Kentucky LP Stands Up for Individual Choice, Property Rights, and Employee Safety

Three northern Kentucky counties - Boone, Campbell and Kenton - are considering imposing a no-smoking ban on restaurants and bars similar to the one that now exists in Ohio.

The Libertarian Party of Kentucky has launched a new Web site to oppose the ban. Their suggestions on how to handle the issue are great examples of pragmatic Libertarianism.

On the issue of personal choice and property rights: "Any business which allows indoor smoking would have to have a sign posted on each and every entrance and exit of the building, and exterior doors would have to have the sign made visible to anyone passing-by, and remain unobstructed."

The result? "Consumers are now empowered to make a rational and convenient decision as to whether or not to patronize the establishment. Business (property) owners still have control over what activities take place inside their establishment."

Property rights and individual choice are vanishing from the American landscape. The "Green Circle" concept supports both.

On the issue of employee safety: "A date in the future, to be determined, would be set for all restaurants to implement the "Green Circle" plan. Immediately upon its implementation, those currently collecting unemployment would no longer be required to interview at any establishment that allows indoor smoking. One month after the implementation of "Green Circle", employees would be given a one month window to give the proper 2-week notice (unless otherwise specified in contract between the employer and the employee) to their employer, and still be able to claim unemplyment."

The result? "Those currently seeking new employment would no longer have to accept employment at any establishment which allows indoor smoking. Those currently employed in smoking establishments would have an avenue to find new employment. Employers who currently allow indoor smoking are given the business decision as to whether or not to continue allowing indoor smoking."

My hope is that someday liberals and conservatives will stop trying to tell everyone how to run their lives. The effort by the Kentucky LP is a step in the right direction.

Misuse of Police Time

Pot growers, smokers, and sellers are not a threat to society. The Cincinnati Police Department should be spending their time and our tax dollars arresting real criminals: muggers, arsonists, rapists, murderers and thieves. Arresting Ms. Frazier and "seizing plants, soil and growing supplies from her basement" will not make our streets one bit safer.

Unless you consider potting soil a menace to society.

Cops bust basement pot grow business

Satellite Abstracts

Gorgeous satellite images.

Bush and Iraq: Denial and Deception

On October 7, 2002, President George Bush gave a speech at the Cincinnati Museum Center in which he made the following statements:

"[T]he regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas."

"[T]he regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons."

"Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles..."

"[I]raq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas."

"[I]raq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program..."

Source: White House Press Release

All of these statements were wrong. And we now know that much of the "intelligence" behind these statements came from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an accused Qaeda commander who was tortured by the Egyptian government at the C.I.A.'s request.

To pile sickening irony on top of the horror of the U.S. outsourcing torture, this is the image that appears at the top of the press release:

Ironic because it was denial of reality and deception by the government that got us into Iraq. Sickening because over four thousand Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis are dead because of the Bush administration's denial and deception.

It gets worse. Having learned nothing from their failure to act to prevent the attacks on 9/11 (Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US was the President's Daily Brief given to President Bush on August 6, 2001), seven years later we are told that our troops in Afghanistan, where Al-Qaeda is busy reconstituting itself and is undoubtedly planning new attacks against the U.S., don't have the manpower and equipment to finish off the real enemy. In other words, seven years, tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars later, Bin Laden is still determined to strike in the US.

All this information and more is contained in a new book, "The Dark Side", by Jane Mayer of The New Yorker. It demonstrates how the the Bush administration is putting every American at risk through a continuing policy of denial and deception.

Teaser Journalism

The headline for a July 12th article in the Cincinnati Enquirer on warrantless email searches reads: "Can authorities spy on your private e-mail?", with the subheadline: "Appeals court retains warrantless search in Berkeley case"

In the world of real journalism, the article would have been titled:

Appeals court retains warrantless search in Berkeley case
Authorities can continue to spy on private e-mail

If the Enquirer had headlined the article properly, they would not have been able to use the suspenseful "Can authorities spy on your private e-mail?" as a teaser on the main page of their Web site.

This same style of teaser journalism shows up on their newspaper boxes. The most egregious example is: "They're teaching what in kindergarten?" The Enquirer is not implying that "they're" teaching calculus or quantum physics - the Enquirer is implying that "they're" teaching something about s-e-x in kindergarten.

Does this sell newspapers? Probably. Is it good journalism? No.

CityBeat Versus the Censors

From today’s Cincinnati Enquirer:

CityBeat, Cincinnati's free weekly newspaper, sued a community group and several city officials Tuesday over a campaign against the newspaper's adult personal ads. CityBeat's lawyers say the campaign hinders the paper's free expression and has scared off advertisers.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, claims the paper has lost 25 percent of its ad revenue since the campaign began last month at a press conference at City Hall. Police Chief Tom Streicher, Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis, City Councilman Chris Monzel and representatives of Citizens for Community Values all signed a letter protesting the ads, which they say could be thinly veiled solicitations for prostitution.

CityBeat says the ads do not implicitly or explicitly solicit illegal acts. The lawsuit says the inclusion of government officials in the campaign chills City Beat's free expression "by forcing it to self-censor or face possible prosecution."

All of the defendants in the lawsuit have a right to free expression, including writing and publicizing their letter, but I find the idea of law enforcement officials signing the letter, along with their titles, deeply troubling.

A lawyer I know offered this opinion (paraphrased here): "The suit may have some bite. If government officials sign a letter in their official capacities, with their jobs listed, then the reference to 'solicitation for prostitution' could be seen as a threat to prosecute, which might be considered a chilling prior censorship by the government."

If the ads in question do violate the law, the proper course would be to file criminal charges. The fact that no charges have been brought could either mean that the ads are legal or that prosecutors think they are illegal, but do not think they can win in court.

Cincinnati and Hamilton County law enforcement should either press charges or get on with the work of making the city safe. Using the cover of the Citizens for Community Values letter to try and get rid of these ads is underhanded.

Perhaps all of the defendants in the lawsuit should familiarize themselves with the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law...abridging...the freedom of the press..." What part of "no law" don't these people understand? And none of the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment, including the right to a free press, comes with a disclaimer that those rights are subject to a "community values" test.

As a free newspaper, CityBeat depends on ad revenues so that Cincinnatians can continue to have an alternative news source. I hope that CityBeat prevails in its lawsuit. A court decision in their favor would have the effect of telling potential advertisers that it's okay to advertise in CityBeat without being harassed by groups like "Citizens Who Know What's Best for Everybody."

CityBeat should also use their freedom of the press to expose the defendants for what they are: People who have no respect for the First Amendment.

Full text of Citizens for Community Values letter

Red Light Cameras - Are They About Safety Or Revenue?

Cincinnati City Council is proposing to place 10 cameras at intersections around the city to catch people running red lights. The program is designed to reduce accidents by reducing the number of people running red lights and to generate revenue through the tickets issued to those who disobey the traffic signals.

While the Council proposal does not include a specific amount that will be generated by the tickets, the budget approved last year by City Council includes $1,000,000 in anticipated revenue from those tickets.

While I am sure that the proponents of these cameras are sincere in their attempt to reduce accidents, it is odd that the first action they have taken is to count the revenue from these cameras, even before approving their use.

More Safety or More Accidents?

Studies conducted by the University of South Florida, the Virginia Department of Transportation, North Carolina A&T University, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, the Australian Road Research Board, Monash University (Australia) and a Winnipeg, Canada city audit all found significant increases in the traffic collisions associated with red light cameras. For example, the study by the Virginia DOT found that: "The cameras are correlated with an increase in total crashes of 8% to 17%." In most cases, the increase came in the form of rear-end collisions, when drivers noticed the "Red Light Camera Enforced" sign at the last minute and slammed on their brakes to avoid going through the intersection.

More Revenue or Higher Deficits?

Based on the city budget, proponents of red light cameras are assuming that $1,000,000 in revenue will be generated by the cameras. However, a study conducted by the Los Angeles Times found that the expected revenue does not always materialize:

Some cities, including Walnut, Santa Clarita and Montebello, have netted tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars above camera operating costs, officials say. Culver City could clear even more this year, based on budget documents and recent revenue estimates.

Yet Paramount shut down its camera program in 2006 after running a projected $178,000 deficit in two years. 'It just really wasn't what we thought it would be,' said Assistant City Manager John Moreno.

Compton also canceled its program because of concerns over costs.

Pasadena's 6-year-old camera program has produced safety benefits, including reductions in red light running, but it is struggling to cover contractor costs, said Norman Baculinao, the city's senior traffic engineer. "You have less violations, you have less revenue," he said. "We're at that point now: Our violations are barely making the monthly fees."

Potential For Abuse

Despite studies by the Texas Transportation Institute and the Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives that show that increasing the length of yellow lights reduces accidents, six cities were caught shortening yellow light times for profit. The six cities were found to have "an amber light that lasted less than the minimum timing at an intersection, and millions of dollars in fines have been collected when drivers went through the premature red and got caught on camera. Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; Springfield, Missouri; Lubbock, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Union City, California all cut the timing on their lights."

How You Can Stop This Dangerous, Money-Grubbing Scheme

The issue of red light cameras has brought together a broad coalition of groups, including the local branch of the NAACP, the Hamilton County Republican Party, the Green Party of Ohio, the Libertarian Party of Southwest Ohio, Blue Chip Young Republicans, COAST (Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes), the Hamilton County Business Owners, Property Rights Freedom Fighters and Americans for Prosperity, all of whom demand that the people - not the government - have the final word on whether or not we want to live in a city under 24-hour surveillance.

We Demand a Vote, the same group that help defeat the new jail sales tax by putting the tax on the ballot, is circulating petitions in order to give the citizens of Cincinnati a voice in this decision. Please visit the We Demand A Vote Web site for information on how you can help get this issue on the ballot.