The image below would have been the next awesome Tim Russo for Cuyahoga County Council District 7 ad in the ground-breaking series.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

A Florida firm, Global Tech LED, says it can offer Cleveland a better and faster paying deal than Sunpu-Opto, a Chinese firm that Mayor Jackson wants to give a no-bid 10-year deal.

It says that it will meet the same terms and condition set with the Sunpu-Opto deal. But the article, dated May 10, said that Global claims it could do the job “sooner and more cost effectively” than the offer the city has with the firm from China.

The normal city bid rules require bidding on contracts of more than $50,000. Jackson wants to be bypassed by Council. The Council leadership has been unable to get a two-thirds vote, which would send the measure to Jackson for signing. A third and final vote would require a simple majority for passage. It would then be sent to Jackson for signing into law.

The information on Global comes from a magazine article sent to me by e-mail. The magazine is known as LEDs Magazine. Its web site calls itself the “leading global information source for LED market.”

LED are the types of technologically advanced lighting that the Chinese company has promised to establish global headquarters here in exchange for a 10-year deal with the city. The city would buy products for Cleveland Public Power and other city lighting uses. The company has promised some 350 jobs at its facilities here.

NO PARENT LEFT BEHIND…..

Spellings have been left intact.

My son is under a doctor’s care and should not take PE today. Please execute him.

Please exkuce lisa for being absent she was sick and i had her shot.

Dear school: please ecsc’s john being absent on jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and also 33.

Please excuse gloria from jim today. She is administrating.

Please excuse roland from pe.. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.

John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.

Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part…

Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.

Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side.

Please excuse ray friday from school. He has very loose vowels.

Please excuse Lesli from being absent yesterday She had the shits.

Please excuse tommy for being absent yesterday.. He had diarrhea, and his boots leak.

Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust..

Please excuse jimmy for being. It was his father’s fault.

I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because i don’t know what size she wear.

Please excuse jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it monday.. We thought it was sunday.

Sally won’t be in school a week from friday. We have to attend her funeral.

My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent a weekend with the marines…

Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well..

Please excuse mary for being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps.

Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover.

Please excuse brenda. She has been sick and under the doctor.

Maryann was absent december 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever an sore throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn’t the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night.

Now we know why parents are screaming for better education for our kids.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

The chief reward of any artistic effort (and perhaps of every other effort as well) is the work itself. Success lies in the accomplishment, not in its fruits. If I write well, I”m a success. Wealth and fame might be fun (or they might not) but they”re largely beside the point. p. 251

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

In the run up to the faux elections dangled by the State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) the 8 million people of the Shan State with an army of 10,000 variously equipped soldiers that has never accepted a ceasefire are expanding their own operations of resistance and independence.

How Moses got the 10 Commandments. …

God went to the Arabs and said, “I have Commandments for you that will make
your lives better.

The Arabs asked, “What are Commandments? ”

And the Lord said, “They are rules for living.”

Can you give us an example?”

“Thou shall not kill.”

“Not kill? We’re not interested.”

God went to the Blacks and said, “I have Commandments.”

The Blacks wanted an example, and the Lord said, “Honor thy Father and
Mother.”

“Father? We don’t know who our fathers are. We’re not interested.”

Then He went to the Mexicans and said, “I have Commandments. ”

The Mexicans also wanted an example, and the Lord said, “Thou shall not
steal.”

“Not steal? We’re not interested.”

Then He went to the French and said, “I have Commandments. ”

The French too wanted an example and the Lord said, “Thou shall not commit
adultery.”

“Not commit adultery? We’re not interested.”

Finally, He went to the Jews and said, “I have Commandments. ”

“Commandments? ” They said, “How much are they?”

“They’re free.”

“We’ll take 10.”

There, that ought to offend just about everybody.

Except, of course, Anglo-Saxo White Protestants.

Previously…

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

WALMART GIVING $2 BILLION TO FEED HUNGRY…? Of course not, but if all you do is skim headlines you”d swear that that is the case. What Walmart is doing making a combination of investments and redirections over a five-year period that it claims will have a value of $2 billion. Keep reading…

ABOUT THE PRICE OF SODA AT WALMART… On one level there could be a good outcome of Walmart”s drive to force the price of soda lower and lower, it could actually be that the bottlers of flavored sugar water might cease, or at least diminish, their distribution of the unhealthy liquid. Keep reading…

GUILT-FREE SHOPPING AT WALMART…? Years ago I instituted the Great Walmart Toothpaste Buycott because I recognize that there are financial realities involved for many people who shop at Walmart. Because they are pawns in a greater economic scheme, they need low prices just to get by. Keep reading…

DON”T PANIC…! KEEP SHOPPING…! I don”t routinely report on openings of Walmarts or rumors of openings of Walmarts but this bit of walflackery reported in the Washington Parish, Louisiana, Daily News struck me as so worthy of a Douglas Adam”s character, I just have to repeat it. Keep reading…

GETTING AHEAD AT WALMART… A 17-year-old asks the question: How does it work? What”s he”s referring to is getting ahead at Walmart, a job, he writes that: I like it a lot despite what people are saying about wal-mart. He asks a good question, but the lone response is better. Keep reading…

HAS WALMART BURNED OUT AMERICA”S RETAIL…? When cotton was king in the Old South, plantation owners planted and replanted their fields until the soil was dead and then moved west in search of still-fertile soil. The First Quarter economic report out of Walmart makes me wonder. Keep reading…

LOOKING BENEATH THE NUMBERS… Yesterday I wrote about Walmart”s First Quarter financials and sepculated that the beneath the headlines was a sense that Walmart had tapped out the retail soil of the United States and was moving on to Asia and other foreign markets. Keep reading…

From James Renner:

But today, we”re stopping the presses.

What happened?

Advertising.

Miraculously we managed to pull together enough advertising to break even on the issues towards the end. The only problem was that some advertisers could only be bothered to pay once every few issues. Eventually you can only float and juggle so much capital to pay the printers while you”re waiting for the checks to come in. In the meantime, there are writers and sales reps to pay-those of us with a share in the company, by the way, never saw a dime.

[Update @ 0716] 0719: Five lifelong Cuyahoga County residents to run for first-ever council

This is sent only to those whose level of maturity qualifies them to relate…

1970: Long hair
2010: Longing for hair

1970: KEG
2010: EKG

1970: Acid rock
2010: Acid reflux

1970: Moving to California because it’s cool
2010 : Moving to Arizona because it’s warm

1970: Trying to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor
2010: Trying NOT to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor

1970: Seeds and stems
2010: Roughage

1970: Hoping for a BMW
2010: Hoping for a BM

1970: Going to a new, hip joint
2010: Receiving a new hip joint

1970: Rolling Stones
2010: Kidney Stones

1970: Screw the system
2010: Upgrade the system

1970: Disco
2010: Costco

1970: Parents begging you to get your hair cut
2010: Children begging you to get their heads shaved

1970: Passing the drivers’ test
2010: Passing the vision test

1970: Whatever
2010: Depends

Just in case you weren’t feeling too old today, this Will certainly change things. Each year the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin puts together a list to try to give the faculty a sense of the mind set of this year’s incoming freshmen. Here’s this year’s list:

The people who are starting college this fall across The nation were born in 1992.

They are too young to remember the 1st space shuttle blowing up.

Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.

The CD was introduced the year they were born.

They have always had an answering Machine.

They have always had cable.

They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.

Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

They can’t imagine what hard contact lenses are.

They don’t know who Mork was or where he was from.

They never heard: ‘Where’s the Beef?’, ‘I’d walk A mile for a Camel’, or ‘de plane, Boss, de plane.’

They do not care who shot J. R. And have no idea who J. R. even is.

McDonald’s never came in Styrofoam containers.

They don’t have a clue how to use a typewriter.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

My primary job is writing. My secondary job is offering what I”ve written for sale. What happens after that is somebody else”s job. p. 251

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

While I maintain a deep interest in the the present political struggle in Myanmar, I continue to appreciate my profound ignorance of a people that I am certain never appeared in any of the history books I read during my 13 years of public school education. So when I come across glimpses, I am fascinated.

From the Shan Herald:

Throughout his tenure, he never forgot to remind both himself and others what he was. “My father always wore Shan trousers, a baggy pantaloon, and a Shan jacket, which was a Chinese-style jacket sans collar, and a Shan turban, which was a piece of silk to wrap around the head, whenever he attended state functions and dinners. Once he received a ready-made Burmese turban, which goes only with Burmese pasoe, or a man’s sarong. The military preferred him to come to the state banquets in Burmese costume, I supposed. No way would he go in Burmese garb. He gave it to a Burmese friend in Mandalay.”

Would any American understand the difference? Would any American care? We have so much to learn.

From Azure:

…two American professors subjected the U.S.-Israel relationship to a skeptic”s examination. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, the former from the University of Chicago, the latter from Harvard, published a paper under the title “The Israel Lobby: Israel in U.S. Foreign Policy.” One version appeared in the London Review of Books; a longer, footnoted version was posted on the website of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. The paper caused a firestorm.

Mearsheimer and Walt are academic oracles of the so-called realist school in international relations. Realism, in its policy application, is an approach that seeks to isolate the conduct of foreign affairs from sentimental moral considerations and special interests like ethnic and commercial lobbies, and to base it instead on a pure concept of the national interest. Realists are not interested in historical obligations, or in whether this or that potential ally respects human rights. They see themselves as coldly weighing U.S. interests, winnowing out extraneous considerations, and ending up with policies that look out solely for number one: The United States.

Previously…

Roldo Bartimole writes:

I covered Cleveland City Hall for decades and I don”t remember two important City Council votes in close time proximity ever not carrying more than a two-thirds majority.

You might have dissenters but usually they remain a small minority.

The large vote against should be a signal to take another good look.

This seems a strong rebuke to City Hall leadership. It means almost a majority of the Council couldn”t swallow this deal.

You usually don”t find the kind of opposition that these measures have been gaining in Council. It is a warning sign that there is little confidence in Mayor Frank Jackson on some very important matters.

It also shows weak Council and Mayor leadership on such important deals when many – possibly one short of a turndown since a member was absent – Council members can”t swallow what”s put before them.

The two votes I”m talking about are first, legislation to spend $86 million to automate billing at the Cleveland water department and second, a deal to give a company from China a 10 year lock on the purchase of new-technology lighting Continue Reading »

Among myself and my three siblings, I’m the only one with a college degree.

In many, many ways, they have been far more sucessful in their lives than I.

So easy he could phone it in…