When do we stop giving away millions of dollars to profitable corporations and developers who should be supporting themselves?

I see in the Plain Dealer yesterday (why we still need newspapers) that the State of Ohio will give Eaton Corp. $6 million toward building a new headquarters in the Chagrin Highland’s development.

Happened to look at Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher’s official site and it made me wonder why Peggy Zone Fisher’s profile and photo are linked there. Did we elect Lee’s wife, too? I don’t think so. That made me think a bit more after I was told some rather high-faulting ticket prices were being asked for the annual fund-raising dinner for Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio. So I look at the Diversity Center and learn its director is none other than Peggy Zone Fisher. Guess who’s the Diversity honoree of the year? Now, come on, think. Well, Lt. Gov.

Tell Sen. George Voinovich that he must cooperate with President-elect Barack Obama come January.He also owes the President-elect an apology.

Republican Voinovich made an outrageous and disrespectful attack on Obama near the end of the recent presidential campaign. Voinovich apparently thought he could scare Ohioans into voting for his party’s candidate, Sen. John McCain.

The Commission on Cuyahoga County Government reform’s final report is not worth the paper it was printed. No surprise there.

My reading of the skimpy 10-page report – that includes acknowledgements and structure charts – is that it was a big waste of time.

For a quick education on how the American people are being taken to the cleaners by Wall Street read Naomi Klein’s article from Rolling Stone.

Klein wrote “The Shock Doctrine – The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” a riviting expose on how disasters are used to divert the very help that is supposed to aid people right into the pockets of people who helped cause the disaster.

We don’t have a medical mart or a new convention center but we’re paying top dollar for it anyway.

The quarter-percent sales tax passed by Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora without a public vote now totals $35,233,319.51 as of the end of October, according to County Auditor’s records.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and all but one Cleveland City Council member (Mike Polensek) thoughtlessly voted to give $1 million cash to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for its induction dinner.

Now that’s what I call absolutely disgusting. The poor feed the rich.

I'M AWAY FROM HOME BUT I NOTICE OVER THE WEEKEND THAT BOTH THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH AND THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER HAVE BOTH ENDORSED JOHN MCCAIN FOR PRESIDENT.

HOW STUPID CAN THE EDITORS OF THESE TWO RETROGRADE NEWSPAPERS BE? DO THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT TROUBLE OHIO IS IN ECONOMICALLY?

ARE THEY JUST CATERING TO RIGHT WING REPUBLICAN INTERESTS AND NOT TO THE NEEDS OF THE STATE OF OHIO.

Did anyone expect anything less? Cuyahoga County Commissioners waived the $500,000 fee on the East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue property originally bought for a new County Administration Building.

The $500,000 check was made to the County to tie up the property for the developer. The developer should have eaten the fee and the County should be $500,000 richer.

I am taking a point of personal privilege by linking to my daughter's presentation of how she does her art work. She has been suffering from acute back pain and this afternoon she will undergo her third back operation. I think it is a testimony to her courage and creativity that she spent the day before putting together this short film of how she works. I want to share it.

How disgusting and vile are the charges from Sen. George Voinovich that Sen. Barack Obama is a “Socialist.” It tells me that Voinovich would be a staunch McCarthyism advocate if this were the 1950s. What's so ironic and laughable is the Voinovich record of being a Socialist mayor to the Rich of Cleveland. His record is replete with massive give-aways to Cleveland corporate interest. It isn’t for nothing that he once bragged to the New York Times that he loved “Fat Cats,” meaning wealthy corporate types.

Laura Johnston’s Metro Page Sunday piece on “wage earners” bearing the burden of city taxes presented a distorted view of the issue. It left out the most important factor of this payroll tax – it has no progressivity. It is a regressive tax.

The ugliness of the McCain/Palin campaign and the hate they are
churning up can be seen in this Youtube couple of minutes:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/238074.php

The Washington Post endorsed Barack Obama for President today.

The Chicago Tribune endorsed Barack Obama for President today. First time in history for a Democrat to be endorsed by the Tribune.

The Los Angeles Times endorsed Barack Obama for President.

The Boston Globe has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Can the Plain Dealer be far behind?

There is probably no one in the world that I respect more than Ralph Nader. No one I trust more. But I’m telling every Ohio voter, don’t vote for Ralph Nader.

The reason is simple. We cannot afford to have President John McCain.

Everyone in Cuyahoga County should read Erick Trickey’s piece on Pat O’Malley in the October issue of Cleveland Magazine. It’s a must read to show what the Plain Dealer has avoided doing for years about Prosecutor Bill Mason’s buddy, O’Malley.

With the stock market down 675 today you probably don't need any more bad economic news. But research analyst George Zeller is dishing out more. He reports that the unemployment levels are "very discouraging" nationally, "unambiguously unfavorable" for Ohio and "alarmingly high" for Cuyahoga County. "The level of new claims in Cuyahoga County was alarmingly high in the new week," Zeller reports on unemployment figures.

If you think you’ve been on a news diet lately reading the skimpy Plain Dealer, get ready to tighten your reading belt. The newspaper has announced new editorial staff reductions.

The move of Eaton Corp. out of downtown Cleveland was preordained back in the late 1980s by Mayor George Voinovich and Council President George Forbes. They opened the land to development as both of them were preparing to leave their respective offices.

You have to wonder why the County Commissioners have any staff, never mind a former stripper on the payroll.

Having privatized the construction and management of the proposed Medical Mart and Convention Center, the Plain Dealer reports that it will hand MMPI (Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.) the task of also dealing with Forest City Enterprises on the proposed site for the center.

County Commissioner Tim Hagan – the supposed friend of labor – is moving to privatize the the construction and operation of the proposed convention center. Little - if anything - is being said about this Republican-style move that damages unionized labor.

How bad a shape are Cleveland and this area?

As bad as it can get.

Dinosaurs like Lou Stokes – for whom more buildings, roads and gutters are named than Tom Johnson – and Arnold Pinkney – who helped elect a mayor 40 years ago – are deciding who the next Congressman (woman) from the 11th district will be.

Who gave them the right? Not me, not you.

Maybe we should end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bring the troops home and give the GI’s Kevlar flak jackets to our Cleveland children.

A self-anointed selection committee of Democratic “leaders” will strongly “influence” – I’d say rule – the choice of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party in its task to name a replacement for Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

Jones died suddenly recently of a brain aneurysm.

Our leadership stinks pretty much all around, as many others have noted here and elsewhere.

I noticed that the film industry now wants some significant subsidies to locate film work in Cleveland and that Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration wants to accommodate these desires.

(By the way, the County Arts & Culture tax has produced $12.7 million this year and $29.8 million since Feb. 2007. Shouldn’t there be enough there for any real film needs?)