protecting the innocent, by Miss Nancy

Banner over Cleveland urges against sales-tax petition - cleveland.com -- I'm sure we all feel better now that we have Nancy Lesic and the GCP spending to protect our innocence. The reporter forgot to mention that the resolution the two commissioners are seeking to slide by us says nothing about the medicalmart, but only about the general fund. Makes you wonder. This is some heady stuff:

Don't sign petition, banner says

Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Sarah HollanderPlain Dealer Reporter

An advertising method typically used to hawk drink specials or pop the question has been called into duty for Cuyahoga County's sales tax debate.

Volunteers collecting signatures to force a public vote on an upcoming tax hike said they were surprised to look up and see a plane trailing a banner that read "Don't Sign the Petition. We Need the Med Mart."

The Greater Cleveland Partnership paid $2,000 for four hours of aerial advertising in downtown Cleveland to challenge the petition drive.

The plane flew around Jacobs Field an hour before Indians games Friday, Saturday and Sunday and around Cleveland Browns Stadium an hour before Saturday's preseason game. Volunteers from labor unions and the hospitality industry also handed out leaflets.

"We wanted to reach people who might innocently sign a petition without knowing what the consequences would be," said Nancy Lesic, a spokeswoman for the Partnership. "The petitions could kill the project."

Cuyahoga County commissioners voted 2-1 last month to raise the sales tax 25 cents for every $100 purchased to pay for a new Cleveland convention center. The city needs a new center to attract a Medical Mart, which would house permanent showrooms for health care equipment and products and use the convention center space for related trade shows. The county will begin collecting the 20-year tax in October unless the referendum group collects more than 45,000 valid signatures from registered Cuyahoga County voters by Aug. 24.

Lesic said the partnership learned of the referendum group's plans to blitz sporting events through a news conference held by Cleveland City Councilman Zack Reed last week. Reed, a leader of the referendum movement, said telling people not to sign a petition might backfire and anger voters.

Petition efforts will continue at city and suburban festivals and door to door in areas such as Parma, Parma Heights and North Royalton over the next couple of weeks, he said.

At last count - Friday morning - the group said it had collected around 10,000 signatures.

To learn more about the referendum effort, go to putitontheballot.com. To learn more about the convention center and Medical Mart proposal, go to ashotinthearm.org.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
shollander@plaind.com,
216-999-4816

not paying attention to detail, Tubbs overflows

For at least the last half year, I've been getting this email reply from Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones "official" mailbox (stephanie.tubbs.jones@mail.house.gov):

Your message

To: Tubbs Jones, Stephanie
Subject: going tactical
Sent: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:21:53 -0400

did not reach the following recipient(s):

Tubbs Jones, Stephanie on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:27:28 -0400
The message could not be delivered because the recipient's mailbox is full.
HRM07.US.House.gov 5.2.2

I'm removing her from my information lists, as of now. I guess she feels that what she doesn't know won't hurt her, but what about the rest of us?

How can she present herself as a representative of this region if her lines of communication are always down?

T-Mobile heralds the death of the landline

http://laptopmag.com/Review/T-Mobile-HotSpot-at-Home.htm -- Here's an interesting phone technology that works off both Wi-Fi and GSM. It can also lower your monthly expenses if you're currently paying for a cellphone and POTS, or a cellphone and VoIP. Not only could you get the phone lines off your house; you could also dispense with the cable. Ponder how this impacts all cable service, and how AT&T is so far behind the power curve. But, if you can't innovate, legislate, and now we have to watch the sad, clumsy cable-carrier maneuvering made possible by our state politicos and SB117.

Save Our Land: Gone Forever, but now a seminal event

Save Our Land: Gone Forever -- It's funny how, when people become outraged and feel anger, they begin to find each other and share information, and all the issues begin to dovetail together. The messy obfuscation swirling around the Fulton Road Bridge finds parallels in the Breuer Tower rush to judgment. The "oops" demolition on Riverside feels strangely like the disappearance of Denise's back yard. For our neighborhood and for the city, the beginning of the depradations on West 44th Street have become a seminal event. It all began in Ward 15. It's become "us" versus "them."

Demolition calls to mind tax abatement and residential real-estate development concerns are reflected in commercial concerns. Ultimately, all the indicators point to our having elected and appointed bad help who serve imperfectly or fail to serve at all. They forget that they're the help, the servants of the public, and begin to think they're rock stars. In this comment, by one of our neighbors over on Archwood, Joe Cimperman gets whacked. The commenter is a Tremont native. He uses plain talk. Enjoy.

Daryl says PD reporting on Breuer Tower issue is flawed

Over at Save Our Land, Daryl Davis points out a few flaws in the PeeDee's Joan Mazzolini's reporting skills. It does seem like they're stacking the deck by the way they're manipulating public opinion here.