Official Hamilton County GOP Screening Questionnaire

Dear fellow tax hikers, we have received an actual copy of the questionnaire used by the Hamilton County Republican Party to fill the recent vacancy for Clerk of Courts.  We are pleased to reveal this document to all of you.  

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Dear applicant, thank you for your interest in becoming the next Hamilton County Clerk of Courts.  We have committed to filling this vacancy in a fair, open, and honest manner.  Please complete this fair, open, and honest questionnaire which will be used to determine the winner.

1)  List all the relevant qualifications you possess for this position.

(1 point for each valid answer)

2)  Besides our beloved Chairman, who is our best employee at GOP Headquarters?
A.  Debbie Flammer  (0 points)
B.  Any of the interns  (0 points)
C.  Maggie Nafziger Wuellner  (10 points)

3)  Describe your physical appearance:

A.  Fit  (0 points)

B.  Just a little overweight  (2 points)

C.  Free Willy  (10 points)

4)  Have you recently hired Alex Triantafilou's wife for a government position in which she did not meet the minimum qualifications?

A.  Yes  (100 points)

B.  No  (0 points)

5)  Please indicate your last name: 

A.  Winkler  (100 points)

B.  Other  (0 points)

6)  Have you ever slept with His Honor Ted Winkler?

A.  Yes!  (50 points)

B.  No  (0 points)

Our fair, open, and honest screening committee will meet Wednesday, October 5th to review the answers and make a final recommendation.  Thank you for your interest!

-- Mags

Winkler picked by Selection Committee

Dear fellow tax hikers, we are sure you have heard the great news that Tracy Winkler was officially selected by the Hamilton County Republican Party's insider screening committee to be our next Clerk of Courts.  This is no surprise to you loyal readers, as we announced on Tuesday night that the screening committee had already selected Winkler in advance of their Wednesday meeting. 

Winkler earned this selection.  Winkler hired Alex Triantafilou's wife for a township position that she was completely unqualified for to do a favor for the party boss.  Now she is collecting on that favor.  In addition, Tracy married into the Winkler family.  That alone gives her special privileges that she is exploiting to her full advantage.

This is how politics works - you sell out your integrity for the party boss, and he will sell out his integrity for you.  Things like serving the citizens, saving taxpayer money, and good government don't matter.  It's about getting what yours.  We applaud the Winkler and Triantafilou families for showing us what is important.

Tracy Winkler selected Clerk of Courts

Dear fellow tax hikers, on Wednesday the Hamilton County Republican Party's hand-picked Special Screening Committee will be meeting for their fair, open, and honest interview process to select our next Clerk of Courts.  We are delighted to be the first to report that they have already selected Green Township Trustee Tracy Winkler for this important vacancy!  On orders from above, Winkler has won the appointment in a lopsided vote.  They will meet tomorrow to make it official. 

We are proud to be the first Republican organization to endorse Winkler.  We have previously listed her many qualifications for higher office.  This leads us to correct one small mistake in yesterday's blog entry, where we stated that Winkler wasn't qualified for this job.  It is true that Winkler has absolutely zero professional qualifications to be Clerk of Courts.  However she has the qualifications that matter - her last name is Winkler, AND she spends our taxpayer money to hire friends and relatives for township jobs that they are incapable of performing.

Tracy is being rewarded for hiring Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou's wife for a Green Township government job that she was completely unqualified to hold, bypassing many qualified candidates in the process.  We covered this issue extensively in our last entry.  It has also been covered even more extensively by that awful Green Township watchdog Jeffry Smith, who has the complete set of documents at his blog entry.  We encourage all of you to click the link to his site and read them. 

As Clerk of Courts, Winkler will have hundreds of patronage jobs to dole out.  The unemployment rate for the Friends and Family of Tracy will be 0% once she gets rid of those stupid qualified professionals currently working there and replaces them with her gang.

This is how Hamilton County GOP politics works.  Quid pro quo.  Tracy Winkler sacrificed her integrity to do a favor for the party boss.  Tomorrow Alex Triantafilou returns the favor.  Your tax dollars are funding all of this.  We ask everyone to join us in congratulating Tracy Winkler for her selection as Hamilton County's newest Clerk of Courts.

Tracy Winkler - The Jennifer Triantafilou Factor

Dear fellow tax hikers, we proudly endorse Green Township Trustee Tracy Winkler for Hamilton County Clerk of Courts.  We have previously endorsed Winkler for higher office and we stand behind her 100% as she applies to be selected by our Hamilton County Republican Party for this vacancy.  She is going to get this appointment.  One key reason is because of Winkler's key role in hiring Jennifer Triantafilou, who was the wife of GOP Chairman Alex Triantafilou, for a Green Township government position she was completely unqualified to hold. 

Citizen watchdog and candidate for Green Township Trustee Jeffry Smith has compiled extensive documents about this controversial hire at his website.  His website contains an excellent, thorough accounting of this process and we encourage all you tax hikers to read through it.  Among the findings:

- This position required a Bachelor's degree.  Jennifer Triantafilou's highest level of education was completing an Electrocardiography Certificate at Cincinnati State.

- The application deadline was November 9, 2009.  Triantafilou applied on November 20th at the earliest.

- Triantafilou was not selected by the Township Administrator as one of the final four candidates, all of whom were actually qualified for the position.  Yet, Winkler jumped into the process to insist that the unqualified, unrecommended Triantafilou get hired in spite of the presence of the highly qualified applicants. 

Tracy Winkler sold her integrity to get a favor from Alex Triantafilou.  Now it's payback time.

Tracy herself lacks the education, experience, and intelligence to be a solid Clerk of Courts.  But none of that matters.  Winkler hired Triantafilou's wife for a position she was not qualified to hold, and now Alex is going to select Tracy for a job she is unqualified to hold.  This is how it works and we think it's great.  And just think - your tax dollars are paying for all of this.

Tracy Winkler for Clerk of Courts - because qualifications just don't matter.

Jason Riveiro campaign sued for non-payment

Dear fellow tax hikers, we are gravely concerned about the inept campaign being run by our ally, pro-streetcar leftist Jason Riveiro.  There are many things a Cincinnati City Council candidate needs to do well.  This hombre isn't doing a single one of them.

With just weeks left before Election Day, credible candidates have raised most of their money and are sitting on a war chest which they will deploy in the final two or three weeks of the campaign.  Sadly, this doesn't describe Riveiro.  At the last campaign finance deadline Riveiro had raised a minimal amount of money.  Even worse, he spent nearly all of it.  The evidence shows his campaign is about broke.

Jason Riveiro and the Riveiro campaign is being sued by a consulting firm for $1700.  We are afraid this reflects poorly on Mr. Riveiro's cash flow.  A campaign that has built up its war chest for the final stretch should be able to make a $1700 payment without getting sued first. 

We are saddened by this news because we like Mr. Riveiro.  We appreciate his support for higher taxes, the streetcar, and illegal immigration.  We will stand with our amigo to the end, but we are afraid he will not be one of the nine standing in the winner's circle.  We encourage his supporters to stand beside him, though we also advise anyone doing business with him to get paid up front and in cash.

Oppose Jeffry Smith for Green Township Trustee

Dear fellow tax hikers, it is a matter of extreme importance that we stop citizen activist Jeffry Smith from getting elected Green Township Trustee.  Mr. Smith's advocacy for good government and against nepotism is unacceptable and has caused much discomfort for the elite ruling class of this fine township.  Mr. Smith's crimes against our allies in the tax-and-spend movement are severe and disqualify him from serving the public.

1)  Jeffry Smith is the peasant who uncovered the truth behind the hiring of Jennifer Triantafilou for a job she's completely unqualified to hold, and in fact did not apply for until nearly 2 weeks after the application deadline.  Mr. Smith compiled the public documents and posted them on his site to show her lack of qualifications and the political reasons behind the hire.  The Green Township Trustees bypassed many qualified candidates to hire the wife of Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou in order to gain political favor down the road.  We at Republicans for Higher Taxes think there is nothing wrong with hiring well-connected political wives for jobs they aren't capable of performing.

2)  Smith discovered that the Nathanael Greene Lodge has been losing an average of $200,000 per year.  This lodge is co-run by Allison Detzel, who happens to be the daughter of Trustee Tracy Winkler.  Smith thinks something is wrong with this.  We don't have any problem with hiring an elected official's daughter to lose a ton of money for the Township.

3)  We are especially disappointed that Smith has criticized the Trustees for shutting down public comments at their Township meetings.  Why would any elected official care what regular citizens have to say about their government?  The Green Township Trustees sure don't care.  Smith should apologize for insisting that he and his fellow citizens have a right to be heard at their local government meetings.

Do you want a representative who lets you speak at government meetings?  Then don't vote for Smith.  Do you have a problem with Trustees hiring their children to lose taxpayer money?  Then don't vote for Smith, he'll hire someone who can do the job.  Do you support hiring the Party Chairman's wife for a job she's incapable of performing?  Then don't vote for Smith, he'll hire qualified personnel instead.  

Whatever you do, don't vote for Jeffry Smith.  There are too many relatives of political officials whose patronage jobs depend on it.

Announcement: 2011 Tax Hiker of the Year to be named

Dear fellow tax hikers, we are just one week away from naming the recipient of our 2011 Tax Hiker of the Year award!  This is our most prestigious award.  We take great pride in selecting only the most highly qualified tax hikers for this honor.

We will be unveiling the 2011 winner next week.  We promise all you tax hikers to select another highly deserving recipient as we have every other year.

Just like our good friends at CincyPAC, this award is determined by our wonderful Board.  We agree with CincyPAC that regular people aren't good enough to make these important decisions.  We applaud groups like CincyPAC that don't allow their membership to decide how their organization is run.

We are very, very proud of our Tax Hiker of the Year award and its rich history of awesome winners.  We promise that our 2011 winner will be just as great as our previous ones.  We now leave you with our proud history of Tax Hiker of the Year award winners:

2007 Tax Hiker of the Year - Bill Seitz
2008 Tax Hiker of the Year - Virgil Lovitt
2009 Tax Hiker of the Year - Michelle Schneider
2010 Tax Hiker of the Year - Jon Husted

Tax Our Trash, No on 47

Dear fellow tax hikers, we alert you to one of the most dangerous issues to hit the people's ballot in years.  Cincinnati voters will be deciding the fate of Issue 47, which would ban the city from taxing your trash.  This amendment is a bunch of garbage!

We strongly endorse a NO vote on Issue 47.  Nobody should be able to throw something away without paying a tax to the government.  We want our garbage to be taxed.  Don't you?

We condemn the NAACP and COAST for their work in getting this to the ballot.  Only an extremist would oppose a trash tax ban.  Cincinnati needs this money.  You don't.  Tax our trash, No on 47.

Support the Streetcar, No on 48

Dear fellow tax hikers, tonight we reiterate our strong support for the $130 million Cincinnati streetcar.  As the streetcar's leading advocate, we call on everyone to stand with us again as we move forward on this 19th Century transportation method. 

This fall Cincinnati residents will have a chance to vote on the streetcar.  Issue 48 is an effort by our enemies at COAST and elsewhere to ban the streetcar for 9 years.  To save the streetcar, we strongly endorse a NO vote on Issue 48.  A recent article reveals where each City Council candidate stands on this important issue. 

The streetcar will do so many good things.  Due to space limitations we'll limit ourselves to some of the best ones:

- Roxanne Qualls says the streetcar will create jobs, just like she promised the stadiums would create jobs.

- The streetcar will repopulate Over the Rhine.  There are so many people who would move to good ole' OTR, if only it had a streetcar. 

- It will provide more transportation options and attract "choice riders".  Buses have too many minorities and poor people to make these all-important "choice riders" feel comfortable.  A streetcar gets rid of these undesirables.  White YP's deserve something for themselves.  With a streetcar they can finally start leaving their gas-guzzling SUV's in the garage. 

- With the streetcar, Cincinnati can "move forward".  Nothing moves you forward like bringing back 19th Century technology.

We are very excited to spend $130 million on a 3 mile loop through Over the Rhine.  This streetcar will do almost as many good things for Cincinnati as the two stadiums have done for Hamilton County.  But to build this streetcar, we must defeat Issue 48.  Save the streetcar!  Vote No on 48!

Rick Bryan hearts Bob Bedinghaus

Dear fellow tax hikers, we all know that Bob Bedinghaus was one of the best Commissioners that Hamilton County ever had.  Our ally Blue Ash City Councilman Rick Bryan agrees.  When the selfish voters ended Bedinghaus' political career, Tax Hikin' Rick Bryan stood with him to the end.  From an Enquirer article:

Most Republicans will support Mr. Bedinghaus on election day, said Rick Bryan, Republican vice mayor of Blue Ash. He said Mr. Bedinghaus took a risk for the community, and now the community should support him.

Mr. Bryan is 100% correct.  Bedinghaus did the right thing.  Those stadium decisions have paid off handsomely and now Hamilton County is prospering because of them.  Bedinghaus deserved re-election for all the good he did. 

Tax Hikin' Rick Bryan has governed Blue Ash the same way.  Rick was the #1 cheerleader for Blue Ash's huge 25% earnings tax increase.  He is using that money to perform functions that are almost as important as building stadiums - building a new park, building a new performing arts center (30 feet away from Sharonville's), the $14 million Rec Center renovation, AND The Big All-Important Golf Course Clubhouse Expansion.  Move aside police and fire, those monuments are why we have government!

“I hope this race isn't just a referendum on the stadium,” Mr. Bryan said. “But when you strip the emotion away, if the city had lost the Bengals and the Reds, it would not be as desirable a place to live.”

Absolutely.  Because of the Bedinghaus/Neyer/Bryan Stadium Tax, this county is a more desirable place to live.  We get to pay higher Sales Taxes to provide our beloved Bengals and Reds with free stadiums.  We get to pay another stadium tax for the huge stadium fund deficits these projects have created.  We get to benefit from the economic boom these stadiums have given us.  We get to love, honor, and respect Bengals Owner Mike Brown every single year, while paying him $10 million/year in operating subsidies.

Rick Bryan is doing for Blue Ash what Bob Bedinghaus did for Hamilton County.  We need more of the same.  Bryan stood with Bedinghaus because he is just like him.  They are two peas in a pod who love higher taxes and bigger monuments.  And that's why we love them so much.  We hope you love them too.  Tax us more!

Simon Leis Memorial Service

Dearly tax hikers, we are gathered here, at our favorite hangout, to mourn the political passing of one of our greatest friends, Hamilton County Sheriff Simon L. Leis.  For the last 80 years Simon has been an inspiration for us all - raising taxes, supporting the $200 million streetcar, trashing the 1st Amendment, and in general being a jackass to anyone who didn't respect his authority as Hamilton County Dictator.  We will miss him greatly. 

Simon Leis spent a lifetime watching pornography.  Not for his benefit of course - it was for our benefit.  After all, how would we know if a particular film was appropriate to watch if Dearly Simon hadn't already watched it and made the decision for us.  We bet Simon had a big smile on his face when he watched two guys pounding each other, knowing that his sacrifice was protecting the community. 

When he wasn't watching adult films for our benefit, Simon was an advocate for everything we believed in.  He strongly supported an $800 million Sales Tax hike for $200 million to expand his jail and the rest to expand his kingdom.  He took a trip to Portland and saw a bunch of people riding the streetcar during lunch rush in a no-fare zone, and based on that immediately endorsed Cincinnati's then-$200 million streetcar plan.  Simon proudly endorsed great Democrats like David Pepper, Todd Portune, and Jim Tarbell while opposing our enemies Pat DeWine and Chris Monzel. 

We have all come here for comfort and support in our trying time of need.  This is a safe place for our kind to mourn, knowing we are with those who believe as we do.  Be not afraid to cry.  Be not afraid to grieve.  Be not afraid to reach out here to your friends for love in this most difficult period.  As we enter our mourning period, we invite all you Dearly Tax Hikers to post your favorite memories of our Dearly Departed, so that our sense of community can help us heal.  RIP Great Sheriff.

Don't blame the mustache

Dear fellow tax hikers, yesterday our Messiah Barack Obama suffered a horrendous defeat in New York's 9th Congressional District.  This Democratic district in liberal New York City elected a Tea Party Republican Bob Turner to Congress with an astounding 53% of the vote. 

One specific reason being cited for this loss hurts us the most.  The mustache.  Democratic candidate David Weprin has a mustache and some are citing this as one of the factors that hurt him. 

Weprin had other things working against him going into Tuesday's vote: his endorsement of same-sex marriage, which enraged many of the Orthodox Jewish voters; his membership in a political party blamed by many for the country's economic mess; his perceived lack of familiarity with the district; even his mustache. "Really … you look sleazy," said Pearl Siegelman, a Democratic district leader in Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay, where one polling station recorded 69% support for Turner despite the large number of voters there who are a lot like Weprin: Orthodox Jewish Democrats. 

We refuse to sit back and allow anyone to take a swipe at Mustache Power.   This underrated advantage has powered many of our victories.  Look at all the mustaches throughout our region - 2008 Tax Hiker of the Year Virgil Lovitt, Blue Ash City Councilman Tax Hikin' Rick Bryan, 2007 Tax Hiker of the Year Bill Seitz, Todd Portune, Leslie Ghiz, and Jean Schmidt. 

You can criticize Obama for his lack of support for Israel.  Criticize him for not doing enough to promote his tax increases.  You can criticize Weprin for running a lousy campaign.  For supporting gay marriage.  But whatever you do, do not criticize the 'stache.  Mustache Power is still a potent force.