diaspora

I sure wish there was a sportsbook.

^how will the casino affect traffic and parking in this area? is it going to require changes to 71 or the surrounding streets?

he's a one trick pony, of course he's going to keep it up.

It's not really a joke...but, i am playing off of the promises that have been made during the campaign where the entire focus was on 34,000 jobs being created. Why do you think that Ohio has defeated casinos so many times in the past and then all the sudden it gets passed when we're in the middle of the worst recession in years? I am not presenting any information here (other than the 34,000 jobs which you will find on any proponent of Issue 3's statements) more speculation. I don't care much about casinos. It was never the casino bit or the job bit that annoyed me with this issue. I don't agree with the ads that were run against it, either. I have only ever asked questions from proponents.

I'm thrilled that issue 9 failed. Now with council we have who that supports the actual streetcar? I know Monzel and Ghiz are against it (at least for now)...Winburn is probably against it. I think the majority is still positive with Bortz siding with Qualls, Thomas, Cole and Quinlivan. so, that's 5.

Since these casinos are going to save us from the economic downturn we currently find ourselves in...those 34,000 jobs start work next week, right?

I'm basing it on years old generalizations and attitudes.

It looks like my friend will be ineligible for this as you have to be an ohio resident at the beginning of your deployment. According to the smartvoter information on this, one of the aims is to help transition these individuals back into civilian life. Well, maybe we could spend this money on services that would help them? Hell, you come back from active duty you've got a pretty big bank account full of tax free money waiting for you...i'm not sure $5k is going to help transition you back to civilian life.

I'm not saying i voted one way or the other, (armed services personnel are underpaid and underserved), why are the states supplementing their veterans? Anyone have a history on this? The pro-side of this debate has said that this has been common practice after past wars. Why? and who does it go to? All vets? does it go to the national guardsmen that have been called up? is it only people that have seen combat? I have a friend that spent 15 months or so in Baghdad with his national guard unit...will he get money? he lives here in Cincinnati but his unit is based out of Michigan (he moved here as soon as he got back to be with his fiance).

Ghiz was for it before she was against it. She's also no on 9...i think most of the candidates are against Issue 9 regardless of their feelings towards the Streetcar.

i blame the de-emphasis on civics and English and the inflated value of science and math for this sort of problem. Americans are losing their ability to think intelligently about the issues or to view them within a broader context.

You're welcome, and now there are satellites in space that know exactly where you are. I wonder if there is a way of using this technology to track your children...i mean, by their cell phones. Frighteningly Big Brother, but i can see how it'd be useful.

under settings there is a security/location tab...if you are really conscious about saving battery life then you don't keep the "Enable GPS Satelites" thing checked...but if you want to actually see where you are, you do. My wife has been looking at it as we've been driving down 75 before and has remarked at how accurate it is in pinpointing us.

Really? my G1 can pinpoint me with a frightening amount of accuracy. I think i had to allow it to do so rather than just using the nearest tower as my location. It took me a little while to get used to the idea that i was allowing Google to know exactly where i was at all times. I'm not a fan of all this technology invading our privacy all the time...but of course, we're all signing up for it every day.

Planned?? I know of at least 3 other attempts to get gambling in Ohio. 2008 - Issue 6 2006 - Issue 3 1996 - Issue 1 Sorry, i should say that this campaign has been very well planned.

Voting this down does not mean we are not supporting the troops. You are unAmerican. Sincerely, 2001-200?

By the time that these casinos go through design and permitting and all the pre-build steps...we'll be out of this extended recession. This issue has been planned very well to take advantage of the economic hardships and to promote the benefits of the Casinos that (if true) are years down the road.

the rights of the people to petition their government is guaranteed by the first amendment. I don't think that we should be putting up too many obstacles. Unfortunately, i don't see how we could block these types of smear campaigns and outright lies. you can put regulations on ballot language (maybe insert a flesch-kincaid readability requirement) but i don't know how you can regulate what is actually said. All we can do is hope that the truth in these issues is able to get out. We must be vigilant against this crap and make sure that we don't engage in it ourselves. We must strive for honesty in everything that we do. I'll respect a decision, even if i don't like, it if it's made honestly.

^lol, always a good attitude to take when amending the Constitution of the state.

In order to help him and television news anchors in general vote Yes on 5.

I wonder how big of an impact this will really have here in Cincinnati. Isn't there already a decent vacancy rate at the hotels? and I wonder if the restaurants that go into a casino will actually dry up business at the restaurants in downtown. The hotel issue assumes that people will make this a destination, why would they? aren't we reaching a saturation point where all metropolitan areas have a casino within a couple hours drive? And really, i have seen the inside of a number of casinos and have yet to be impressed with any of them outside of Las Vegas. I've heard great things about the new MGM Grand in Detroit...but i haven't been inside and i don't think what we'll be getting here is going to be like that. Long term (more than 5 years) are these really going to be the cash cows that proponents claim?

I can't even begin to express my disappointment that I just saw Tyrone Yates speaking in favor of Issue 9. I suppose i shouldn't be surprised, with his connection to the NAACP...but this does disappoint me. He's term limited so i can't vote against him...but if he runs for anything else he won't get my vote.

Love the scare tactics..."if we don't do this, then the Humane Society is going to come in and make us give pedicures to all the chickens" I wouldn't be too worried about those groups being able to come to Ohio and pass that sort of legislation...either through the legislature or through referendum. PETA and those groups don't exactly have the pull here that they do in California.

I agree with you entirely.

You're right, as a government we won't be giving any money to build these casinos and my stream of consciousness led me to write it that way. I was more saying that if that's the goal here and the big aim that needs to be done then the government could use our tax dollars to pay for some things that are beneficial to all citizens. Just because the same monopoly exists in other states doesn't mean it's right. Besides, who needs a lousy Penn National casino? If you want a good casino get MGM or one of the companies that knows how to do it right. (i'd be much more for these casinos if they'd allow sports betting.) Casino revenues will probably be decent in the first few years and then they will trail off. These casinos will never be a destination bringing more tax dollars into the state, not when every other state already has casinos. I read an interesting article about these revenues and the saturation of the market in Esquire about a month ago. It addressed these points pretty decently. I don't like the fact that the people that will directly benefit from this passing are the ones that wrote the damn thing. I mean, if you let me choose my own tax rate and all those other things, then heck yeah...i'll take that. Maybe i'm misinformed about this, but that's how i'm seeing it.