BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Glass City Jungle has put together and published a fast transcript of the Latta-Weirauch showdown broadcast this a.m. on a Toledo TV station. Read the transcript and choose your own winner.
And give a big thanks to Lisa Renee Ward, the editor of Glass City Jungle. It is a great post, a feat of grassroots journalism and the power of the Ohiosphere. She has made it possible for everyone to follow the debate between the two candidates for the open seat in Ohio's 5th Congressional District. It was an act of true public service to release the transcript on the 'net so quickly.
Showing posts with label Glass City Jungle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glass City Jungle. Show all posts
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Actor John Ratzenberger Scolds Ohio Media: Stop Bashing Blue-Collar America
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Cheers television sitcom star who played the ditsy postman Cliff Claven didn't mail it in. At a Townhall meeting in Columbus, John Ratzenberger delivered a powerful message that was deeply critical of cultural and economic thinking that denigrates and writes off people who make things in factories while glorifying those who push pencils, manipulate capital and send jobs overseas. Lisa Renee Ward at Glass City Jungle witnessed Ratzenberger's evangelizing for blue collar Ohioans and reported he scolded the media for too often portraying them as "idiots."
Here's a portion of her account:
Several times over the course of the Town Hall he mentioned how the media has done manufacturing a disservice by giving our children the impression that those who work with their hands are idiots asking, “why would a child want to be an electrician or a stone mason when they’ve been fed this message”. He said this has been happening for quite some time pointing out shows like Gomer Pyle. He shared a story of when he went to Europe then to Holland and saw a cop smoking a joint, “I wondered if this was their police then how screwed up was their army? Oh, they are eating cheese and getting stoned…the only reason they could be this way was because the US was strong.”
Ratzenberger was concerned about our national security, stating that “when we have to go toe to toe with someone, and we will eventually, we will have to turn to our industrial base." He continued, “Right now there are talks to have China make the propellant for some of our guided missile systems, we have Republicans and Democrats (in office) who are not doing anything about it.”
Some other concerns he addressed was the fact that shop classes were not being taught in America, that our children are not even taught how to read a ruler, that there are no OSHA or EPA regulations in China and that some police departments are waiting 6 months for ammunition because it’s not made here in our country, and he speculated what would happen if one of these countries decided they did not like us.
He further shared that if the Golden Gate Bridge needed to be re-cabled there is no one in this country that could do it, and that the twin towers would have to be re-built with foreign steel, that there is a disparity in wages between what workers make in China and the US but there is also a disparity in the environment. Ratzenberger continued with his belief that the Chinese think in terms of 50 years and we think about one fiscal year at a time, “don’t the CEO’s have children? Once we have squeezed our middle class out of existence you’ll have the very rich and the very poor.” He gave the example of buying a three dollar t-shirt but how much more it cost from a stand point of job loss.
John Ratzenberger took serious issue with the lack of answers from presidential candidates, “Hillary, Rudy, anybody, answer the question and don’t tell me its going to be a service based economy, there is no such thing, what are we going to service?” He felt people were not angry enough or paid enough attention, “we’re going to vote for this one because he has a nice hair cut or oh, that guy has a really nice smile. I gotta tell you Ross Perot predicted this so why didn’t he get elected? Oh, he’s got big ears and stuff”. He felt that before someone should be president that they should have had to have built a business, that a “poor many never gave anybody a job”. It was then stated that we need companies who treat people like human beings not numbers, that there was a loss of common sense in America . . . "
Here's a portion of her account:
Several times over the course of the Town Hall he mentioned how the media has done manufacturing a disservice by giving our children the impression that those who work with their hands are idiots asking, “why would a child want to be an electrician or a stone mason when they’ve been fed this message”. He said this has been happening for quite some time pointing out shows like Gomer Pyle. He shared a story of when he went to Europe then to Holland and saw a cop smoking a joint, “I wondered if this was their police then how screwed up was their army? Oh, they are eating cheese and getting stoned…the only reason they could be this way was because the US was strong.”
Ratzenberger was concerned about our national security, stating that “when we have to go toe to toe with someone, and we will eventually, we will have to turn to our industrial base." He continued, “Right now there are talks to have China make the propellant for some of our guided missile systems, we have Republicans and Democrats (in office) who are not doing anything about it.”
Some other concerns he addressed was the fact that shop classes were not being taught in America, that our children are not even taught how to read a ruler, that there are no OSHA or EPA regulations in China and that some police departments are waiting 6 months for ammunition because it’s not made here in our country, and he speculated what would happen if one of these countries decided they did not like us.
He further shared that if the Golden Gate Bridge needed to be re-cabled there is no one in this country that could do it, and that the twin towers would have to be re-built with foreign steel, that there is a disparity in wages between what workers make in China and the US but there is also a disparity in the environment. Ratzenberger continued with his belief that the Chinese think in terms of 50 years and we think about one fiscal year at a time, “don’t the CEO’s have children? Once we have squeezed our middle class out of existence you’ll have the very rich and the very poor.” He gave the example of buying a three dollar t-shirt but how much more it cost from a stand point of job loss.
John Ratzenberger took serious issue with the lack of answers from presidential candidates, “Hillary, Rudy, anybody, answer the question and don’t tell me its going to be a service based economy, there is no such thing, what are we going to service?” He felt people were not angry enough or paid enough attention, “we’re going to vote for this one because he has a nice hair cut or oh, that guy has a really nice smile. I gotta tell you Ross Perot predicted this so why didn’t he get elected? Oh, he’s got big ears and stuff”. He felt that before someone should be president that they should have had to have built a business, that a “poor many never gave anybody a job”. It was then stated that we need companies who treat people like human beings not numbers, that there was a loss of common sense in America . . . "
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Ohiosphere Tale Of The Day: Toledo Mayor's Puppygate
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Bellwether is going to try to select something from one of Ohio's blogs every morning, something from the last 24 hours that strikes a fancy. The headline of the day link is to Glass City Jungle's discussion of the hoo-haa over the mayor's pooch, Scout. Perfect for the dog days of summer, which they've already noted up there.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Ads On Ohio Sheriff's Cars: Censored In 2003
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Glass City Jungle in Toledo has broken word that officials are considering plastering corporate advertisements on city police cruisers, a plan that would open a fresh revenue stream for a Northern Ohio municipality apparently desperate for lucre. The idea isn't original and a similar scheme by a rural sheriff in Meigs County on the Ohio River was declared illegal in 2003. One of the reasons it failed: The probability of confusion. A law enforcement patrol car festooned with ads might be mistaken for a commercial vehicle. In other words: Is it a pizza delivery man or the sheriff?
Sensible lawyers saw interesting court cases developing, with judges having to sort through testimony that a motorist didn't stop because he thought a Dominoes driver wanted to hand him a ticket. A lengthy opinion by former Attorney General Jim Petro NIXED the Meigs County ads on a number of legal grounds, including a state law that specifies how Ohio's sheriff's cars must be marked.
Later that year, Petro issued another ruling about township police cars that found they could legally DISPLAY corporate insignia or decals. The same marking rules that cover sheriffs didn't apply to townships, a loophole that now looks big enough for the Goodyear blimp to float through. But Petro's opinion involving a Youngstown-area community did not endorse the scheme. Instead, it went out of its way to denounce the plan.
"Nonetheless, I must reiterate the problems . . . that such markings pose for law enforcement. Statutes like R.C. 311.28, R.C. 4549.13, and R.C. 2913.441, which makes it a criminal violation for any person who is not a law enforcement officer to display on a vehicle an emblem of a law enforcement agency, all serve the same underlying public purpose -- to ensure 'that law enforcement vehicles are immediately and easily recognizable as such.' This assurance serves to protect the safety of the public and promote effective and professional law enforcement," Petro's opinion declared.
Again, there was the confusion angle, but this time Petro emphasized the hazards to the public -- "a citizen followed or stopped by a vehicle with extraneous markings, unrelated to law enforcement, may be as easily misled, with the attendant dangers, as one who is stopped by a vehicle with no markings at all."
Bottomline: Police cars should be easily recognizable. They should be distinctive. They should not be revenue generating billboards on wheels. The flashing lights and sirens should be going off at the Statehouse, where the Ohio General Assembly needs to step on the gas stop this nonsense immediately.
Sensible lawyers saw interesting court cases developing, with judges having to sort through testimony that a motorist didn't stop because he thought a Dominoes driver wanted to hand him a ticket. A lengthy opinion by former Attorney General Jim Petro NIXED the Meigs County ads on a number of legal grounds, including a state law that specifies how Ohio's sheriff's cars must be marked.
Later that year, Petro issued another ruling about township police cars that found they could legally DISPLAY corporate insignia or decals. The same marking rules that cover sheriffs didn't apply to townships, a loophole that now looks big enough for the Goodyear blimp to float through. But Petro's opinion involving a Youngstown-area community did not endorse the scheme. Instead, it went out of its way to denounce the plan.
"Nonetheless, I must reiterate the problems . . . that such markings pose for law enforcement. Statutes like R.C. 311.28, R.C. 4549.13, and R.C. 2913.441, which makes it a criminal violation for any person who is not a law enforcement officer to display on a vehicle an emblem of a law enforcement agency, all serve the same underlying public purpose -- to ensure 'that law enforcement vehicles are immediately and easily recognizable as such.' This assurance serves to protect the safety of the public and promote effective and professional law enforcement," Petro's opinion declared.
Again, there was the confusion angle, but this time Petro emphasized the hazards to the public -- "a citizen followed or stopped by a vehicle with extraneous markings, unrelated to law enforcement, may be as easily misled, with the attendant dangers, as one who is stopped by a vehicle with no markings at all."
Bottomline: Police cars should be easily recognizable. They should be distinctive. They should not be revenue generating billboards on wheels. The flashing lights and sirens should be going off at the Statehouse, where the Ohio General Assembly needs to step on the gas stop this nonsense immediately.
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