NICHOLAS HOLLAN: In an unusually odd mixture of endorsements, The Cincinnati Enquirer recently included Hollan among its picks for City Council. A first-time candidate with progressive leanings, this thoughtful West Side Democrat is well-qualified for public service.  

TONY FISCHER: This young, firsttime candidate for Cincinnati City Council spent the summer defying the mayor and stumping for a pledge not to layoff police officers as part of planned budget cuts at City Hall. A council majority backed the mayor and won cuts from the police union without the pledge.   

It’s certainly true that good people can come to different conclusions and disagree on an issue. Sometimes, however, good people are led astray by those with ulterior motives. For more than a year, an unusual coalition of arch-conservatives, civil rights groups, Libertarians, Green Party members and others have joined together to mount several petition drives that have made the ballot and let voters decide on issues that otherwise would have been made by elected officials.  

Like their national counterparts, Hamilton County Republicans often preach about how they dislike government and want to reduce its size. The truth about county government, however, is that it’s been rife with wasteful spending for decades, a period in which the local GOP had a lock on virtually all of its elected positions.  

When President Bush, one of Karl Rove's best friends, gave Rove the nickname of "turd blossom," it spoke volumes about both men. Just as the name implies, a turd blossom is a flower that grows out of a pile of shit. Specifically, it's a desert wildflower in west Texas that flourishes among cow droppings.  

Georgiana (Keira Knightley), the Duchess of Devonshire, is reported to have been a progressive woman during her lifetime. The personal and the political realms of her life took center stage and the world was seemingly aware of her every move and thought on any and all subjects, again both personal and political.  

So even without adjusting for inflation, during the three minutes that your local FM voice-tracked DJ spins Soulja Boy's tall tales of "super soaking" young women, about $368,000 has been spent on a military action which most of the country believes needs to come to a swift and decisive conclusion.