iraq and in the war on terror.”

Iraq has always been, absent contrary proof, a tertiary part of the war on terrorism. In fact, the Bush administration has undermined their war on terrorism by invading Iraq before Bin Laden had been dealt with completely in Afghanistan.

Lastly Racicot makes the ridiculous statement: “Kerry simply blames America for provoking the attacks in Iraq without offering a competing vision that addresses the war on terrorism.”

Kerry isn’t simply or difficultly blaming America for provoking the attacks in Iraq. Bush is the one who ordered the invasion of Iraq. Iraq didn’t attack us first. Kerry is pointing out the issues with Bush’s Iraq policy.

As for Kerry not “offering a competing vision that addresses the war on terrorism,” I would like to know what Bush’s vision for addressing the war on terror that as Kerry has said doesn’t needlessly infringe on our civil rights as the Patriot Act does today.

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A Visit Home

Last weekend I had a chance to visit Findlay and Hancock County. Didn’t you know I don’t live there? I lived there for the first 18 years of my life but chose to move out when I went to college.

It is good to be gone for a few months or years so you can come back and notice any changes. This time I had the chance to drive around in the daylight.

I ate at IHOP for the first time in about 10 years. The first time was back on a trip through South Carolina. The far eastside of Findlay continues to grow. Even up through high school, there was nothing past the Meijer store, now there are sub divisions and retail stores and restaurants. IHOP actually had good food. Not that I thought they didn’t but the closest to IHOP that I’ve had before is the greasy spoon Waffle House. But IHOP is more like Shoney’s or Perkins.

On Friday night I ate at Tony’s Pizza and Ribs on US 224 west. Tony’s has the best pizza and BBQ in Hancock County. It use to be in McComb but due to a poor business decision on the part of Tony’s landlord, it moved to Findlay in a larger building.

Also on Friday night my mom and I went to see Starsky and Hutch at the Carmike 6 at the Findlay Mall. I have been pampered too much with AMC in Columbus. Carmike didn’t have stadium seating nor did they have arm rests that could be folded out of the way for us larger folks. After 90 minutes I had to stand up to restore the circulation in my legs. The movie was funny and brought back a lot of memories for those of us who lived the 70’s. Unfortunately, most in the audience were too young to catch the cultural jokes.

When I got to Findlay on that Thursday my mom let me know that The Courier had published a letter to the editor I had sent in earlier in the week. Here is the text I sent them:

I write today to comment on the article “Oxley: Economy faring well” that was published online on 3/23/2004.

Rep. Oxley took time during is speech to the Findlay Rotary Club to comment about the series the Toledo Blade published on Oxley back in December, which by the way appeared in several newspapers in the 4th District except The Courier.

He compared Hancock and Lucas county, pointing out that economically that Hancock county is doing better than Lucas county.

He said “the civic leaders and citizens of Hancock County, and throughout the 4th District, come together in public-private partnerships for the common good. They put aside politics when it comes to jobs. I think you have to have lived here to understand that.”

I find it ironic that Oxley would claim one would have to live here to understand. Oxley may have his permanent residence in Findlay but has spent 99% of his time either at his home in the Washington DC area or on trips paid for by the special interest groups that want him to vote and act for their best interests.

If Oxley really lived in Findlay he would know that the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority built and owns the building that was built for the Kuss Corp back in 2001 and that the State of Ohio provided $45,000 for an investment and training grant for the company for example.

Then there are the state grants that will be used to fix the bridges and roads that the county never seems to have enough money to fix. No, Hancock county isn’t “dependent on the state and federal government for handouts”.

Usually the public-private partnerships seem to involve the private building something and the public footing the bill for building the roads, putting in the sewers, and providing the fire protection at little or no cost to the development.

Douglas Berger

Naturally, the editor cut the line where I pointed out the Blade Oxley series had run in some of the papers in the 4th District except for the Courier.

Just today the Courier reported that Findlay City Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee recommended that the city replace the old Hancock Rec Center with a new facility over 15 years and costing $20 million. The current center that the city traded the county for last year was built in 1973 has no air conditioning and only a boys locker room.

HRC has been used a hot political issue over the years. Politicians who fall over themselves to give welfare to businesses have not wanted to spend the money on a new recreation center at any price. Jobs are important to the community but to ignore other elements that form a vibrant attractive community is just as foolish. Businesses looking to add jobs to a community also look at the opportunities in the community for their new employees like good schools and good recreation facilities.

Dublin, a suburb of Columbus, has about the same population as Findlay and they built a top notch recreation center that not only has a gym and pool but also has a community hall, a theater, classrooms, teen center, and Senior center. It cost $14 million and the debt is shared by the users through memberships. Currently, Findlay residents pay fees to use the Riverside Park pool.

It can be done if the current city leadership can see the long term benefits of building a new HRC rather than the short term monetary costs.

Originally posted on the blog “Hancock County Politics Unfiltered”

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