Phil Burress' Citizens For Community Values: The Military Has Made Ohio A Cesspool

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The vice president of operations at Citizens for Community Values -- the anti-porn, anti-gay religious right group headed by Phil Burress -- has an obnoxious and highly inaccurate Op-Ed piece on page B-7 of today's Cincinnati Enquirer print edition. It says the "large number of colleges and military bases" in Ohio have helped turn the state into a hub of the human trafficking industry.

That is an insult to the students on Ohio's campuses, and a despicable remark to level at the Americans voluntarily serving in the armed forces during a time of war. They simply are not in league with human trafficking industry.

But Jerry Lyons, CCV's veep and the Op-Ed author, also is wrong on his facts. It is false to say Ohio is home to a "large number" of military bases. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton is huge and the state's biggest employer with some 38,000 workers on the Pentagon payroll. But the vast majority are civilians -- fewer than 8,000 active duty Air Force personnel are at the base. Other than Wright-Pat, there are only a handful of reserve, National Guard and Coast Guard facilities left in the state.

For some unfathomable reason, Citizens for Community Values has decided to warn Ohio that its colleges and the military are in the cult of brothels and actively supporting the unspeakably evil human traffickers who capture women and use them as sex slaves. The Enquirer has not yet made the Op-Ed available on the Internet. Perhaps it is too ashamed. But this is some of what Lyons wrote:

"The ugly truth is that Ohio, primarily for two practical reasons, has become a significant hub for human sexual trafficking. Lake Erie allows easy access for trafficked victims from Canada, while the state's excellent highway grid allows movement to cities throughout the country.

"There are additional factors. The large number of colleges and military bases contribute to trafficking. Cleveland and Columbus, therefore, have been identified as cities popular among johns seeking Asian massage parlors serving as fronts for brothels."

If Lyons had really been on the ball, if he had used his brains, he might have noticed that he was describing Lake Erie as a transfer point, a porous transfer point used by smugglers to access the U.S. homeland. If traffickers really are so successful secretly shipping sex slaves to campuses and military bases around Ohio, then think of what the terrorists and drug dealers must be moving across the lake these days. Heroin and cocaine come to mind. So do explosives and radioactive materiel. Is Lyons more concerned about massage parlors than a nuclear weapon?

Now, this is not the first time CCV has made its claim about the campuses and military bases contributing to human trafficking. In fact, virtually the same words appeared last August in CitizenUSA, an apparently defunct Christian right newspaper. The story quoted another CCV official who said, "The large numbers of college and military bases also contribute to the traffic."

The complete article is still at the link above, but the pertinent part is here:

"In Cincinnati Thompson conducted a workshop sponsored by Citizens for Community Values. CCV’s representative on the Rescue & Restore coalition, Bruce Purdy said, “Ohio has become a significant hub for human sex trafficking because of geography and demographics. Lake Erie allows trafficking to move from Canada, while the various interstate corridors allow movement of victims to cities throughout the country. The large number of colleges and military bases also contribute to the traffic. Cleveland and Columbus have been identified as major cities popular among johns seeking Asian massage parlors serving as front for brothels."

Ohio Trash Talker Bill Cunningham: A Peeping Willie?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Usually, WLW's Bill Cunningham is on the dishing end, reliably spouting conservative causes like a human geyser on his radio talk show that emanates each weekday in Cincinnati. Now he's managed to p.o the Christian Right, and one evangelical commentator has sprayed back with a dose of skunk juice, implying that Willie likes to leer at young women through their unshaded windows.

Definitely titillating. But that's really hard to believe, isn't it?

A lengthy commentary that mentions the ogling is online at Citizen USA, the web-version of a newspaper that circulates in many Ohio churches. There is no fairness doctrine that covers newspapers or online sites -- or radio talk shows for that matter -- so there is nothing showing Clear Channel talker Cunningham has responded to the commentary. Citizen USA says about itself that it is a "newspaper that represents the worldview of the Values Voter" and "challenges the liberal bias found is most hometown daily newspapers."

The passage that gut-punched Cunningham reads as follows:

"So why was Willie, usually the Conservative's conservative, blasting Phil Burress, David Miller, Bill Seitz and others? While eating lunch at (irony of all ironies) the West Chester location of the restaurant that bears Willies name, I overheard diners ate (sic) the table next door speculating that Willie had to be rescued from his roof not for inspecting dryer lint, but for inspecting the navels of young women in the neighborhood through their open windows. (Cunningham recently had to be rescued from the roof of his home, placing a famous but embarrassing 911 call to the Madeira Fire Department after climbing up a too-short ladder to inspect a dryer vent installation on his roof and becoming frightened he would injure himself getting down.)"

Maybe Cunningham just got Swiftboated by the right? After all, it was a navel attack.

UPDATE: 10:25 am EDT -- Just discovered that Right Angle Blog is conducting a poll to determine the most influential/popular conservative talker in Ohio. Cunningham is the first name on the ballot. He's definitely a force. But some people in Cincinnati have another nickmane for Willie. They call him the cunning ham. It will be very interesting to see who wins the RAB poll. Guess here -- Willie zips past all comers.

Coming To Ohio: Boot Camp For Young Conservatives

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- The socially conservative Citizens for Community Values group that Phil Burress heads is urging right-leaning young political activists to sign up for a "boot camp" at Capital University this weekend. They'll be taught skills that someday could pay off at the ballot box. Classes will explore how to organize, launch a political career, build student organizations and deliver a message that can deliver results. The idea is to sculpt the next generation of conservative leaders, who will have to spend from $30 to $60 for two days of classes in Columbus. Burress's Web site says it is not for the faint of heart.

His CCV, which is based in a Cincinnati suburb, led the campaign to ban gay marriage in Ohio. It is generally seen as an important state voice aligned with the Christian right.

Check out the ssocial conservative boot camp. The program will be put on by the Leadership Institute, an organization in Arlington, Va., that has trained about 54,000 conservatives in everything from writing news releases to campaign techniques. Its Web site is HERE.