CincyCapell

He looks like a cross between a dictator's mouthpiece and a gas station attendant! That's very close; Mark is cross between a wannabe dictator's mouthpiece (Finney) and a bankrupt, failed plumber.

COAST Minister of Misinformation Mark "Baghdad Mark" Miller has spoken!

Despite Finney's proclamation on am radio over three weeks ago that he was filing suit "later this week" over the Blue Ash Airport sale, no lawsuit has ever been filed, according to both the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts and the US Federal Courts online systems. Was this just another of Finneys empty threats, as with his threat to hold a ballot initiative in Blue Ash?

Fast walking toupee wearing Barry Horstman just posted another of his ant-streetcar screeds at 1:27am: Things get real with the streetcar http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120927/NEWS/309270042/Things-get-real-streetcar

PG will continue to vote against the streetcar (despite his words of support) for one reason: he wants to run for another higher office, such as County Commissioner or Congress, and thus is pandering to the suburnites that he imagines will be his future voter base.

Shrive is another one of Finney's lackeys. On another note, one of my Twitter friends (and many of yours too) had a phone call from PG Sittenfeld today. Sittenfeld told her that he wanted to set the record straight. This is from her twitter feed (I'll keep her name out of it): "Hear ye, hear ye- retweet far and wide- @votepg is on record as '100% in support of the #streetcar.' had a great talk with him earlier!" "for reals. Wants it to be done right, but very much in favor of rail transit in our lifetime." This is laughable of course. From the outset Sittenfeld has qualified his so-called "support" for the streetcar with statements including "it shouldn't be our top priority right now", "when we can afford it" and other similar gems. He has voted against the streetcar at each and every opportunity. He is going on AM radio speaking out against the streetcar. Sittenfeld is as anti-streetcar as they come. What is evident is that he's starting to feel the heat from the push back that he's getting from pro-streetcar and other pro-Cincinnati advocates, and he's hedging his bets, flipping and flopping. Frankly I would have more respect for the guy if he had any principles at all and had the courage to stand behind them instead of being the mealy-mouthed hypocritical weasel that he is. Upside is that Sittenfeld is feeling our heat, so let's keep applying it.

A new post on the TOAST blog proclaims that TOAST is winning the streetcar war. :drunk: Yea, they're "winning" just like Mitt Romney is "winning". TOAST should hire Tarik Aziz, Saddam Hussein's former Information Minister, as their spokesperson. Aziz would probably spin more believable tales than these guys are capable of doing.

I can't post the link from my phone but according to the twitterverse the full City Council just voted approve the finding modification for the streetcar. And in other news, Finney got his butt kicked in Federal Court. COAST lost their fight with the Ohio Ethics Commission and their attempts to legalize their compulsive lying were shot down: http://sns.mx/2Cq8y

^ poor PG got his delicate fee-fee's hurt by the valid criticism he's receiving. That post reads like it could've been written by Monzel or Berding. Sittenfeld is nothing but a liar and a mealy-mouthed panderer, and he's getting called out as just that.

What does concern me is that Kasich appoints the PUCO board...Right? Our ace in the hole is that if PUCO rules for Duke, that company and all other utilities will bill be able to bill ODOT and the State for any work they perform for highway, road, bridge and other similar projects. You can bet that Kasich doesn't want to have to pay those bills.

Honestly I don't think he's corrupt or anything like that. I think he came in naive and smitherman pounced on that. Sillyman saw a weakness and turned him.... Like he's done with many others.. And now look what he's become. A regular on Brian Thomas and 700wlw. It's only a matter of time before he's speaking at COAST rallies. I respectfully disagree, Sittenfeld was politically calculating from the beginning. He took great care not to take any positions on nearly any issue, particularly controversial issues (especially the streetcar). I believe that he planned to go right from the very start and use City Council as a launching pad to run for a higher office in the future.

^I was thinking exactly the same thing. Both of them operate murky one man companies. at least Mark Miller used to, Plummetrics has been out of business for at least a year now.

I was just wondering the same thing John. This seems to be Steve Deiters: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Tq-ULO-AnmkJ:www.moeller.org/Document.Doc?id%3D1807+Steve+Deiters+moeller+high+school&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjdURoZwYb8wPs4uQ1UmVYAEkfE2ns3YXvcsfWZZz7ezzEe8xvzgWB9e3Wi9XK-RklP892KGW1J-rGecsYuhXWBdkMF9UozVFaL1rSQ0WuGqHbov6b5H8sPiIiRCtOU-PzesIa_&sig=AHIEtbQ6EFa6Aihlxr-JkS8itiq--I69eQ http://www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-deiters/45/715/395 http://www.manta.com/g/mm5bxxt/steve-deiters http://www.corporationwiki.com/Ohio/Lebanon/steve-deiters/65218472.aspx http://diffusedgas.com/ https://www.dandb.com/businessdirectory/cedarinvestmentsllc-lebanon-oh-15648473.html Since Steve is busy commenting on Cincinnati.com day and night, his trade at Diffused Gas Technologies and cedar Investments LLC must not be terribly busy.

^Good point, they particularly want attention right now because they're against Issue 4. Toast, Sillyman, and all of the regressives that were kicked off of Council adamantly oppose extending terms, so any additional publicity just helps them pipe up against that issue.

This is the Helmut 'O Hair's latest trope:

Barry Horstman and his Magical Hair Helmet® have changed the title of the article to something eminently more troll worthy: $29M may get streetcar going

I don't know if somebody got nasty or what, but the Enquirer has already erased all of the comments that were posted on that article.

That's the $64 question. Qualls is an enormously popular Councilperson; judging by the past several elections perhaps the most popular. Cranley has been out of the public eye for some time now too boot. Plus Cranley has a blind spot as big as a barn; he can be easily attacked on his multiple conflicts of interest as a developer that should preclude him from office. In fact you can use the very attacks that COAST used against Bortz for the same reasons and just cross out Bortz and fill in Cranley's name instead. With his pandering to the typical suburban resident, as well as the above mentioned conflicts of interest, I wonder if Cranley isn't planning on running for a larger office, perhaps the County Commission, etc?

Here's a link to an overview of the Streetcar Ballot Initiative "Ballot Language" controvery. Let this put any lingering questions about who is responsible for the ballot language to rest once and for all: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Cincinnati_Streetcar_Referendum,_Issue_9_(2009)#Ballot_language_debate "Ballot language debate Ballot language for the trolley referendum was the subject of much controversy in summer 2009. Referendum supporters argued that opponents attempted to change the ballot language in their favor. Chris Finney, co-founder of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), said, "If they mess with the language, we'll be in court in a heartbeat." A draft of the recommended ballot language read as follows: "Shall the Charter of the City of Cincinnati be amended to prohibit the city, and its various boards and commissions, from spending any monies for right-of-way acquisition or construction of improvements for passenger rail transportation (e.g. a trolley or streetcar) within the city limits without first submitting the question of approval of such expenditure to a vote of the electorate of the city and receiving a majority affirmative vote for the same?"[4] Ballot measure opponents argued that the parenthetical use of "trolley" and "streetcar" should be eliminated because it narrows the scope of the ballot measure's impact and may confuse voters. If approved, the measure would affect not only future trolleys and streetcars but all passenger rail projects. However, on September 1, 2009, the ballot language was left untouched and submitted to the city council, who approved the language on September 2nd" Finney wrote the ballot language and threatened to sue if it was changed by the City. The ballot language is 100% on COAST, so Cranley, Smitherman, Finney & Co. can all eat it.

Interesting finds about John Cranley, the first is from his law firm's website: Then there's this Enquirer article (just one of many similar articles) from 2004 citing Cranley as the person who led the effort to create the City's tax-increment financing districts in 2002: John Cranley received millions in taxpayer provided funding from the City of Cincinnati for his Incline District, including $3.3 million from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2, $1.8 million from the Cincinnati Community Reinvestment Area LEED tax exception, as well as $1.7 million City HOME loan, among other sources. He was the chief architect of TIF district financing. He was was at the forefront of the creation of 3CDC and helped create the mechanisms for using public funds to finance that private corporation. Cranley also led the effort to redevelop Fountain Square using million of dollars of City (Taxpayer) funds to do accomplish that project. Cranley has never once called for any of those projects to be subjected to a "straight-up vote" by the citizens of Cincinnati, not to mention holding a third vote on any of those projects, as he is now proposing with regard to the Streetcar. Regarding the "ballot language" on the Streetcar votes, Cranley needs take that issue up with the author of that language: Christopher P. Finney. Cranley is parroting COAST talking points that are flat out proven lies. The man is a despicable hypocrite and a brazen pandering carpetbagger who is so desperate to return to public office that he's willing to spread lies and make common cause with Finney, Capell, Brinkman and the rest of the COASTers in order to get elected.

Cranley is one the most hypocritical pr*cks in this City. Did the voters ever get the opportunity to have a straight up or down vote on the millions of dollars in City Taxpayer funded handouts that he received for his Price Hill boondoggle Incline Village project? Or for the nearly $100 million Waldvogel Viaduct Improvement Project that directly benefits Cranley's pet development project? And unless I'm mistaken was it not John Cranley himself who pretty much enacted the modern TIF financing in Cincinnati? John's nothing but a freaking hypocrite and desperate political opportunist.

Further to my last comment, if 8th's "interpretation" of the law is correct, then please explain why Cincinnati Bell, the Greater Cincinnati Water Works and Level 3 Communications (all public utilities) reach agreement with The City so quickly and without resorting to Duke's tactics?

^Your non-attorney, uneducated layman's "interpretation" of ORC isn't worth a hill of beans. It's akin to my reading Sabiston's Textbook of Surgery and then chiming in with medical opinions. Quite simply, you do not know what you're talking about.

Cincinnati streets are owned by the State of Ohio. The City of Cincinnati has jurisdiction, but not "ownership." Hogwash That's the first true statement that you've ever posted.