I was pleased to see posted on Secretary of State Brunner's campaign for U.S. Senator blog a video provided by the Cleveland Plain Dealer of her opening remarks at the City Club debate, this week. This was the highlight of the entire debate... watch to the end, as she differentiates herself from Fisher - nice to see the PD make this available, including allowing it to be embedded in other sites.

Richard T. Andrews writes an insightful blog called "The Real Deal", which he describes as "Periodic reporting and commentary from Cleveland Heights OH. Primary interests: Cleveland/NEOhio regional public affairs; African American politics, commerce, culture and society; public education; national and international affairs; Cavaliers∫Browns∫Indians." I receive it by email and suggest everyone on realNEO check it out. I strongly agree with his most recent posting "Brunner the Best for Ohio Democrats" and suggest all Ohio voters read through to his posting, which I introduce below:

In reflecting on the future of the food economy in America, one must understand the role of genetically engineered crops, which have blown-apart food economics and ecology in America and increasingly worldwode since their monopoly-mounted introduction 14 short years ago, driven by Monsanto covering the Earth in Roundup, AKA glyphosate.

I received a press release today for a demand side management program in Philadelphia that has promise here - they are attacking "energy ogres" in a fun and clever way that their research says will have a greater impact with customers than doom-and-gloom environmental scare tactics - a "no finger waving" approach to reducing consumer energy demand and so pollution. I thought I'd share the entire release and their promotional videos here to get feedback from realNEO (it seems the global energy industry watches us, here), and to plant this strategy as a potential best practice for Ohio to explore - below is the contact information if our PUCO wants to learn more... I've asked for updates on the success of this program and will keep this community posted.

I've been meaning to post last Sunday's must-share Editorial from the New York Times' Frank Rich: "No One Is to Blame for Anything"... yesterday, seeing the unapologetic, lifelong-politician baby-boomer Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, who resigned as economic development director of the not-recovering State of Ohio, debate why he should now be promoted to US Senator seems a timely segue... please see linked below an important analysis of the fact "We live in a culture where accountability and responsibility are forgotten values.

As the world and America move forward from an age of rampant, generational, systematically-enabled global corporate, government and individual leadership incompetency, corruption, excess, conflict and greed punctuated by widespread warmongering and the rising and bursting of global energy, military, housing and financial markets, and an escalation of climate change, throughout the first decade of the 2000s, some of the great concerns of the world's legitimate economists now center on the transference of wealth and opportunity from excessively greedy individuals and enterprises - which have been riding a wave of imperfect monopoly wealth creation and productivity realignments, only benefiting large corporate executives and stockholders - to now benefit excessively impoverished common workers, who are heavily underemployed and outside the power/elite fountain of trickle-down opportunity proposed to be the benefit of unenlightened contemporary "capitalism", as we have seen over the past several decades.

I just received this email from Anita the Weblady, of Shaw High On Line and many other important social networks in the area, about the "Current Plus Plan." This seems to offer valuable help for area residents struggling with their past heating expenses this time of year... I thought I would pass this on to realNEO members . Note, the compliance deadline is April 15th! While reflecting on paying your Winter 2009/2010 heating bills, now, plan for how you will reduce consumption, conserve energy, and pay less going into 2011!!!!! Read on for your options in paying for your mistakes of the past...

European Trader in a Hammock, 1800s
Wood, pigment
Unknown artist
Bembe, Congo-Brazzaville

Living in Cleveland, when I think of businesspeople from Detroit I picture someone very much like the European trader depicted in the African carving above - big-game-trader, big-thinker Dan Gilbert, coming from the West to transform Cleveland through gambling... carried through our streets by our native leaders and their subjects. I expect about as great an outcome for Cleveland as such "Westerner" infestation brought to Africa, looking more like complete annihilation than salvation... except in the art, where change may be beautiful, despite being tragic.

I wouldn't go to Detroit or anywhere for a casino, but I am planning to visit the "Motor City" shortly for their museum, to celebrate "Through African Eyes," a major exhibition exploring the European presence in African art that opens April 18 (through August 8, 2010) at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) - the images featured here are from this exhibition. I won't hold Detroit's gambling interests against that city, when their leaders at the DIA have traditionally sought to elevate the community above the annihilation of their local culture.

Dispositions of U.S. and allied forces in Iraq, as reported in a Pentagon press briefing of April 30, 2004. Original URL: http://www.defenselink.mil/DODCMSShare/briefingslide/52/040430-D-6570C-006.jpg

I was trying to estimate the number of US troops overseas, right now, and came across an interesting list of facts about the war in Iraq, compiled by a Guide on About.com, a New York Times Company. I'm pleased to see US Monthly spending in Iraq has declined from $12 billion to $7.3 billion, from 2008 to 2009... although the world-at-war is escalating military actions in Afghanistan. Ultimately, have we scaled-back the world-at-war machine globally, since Obama took office in January, 2009?

I was reading a moving article on NYTimes.com today - As Families Gather at Dover, Efforts to Ease Pain - that had a surprising fact... President Obama Gave $250,000 Of His Nobel Prize Money To Help Build A Hotel?!?!

There can be no question Ohio has a dismal record on public policy and the environment - we are a national disaster. The Governor-appointed Public Utility Commission has failed to protect the public interests of citizens and has embarassed the citizens of the state in countless ways, most recently with matters surrounding an absurd light bulb subsidy program they divised with First Energy, report on realNEO here..."Let Me Introduce To You Five Public Servants Who Just Cost Citizens Of Unreal NEO Millions Of Dollars, While Poisoning Them".

Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports energy policy in Ohio is moving from laughable to criminal... damn-well communist... announcing that "Governor pushes for permanent discounts on all-electric heating", leading off with the following:

I've been printing out many of the unique panorama photo collages of real NEO that I have created over the past six years, which I have displayed as headers on realNEO, as I plan to sell editions of some favorite images to raise money for realNEO. I'm currently producing a series from many shoots at Whiskey Island, in memory of my friend Ed Hauser.

They are stunning, printed in their full glory. Composed of often dozens of high resolution images, these panoramas are 100s of megapixels in size and, printed at 300x300 ppi resolution, they are around 8 feet long... and some may be printed up to 36 feet long, while still holding a strong image.

How low will Cleveland and Northeast Ohio sink in the global new economy, as a result of the embarrassment the leadership of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and their Newhouse parents have brought upon this community, as a result of their pathetic if not illegal misuse of information technology and the Internet here? It doesn't get much lower than this... "Cuyahoga County Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold files $50 million lawsuit against The Plain Dealer and others".

Linked above is the PD spin on this case. Read the actual lawsuit linked as a PDF here (1.13 MB)... and read all the way to the end, where it concludes "Plaintiffs demand a trial by jury by the maximum number of jurors permitted". Smart move for the citizens-Saffold to choose to be judged by their peers.

"Entrepreneurs" do not maintain résumés for employment, but they do need to maintain a running tally about their professional lives, for various purposes... something I refer to as a curriculum vitae (CV). As I'm growing many entrepreneurial initiatives, I'm updating my CV... so I tracked down my latest version, from 2000. Since then, I've launched ICEarth, realNEO, Star Neighborhood Development, 7Gen, and Bigbang Tech, which I must now add to my life-list below... useful information for someone first getting to know me... but is that good enough for Ireland?

One Cleveland urban church that is still attracting a young, diverse, fun community is The Church of the Covenant, on Euclid Avenue, in University Circle... Claes has decided he likes going to church! I like going to University Circle on any beautiful Sunday, and watching children play.

Psychic Hearts is a solo album by Sonic Youth member Thurston Moore. The album was released in 1995 through Geffen Records.

The Free Stamp is one of my favorite contemporary sculptures anywhere. Interesting history, too - commissioned by SOHIO, which was sold to BP before completed - intended from in front of the BP building on Public Square, BP didn't want it. Not sure of the other details how it got to the current location... if anyone can fill in. Also, I believe it was supposed to stand upright, so you couldn't read the word free on the stamp... who's an expert on this?

I include below in its' entirety the most irresponsible words ever published by a newspaper, and I include the profiles of the Editorial Board of the Cleveland Plain Dealer that published these words, on this day, for the permanent record, for all history. I include this editorial here because the Plain Dealer has a history of hiding their online content, and this content is terrorism that may not leave the free public view and record ever... this Plain Dealer editorial is the equivalent of bio-terrorism and should be prosecuted by the Federal Department of Homeland Security. The line: "Many youngsters and some adults suffer from respiratory problems, particularly in the summer, when smoggy days can be pure misery" is especially harmful and insulting to the citizens of Northeast Ohio, who live under health-crisis conditions here. The Plain Dealer is highly responsible for the poor health of our citizens, and the poor state of the regional and global environment, even as their editors deny the reality of climate change. They are hereby disgraced forever.

Growing up on punk, in the 1970s and 1980s, I like a direct, open, honest approach to decry injustice... and the Clash offer some of the best expressions of that ever. Enjoy.

There has been a great deal of anti-community if not illegal Troll activity on realNEO, since it's beginning. What Internet activity is "illegal" and what are the consequences are increasingly being defined by new terms in society and the courts, like cyber-sex crimes, cyber-harassment, cyber-terrorism, and cyber-stalking, as early cases of attacks over the Internet against individuals and society are working their ways up the legal systems in America, and around the world, to supreme levels.

Since Evelyn featured as Art of the Day the Ronald Bladen "Light Year" sculpture, recently installed near Kelvin Smith Library, on the Campus of Case Western Reserve University, and I hadn't seen it yet, I thought I'd see how it looked in the dark.

Minimalist art should look good in the dark!

Traffic to NormRoulet YouTube Channel - 02/01/2010-03/21/2010