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Government property grab turns ironic

November 16th, 2009, 8:17 pm by rlederman

This is better than make-believe: Your local government says, for the sake of a large corporation, that you have no constitutional right to your home (What Fifth Amendment? We don’t need no stinkin’ Fifth Amendment ’round here!) - and the U.S. Supreme Court says that sure sounds OK - but then the large corporation turns around and leaves vacant the property the local government stole for you.

Irony is so cool.

It happened last week in New London, Conn., where the city took private property for the sake of Pfizer Corp., the “public use” required to grab private property from unwilling sellers being the additional tax dollars from an upscale development next door to the company. The U.S. Supreme Court ending up saying, “Sure, if the state doesn’t protect against this sort of thing, the U.S. Constitution has room in it to define more tax dollars as a public use, just as public as a use as roads or a post office.” One of the lawyers who plays here might check the exact wording, but I’m fairly certain that the 5-4 majority in the Kelo case said essentially that. But, it turns out that all of the particulars are of little consequence. Pfizer is up and leaving New London. Read the rest of this entry »

Republican brand of nannying

November 4th, 2009, 7:33 pm by rlederman

Ohioans vote and allow casinos to open here. So, believing in the people’s right to determine such things and in the free market, what are Ohio Republicans doing? Fighting to keep out the casinos.

Perhaps my favorite objection to casinos came from current U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, back when he was state Sen. Jim Jordan and running for the congressional seat. He said something opposed to casinos, so I asked him why he talked about letting people do with their money as they wanted, a good argument he makes against taxes, but he was opposed to letting people spend their money in a casino if they wanted. His response?

Because you’re a libertarian and I’m a conservative.

Got that? But U.S. Sen. George Voinovich apparently doesn’t want to let Jordan hog all the self-righteous indignation on casinos. Voinovich issued a statement saying Ohioans are too stupid to live with casinos among them. OK, he didn’t say that, but he should have. It would be much more to the point than the roundabout way he said the same thing. Voinovich is going to be our conscience? George, act Republican for three seconds. Don’t worry about our consciences. Get government out of the way.

Here is Ohio’s senior U.S. senator talking up the self-control and responsibility of his fellow Ohioans:

“I am terribly disappointed. As a result of the passage of Issue 3 there will be a great deal of pain and suffering in Ohio - I feel for the families of those who will experience casinos for the first time in their lives and, once lured in, will become addicted to gambling. I predict there will be a particularly heavy burden on the city of Cleveland, whose poverty rate is already one of the highest in the nation. The jobs promised will not be forthcoming. I expect those who supported Issue 3 to be responsible for making sure the promises made are promises kept. And, I intend to be their conscience.”

The Lima Chamber of Doing the Bidding of Government, er, uh, I guess it is supposed to be Commerce

November 4th, 2009, 12:45 am by rlederman

It didn’t get a lot of attention when it happened, largely because the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce didn’t do a lot to publicize the vote, but the one entity in Allen County whose mission it is to promote business interests actually came out against repealing the sales tax increase.

Odd, considering what effect a sales tax increase typically has on consumers’ ability to spend. Odder still, considering what reaction state and national chambers and other such groups have to proposed sales tax hikes. How is that Allen County businesses can be so immune to consumers have less money to spend at the businesses? Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone want to call the mayor’s race?

November 3rd, 2009, 3:46 pm by rlederman

OK, anyone want to call any races?

I guess you’re free to argue about why and how and the such, but I’m really just going for percentages in the races.

Here are some of my guesses:

• Lima mayor, Berger with 60 percent

• Allen County sales tax referendum, yes with 57 percent.

• Lima’s 5th Ward, Adams by one vote. OK, that’s hope. Pitts with 60 percent is my guess.

• State Issue 3 (casinos), yes with 60 percent.

Give me your guesses, but do it before 8 p.m. Polls close at 7:30, so after 8 and it’s a case of copying and pasting results. Of course, if you do that and can’t get it right, do it anyway.

Ohio government ‘tips’ on standing in line

November 3rd, 2009, 3:07 pm by rlederman

They’re telling us how to act when the Nazis come marching in … no, wait, that is from “Casablanca.” Below we just have the Ohio Department of Health telling people how to stand in a line. Oh, wait, these are only “tips.”

Congratulations, Ohioans, your state government — it is an entity unto itself, a whole, not a collection of officials — doesn’t think you’re smart enough to stand in line or dress for winter without instructions.

Just to drive home this point: We’re actually paying someone tax money to come up with the below suggestions and someone else to write the below news release. Read the rest of this entry »

Berger administration protects townies from Lima kids

October 31st, 2009, 5:38 pm by rlederman

It’s Oct. 31, a date that would bring out Trick-or-Treaters in any other community. Not in Lima, Ohio.

We did that Thursday, Oct. 29, a tribute to the absolute desire of local politicians to in fact control every aspect of life, but also a caving on the Lima administration’s part to some less-than-commendable reactions from our neighbors.

Officials from the city and surrounding communities decided last year that trick or treat each year would be the Thursday before Halloween, hence the Oct. 29 date. Prior to that - and boldly rising up to the dilemma of having children here doing what they do everywhere else, go out on Oct. 31, the actual day we call Halloween - Lima, the surrounding townships and some of the villages in the area would set different days for trick or treating.

Turns out, some of Lima’s neighbors didn’t like having city kids coming to their communities. Forget for the moment, how you know they’re city children, because no one around Lima is racist, no sireee, as long as everyone knows their place. So, the David Berger administration - remember, Berger likes to think of himself as a promoter of diversity in this community - and the townships agreed on a date everyone could have Halloween. Oct. 31 seems an obvious choice, but we have a mayor and township trustees who need to have a little larger hand in our lives than to leave such decisions to calendar makers and tradition.

I’m no doubt being harsh on the townies, accusing them of bad thoughts about city people, but tell me: How do you determine who lives in the city? Anyone else think some, if not all, of that judgment had to do with skin color?

And the Berger administration, so harsh on Lima mayoral candidate Dan Beck for his xenophobic views as Allen County sheriff, went along to make the townies safe from city children. Is future annexation going smoothly that important, Mayor Berger?

That bored dog from the Berger camp

October 22nd, 2009, 8:48 pm by rlederman

Someone from the Dan Beck camp decided to have some fun with an internal Dave Berger YouTube ad. Thus we see the peril of posting internal ads on my blog, but that the Beck people also are reading me is soooooo flattering.

But, Camp Beck, since you’re reading: This is funny. It really is. But we all know you don’t think Berger has handled the problems as you see them. But, you know, 12 days before the election, you might try to explain what your guy would do other than not be Dave Berger.

YouTube Preview Image

Beck and Berger show their urban-ness

October 21st, 2009, 9:55 am by rlederman

This didn’t make any of the coverage of the event, but it’s worth mentioning about the mayoral debate Saturday night. Mayor David Berger managed to work in a reference to Pickle’s Blues Fest, which in itself might be worth a vote for him.

Challenger Dan Beck and Berger were answering a, well, let’s call it a question from panel member Charles Thomas along the lines of what the mayor of the city can do to bring to town a radio station geared toward a black audience. I guess either “buy a license” or “demonstrate there would be advertisers and support for those advertisers” is too simple an answer for Berger and Beck to give. So instead:

Beck said he would improve quality of life, cleaning up crime and the such, because someone asking about a black radio station clearly was using double speak to mask his question about getting carjacked. Poor Beck. So close to the right answer — that’s not the mayor’s job — but yet so far.

Berger said the city sponsors a Juneteenth event to commemorate the end of slavery, then said that although the city doesn’t support it he is a fan of Pickle’s Blues Fest. I give him points for mentioning Pickle’s event, although I’m not sure which of the two candidates was more patronizing to the black man asking the question. Thomas clearly needed to be told it’s not the mayor’s job to bring radio stations to the city. But, no, not from our uber problem-solvers.

A Ron-condensed version of the exchange:

Thomas: Can you get me a black radio station?

Beck: I’ll get crime out of your ‘hood.

Berger: I like the blues.

One year ago today …

October 20th, 2009, 10:58 am by rlederman

Anyone? What happened a year ago today?

Hint: It involved me, my head, my reporting, a Lima city councilman and a gun.

Go ahead. Guess.

Dems: When in doubt, snoop or call names

October 14th, 2009, 7:16 pm by rlederman

We’re all allowed to back the political candidates we want - unless, of course, Democrats and their allies have access to your personal records. Or, unless they don’t like your choices, in which case you’ll be a racist.

I was told (again) recently that Republicans are only blocking President Barack Obama’s attempt at health care reform because they’re racist. This requires us to ignore A) that Republicans cannot block Obama in either house of Congress; B) Obama has made no attempt of his own at health care reform, instead leaving it to his fellow Dumbocrats to come up with a handful of bad plans; and C) more than Republicans oppose government taking over health care.

But those are all factual issues, and Dumbocrats don’t deal well in those. So, oppose ObamaCare, and you’re racist. Does that mean we’ve progressed or regressed since 1993? Surely we objected (and blocked when Republicans didn’t have the numbers to block) HillaryCare because we’re sexist. None of us could object because we’ve never seen government save money or run an efficient program, or that we enjoy the level of care we already have, as do some 80 percent of the U.S. population. So is it better or worse that we’re all racist now?

I ask after reading in The Columbus Dispatch that another Democratic buddy went snooping into Joe the Plummer after his endorsement of Republican John McCain in the last presidential election (story here).

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