Stewards of tax dollars, NOT lords.

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Can you really trust a parking meter?

Track the time displayed on the parking meter versus the YouTube timer on this video. You'll see a difference of about 3 seconds develop over a period of 30 seconds, indicating the meter is running about 10% fast.

 

Red light cameras (now banned in Cincinnati) use similar dirty tricks to ensnare unsuspecting citizens with expensive tickets by monkeying with yellow light times.

Over and over again we see that whenever law enforcement is viewed as a 'for-profit' enterprise by government, it ALWAYS leads to abuse. Sign the parking petition today.

Can you trust a parking meter?

...or the rapacious politicians who use them to get into your wallets?



The meter reads "10," and when he inserts the nickel it goes up to "14."
After inserting a dime, it goes up to "23."
after inserting a quarter, it goes up to "31."

14-10=4; 5 cents divided by 4 minutes equals 1.25 cents per minute.
23-14=9; 10 cents divided by 9 minutes equals 1.11 cents per minute.
31-23=8; 25 cents divided by 8 minutes equals 3.12 cents per minute.

Qualls' parking plan doesn't add up either. Sign the parking petition today.

You never get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression

The first contact many of our visitors have with the city of Cincinnati will be the machine they park next to. Will high parking prices, overzealous enforcement and rapacious ticketing make them feel welcome?

 

Don't bother cursing at Roxanne Qualls, Laure Quinlivan, Wendall Young, Cecil Thomas, or Chris "Judas Iscariot" Seelbach. They didn't bother listening to constituent concerns when hatching this scheme, and aren't likely to start now.

Sign the parking petition to send them a message they'll understand.

Parking meters: creating crime

Privatized parking company places meters in illegal locations to entrap citizens with expensive tickets.



Don't become a victim of the rapacious parking plan contrived by Qualls', Quinlivan, Thomas, Young, and Chris "Judas" Seelbach.

Sign the parking petition today.

Can you trust a parking meter?

Apparently parking meters are programmed with the same timers used to limit public comments at council meetings.

 

Cheated by the very people elected to serve. Sort of like the voter suppression subterfuge that Qualls, Quinlivan, Young, Thomas, and Chris "Judas Iscariot" Seelbach used to prevent you from voting on Cincinnati's future.

Don't stand for it.  Sign the parking petition today.

Parking meters rob citizens

Is this the image Cincinnati wants to project to the world?


Clean up our act. Sign the parking petition today.

City Council: Neighborly or miserly?

After the intro, skip ahead to 2:30.

Neighbors look out for each other. That's what being a member of a community is all about.

 

Do Roxanne Qualls, Laure Quinlivan, Cecil Thomas, Wendall Young, and Chris "Judas" Seelbach have the best interests of you and your business at heart? Or do you feel like just another pocket to be picked?

Cincinnati used to be known for warmth and graciousness in how we treat our visitors. The Democratic's rapacious parking plan makes our guests feel unwelcome.

Do a good deed for your neighbors.  Sign the parking petition today.

Everybody loves parking police

Citizens of San Diego LOVE their rapacious parking enforcement [sarcasm].


Coming soon to Cincinnati, unless you stop it at the polls.

Chris Seelbach 911 Call

Councilman Chris Seelbach was allegedly assaulted Sunday Monday night outside Mainstay Rock Bar.

We have received further reports that Mr. Seelbach started drinking on Sunday at about 7 pm and was actually cut off at one establishment before making his way to Mainstay.  So when he tells the 911 operator, "I have been drinking, for sure."  We believe him!  For Sure!

In his 911 call he identifies himself as a City Councilman four times in less than one minute.  You don't think he was expecting special treatment do you?

COASTer acts to stop Quinlivan abuse of tax dollars to fund her campaign

Systematic, pervasive and continuing use of tax dollars challenged

Since she was sworn into office two years ago, Council member Laure Quinlivan started her re-election campaign, using tax dollars and City staff to support it.

When she printed her official City letterhead and business cards, she included a reference on each of www.LQReportingtoYou.com, which is a site paid for by "Quinlivan for Council," and contains campaign materials encouraging the election of Ms. Quinlivan to City Council.

Last November, COASTer Mark Miller wrote to the City Solicitor demanding that he act to stop Quinlivan's abuse of tax dollars to fund her campaign. Upon investigation, the Solicitor reached agreement with Quinlivan to stop using City resources to fund her campaigns and arranged for her to repay the City $644 for this illegal use of tax dollars.

This year, COAST received another tip, that campaign e-mails were originating from her Council offices, and again demanded that the Solicitor act to enjoin this illegal use of City tax dollars to fund her campaigns. The City Solicitor refused, instead marginalizing the misuse of City resources, arranging for Ms. Quinlivan to re-pay the City an insulting 13 cents of misspent City funds.

Interestingly, the Quinlivan e-mails and Quinlivan web site are built on a platform from www.BlueUtopia.Com. As you can see by clicking on Blue Utopia link, the site is "A Powerful and Affordable Campaign System," "Helping Democrats and Progressives at Every Level." In short it is a website devoted to assisting political campaigns, and has no other purpose.

So, COAST did a public records request demanding documentation of the use of the website by City personnel. What he found was astounding. Quinlivan's official City Council office and personnel, paid with City tax dollars, had accessed the site a total of 111,825 KB of data. You can read the report here yourself. Further, we learned that her official City office had accessed www.BlueUtopia.Com more than 2,300 times over a six month period of time (and that's from fewer than 10% of the data that COAST requested.

In short, Quinlivan is running an active City Council campaign, or at least the electronic portions thereof, from her Council offices, costing the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

"This is a systemic, pervasive and continuing misuse of tax dollars that is illegal," said COAST Chairman Jason Gloyd. "It involves not just City computers, City servers, City internet services and City offices, but the misdirection of City staff on City time from their official duties. This is a fundamental breach of the trust that City voters have placed in Quinlivan."

It also happens that the actions of Quinlvan in this regard are illegal. In 2002, COAST conducted a petition drive to insert into the City Charter a provision making the spending of City tax dollars to fund political campaigns illegal. The voters approved that provision and Ms. Quinlivan's actions, even after having been warned against this type of conduct last year, flouts this express Charter provision.

COAST notes that just this week, State Auditor David Yost and Secretary of State Jon Husted proposed making the knowing misuse of tax dollars for campaign purposes a criminal offense.

COASTer Mark Miller sued Quinlivan in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on Thursday. You can read the entire complaint here. The hearing on the Motion for Temporary Restraining Order is before Judge Steven E. Martin on Monday (today) at 8:30 AM.    

The Inside Story of the “Ice Cream for Votes” Scandal

Organizing for America (“OFA”) is a project of the Democratic's National Committee that closely coordinates its activities in southwest Ohio with the Ohio Democratic's Party and the Hamilton County Democratic's Party.  The official address for OFA in Hamilton County was Hamilton County Democratic's Party Headquarters.

This is the group which arranged for Cincinnati Public School students to get Graeter’s ice cream in exchange for their votes for Democratics in November’s election.

You are invited to hear the entire story of Democratics' deception on Wednesday, March 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Anderson Government Center, 7850 Five Mile Road, 45230.  Food and drinks will be provided. (Please click here to RSVP)

You will recall the explosion of media that occurred when the Brinkman Campaign discovered this deception in progress.  First it hit the Cincinnati.com web site, next it was placed as a top story on the Drudge Report, then discussion on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage, followed by several FOX NEWS segments.  While the focus of all this media attention stopped the program dead in its tracks, the inside story has never been told.

That will change on March 16^th when lead attorney Christopher P. Finney in the Brinkman et al. v. Cincinnati Public Schools law suit will describe step by step the breath and width of deception in this coordinated effort between “OFA” and Cincinnati Public Schools in their attempt to use recently registered Cincinnati Public School students as pawns in a game to provide votes for Steve Driehaus, Ted Strickland and the entire Democratic's ticket.

2011-02-28 4:11PM Grammatical corrections in red above.

Sheriff's Department out of control

Leadership starts at the top. In Hamilton County, the incompetence and lack of professionalism from Sheriff Simon Leis has increasingly put citizen safety at risk. Recent discoveries bring to light the chaos and poor discipline inside the Sheriff's Department.

The first in a series of Enquirer articles about the Sheriff's Department introduces us to deeply disturbing abuse perpetrated by Hamilton County Deputies. As John Harmon was driving home from working and suffering diabetic shock, he was pulled over by deputies. What happened next should never happen to anyone.

Deputies proceeded to smash Harmon's windows, Tase him SEVEN times, then pummel him some more. He suffered a severely dislocated elbow as well as shoulder and thumb injuries. Harmon may have been injured worse, possibly even killed, had State Highway Patrolman Chris Sanger not arrived on the scene. Sanger had to physically stop two of the deputies from further abusing Harmon. As a subsequent Enquirer editorial stated, "What's most troubling is that had an Ohio State Highway Patrol officer not come upon the scene and expressed his concerns to his supervisors, Harmon could have been hurt more severely and the full incident might not have come to light."

Further discoveries lead any reasonable person to wonder if this behavior isn't common inside the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department. Indeed, the same editorial remarked, "it's clear the public has reason to at least wonder not only whether the deputies were disciplined sufficiently, but whether the department is doing all it can to maintain a culture in which citizens are treated with as much restraint and respect as possible."

For the worst of these deputies, John Haynes, incidents such as this one are all-too common. During one investigation, Haynes was described by his fellow deputies as, "basically out of control" and that "it is only a matter of time before Haynes seriously hurts or kills someone". The Madeira Police Department ordered its officers to "steer clear" of Haynes, with a lieutenant stating, "It is only a matter of time before something bad happens." He further stated that Haynes was "a lawsuit waiting to happen" who manages to have "gunpoint" incidents daily.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this ordeal is that it could have been avoided if Hamilton County had a Sheriff with common sense. It has now come out that Haynes was fired from a Northern Kentucky police department before being hired by Simon Leis. One has to wonder why Leis hired an individual who was already proven to be unfit for the job. In addition, why was Haynes moved around from post to post as these incidents piled up instead of taken off the street?

We will have to hope that the Democratic AND Republican parties will each search for a qualified candidate for Sheriff in 2012. The incompetence, poor discipline, and lack of professionalism of Sheriff Simon Leis needlessly endangers Hamilton County citizens. Leadership comes from the top. When you have a Sheriff who is incapable of performing his job duties with competence and professionalism, you will have deputies who behave the same.

CPS scoop dominates 2010 news

Three van loads of Hughes High students were taken in October – during school hours – to vote and given sample ballots only for Democratic candidates and then rewarded with ice cream. Tom Brinkman sued to stop Cincinnati Public Schools from using taxpayer resources for partisan political purposes.

CPS's blatant bias outraged people across the nation, pushing The Enquirer's coverage of the story to the #1 most viewed local news story of 2010. You're welcome, Cincinnati.

Enquirer calls CPS voting indoctrination an "Outrage" and "Orwellian"

We were delighted Friday to welcome the Cincinnati Enquirer aboard our campaign to challenge the outrageous conduct of the Cincinnati Public Schools and its Hughes High School civics teacher Dennis McFadden.

We encourage you to read the Enquirer editorial on the topic here.  In that most excellent opinion piece, the Enquirer decried the conduct of CPS, calling it an "outrage."

What CPS did is an absolute outrage and a violation of the trust the public places in the district to educate children, not indoctrinate them.

The Enquirer went on to say:

What then happened is inexcusable - and, as the candidate who blew the whistle on it said, "Orwellian."

The Enquirer even rejected the ultra-lame excuses of CPS that this was an isolated incident and one that they had no idea would happen with the activists they chose to escort the children to the polls:

This truly stretches credulity. It's hardly a secret that CPS is about as close to a one-party operation as you can get, with union domination and an all-Democrat school board.

COAST and its founder Tom Brinkman have been featured on WLWT, WXIX, WKRC, the Daily Caller, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, the Savage Nation, Fox News. www.DrudgeReport.Com,  www.Lucianne.Com, and National Review on this topic.  On Saturday, COAST attorney Chris Finney appeared live on the Fox News Channel to discuss the scandal.

The lawsuit will be pursued to its conclusion to expose the schools depth of collusion with democrat party activists and to force the schools to stop this conduct once and for all.

Read all of COAST's fall 2010 endorsements here.

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Hey, Teacher, leave them kids alone

 All in all, it's just another brick in the wall of the liberal, big-government establishment

File this under the category "life imitates art."  The 1979 Pink Floyd song decrying thought programming and abuse of children while under control of their teachers was brought to life last week as Hughes High School teacher Dennis McFadden took three van loads of children to the Hamilton County Board of Elections during school hours with three Democrat Party Activists and provided them with "sample ballots" containing the names of only democrat candidates.  Afterwards, COAST's new candidate for "creep of the year," CPS civics teacher Dennis McFadden bought the children ice cream for their good deeds in voting the democrat ticket. 

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

COAST and its founder Tom Brinkman, Jr. on Monday sued Cincinnati Public Schools for violating a 2002 Agreement with COAST in which Cincinnati Public Schools promised to stop using school property and personnel to advance one-sided political agendas.  That agreement had arisen from 2002 mis-deeds in which CPS used school property and personnel to campaign in favor of a $1 billion bond issue for the schools.

"The forced political indoctrination of school children exposed by COAST in this instance is downright creepy," said COAST Chairman Jason Gloyd.  "We have exposed only the tip of the iceberg of the abuse of our CPS tax dollars to advance the ends of the Democrats and Labor Unions."

The COAST suit brought to a halt the collusion of CPS High Schools and paid personnel from the Democrat National Committee to turn out CPS students to prop up the democrat ticket in November.  Steve Johnson, a COASTer working daily in front of the Board of Elections met the Church vans carting Hughes High School Students last Wednesday and learned theirs was the first of five high schools the democrats intended to bring en masse to vote during school hours.

The COAST action brought immediate national attention to the democrat-labor brainwashing and abuse of tax dollars to try to reverse the revolution that is sweeping America to stop their tax-and-spending agenda, with appearances on The Drudge Report, Fox News, mentions on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity the Savage Nation and links on a host of other blogs and web sites.  Read the Enquirer stories linked here, here and here.

COAST intends to pursue the litigation in front of Judge Beth Myers to expose the culture of abuse of children for political purposes ingrained in the CPS administration and to put a stop to it once and for all.

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

Read all of COAST's fall 2010 endorsements here.

2010-10-21 13:31 Update: COAST thanks WCPO 9 News for their excellent coverage of this story.

Portland becomes (slightly) more business-friendly

Stops harassing 7 year old girl

"It's hardly unusual to hear small-business owners gripe about licensing requirements or complain that heavy-handed regulations are driving them into the red.

 So when Multnomah County shut down an enterprise last week for operating without a license, you might just sigh and say, there they go again.

 Except this entrepreneur was a 7-year-old named Julie Murphy. Her business was a lemonade stand at the Last Thursday monthly art fair in Northeast Portland (prostrate yourself when you say that). The government regulation she violated? Failing to get a $120 temporary restaurant license."

-The Oregonian

Local citizens were outraged, but officials managed to extract their craniums from their rectums before the situation degenerated into insurrection. They're leaving little Julie alone now.

After $17 million, spigot for Democrat Commissioners’ outside counsel is cut off

Will someone, anyone stop them from wasting our money, please!

More than two years ago, Prosecutor Joe Deters noted that the democrat Commissioners were wasting money on their political advisor and outside legal counsel, Tom Gableman and the firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease.  He asked repeatedly and politely for the Commissioners to properly supervise the work of the Vorys firm, and to rein in the spending.  Because the Commissioners were also getting free political counsel from the Vorys firm, the democrat Commissioners refused.

In October of last year, at Deters’ request, 12 of 13 Judge on the Common Pleas Court signed an Order terminating the Gableman/Vorys relationship.  Over the next few weeks, the Commission held a series of illegal secret meetings that culminated in Portune and Pepper voting to hire themselves as attorneys to represent the Commission in a lawsuit against their own Common Pleas Court Judges at the Ohio Supreme Court.  This suit has eaten up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees on both sides.

Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme ruled that the Pepper/Portune suit was filed in the wrong Court (great legal work David and Todd!) and lacked merit.  In short, the Common Pleas Court Judges were correct in terminating the Vorys relationship.

So, Messrs. Pepper and Portune, the fountain of taxpayer funding for your political consultants has been cut off.

COAST extends a hearty “Thank You” to Joe Deters for taking on this fight to cut off this waste of tax moneys!

Portune’s Charter plan is massive power grab

Liberal democrats Todd Portune and David Pepper have empaneled a “Reform Commission” that appears to have been charged in advance with recommending that the County adopt a County Charter with a new “County Executive,” (like a Mayor) and a “County Council” (with more members than the current 3-member Commisison).  However, more pernicious than these dramatic structural changes would be massive new “home rule” legislative and taxing powers.  The new form of government is designed to accelerate the tax, spend and regulate desires of the Commission’s majority.

COAST will be testifying in opposition to the power grab on Monday, May 17^th.

Council finds yet another way to waste money

                In another example of government arrogance, Cincinnati City Council continues to fight a private developer’s efforts to bring jobs and economic development to the historic industrial riverfront in Cincinnati. 

                Queensgate Terminals has been working for more than five years to build a rail barge port in the City of Cincinnati.  The project, once completed, would bring dozens of good-paying jobs and reduce transportation costs for producers and consumers in the region.  Council has said no – responding not to the long-term needs of the community, but to neighborhood activists who don’t want to see development next door.  

                The result they seek not only deprives our community of jobs from the project, it also would result in the City’s having to pay millions of dollars to Queensgate Terminals to compensate it for its loss of property rights.  Those are tax dollars that otherwise could be going for basic City services or to balance the City’s budget.

Join County Commissioner Greg Hartmann, Price Hill businessman and community leader Pete Witte and the Western Hamilton County Development Corporation in supporting the Queensgate Terminals project.  Write your Councilmembers and urge them to put this lawsuit behind the City and get this project underway.