Clearly, the vast majority of citizens at city council's Feb. 12 Law and Public Safety Committee meeting were there to address the controversial issue of Patrick Caton's promotion to police sergeant ("Berding, Thomas Spar Over Flyer," Porkopolis blog, Feb. 13). It was, therefore, inexcusable that chairman Cecil Thomas chose to leave 90 minutes of "other business" ahead of this issue.

Instead of wasting the time of citizens who sacrificed work or pleasure time, Thomas could easily have moved to handle the issue first as the "Order of the Day," a commonly used device to accommodate large citizen delegations with a common interest.

It makes one wonder if Thomas' intent was to minimize news coverage by testing the staying power of the citizens and the media. Less a matter for speculation is that his inaction will serve to erode trust and respect not only for himself but for the Law Committee as a whole.

-- John C. Brennan, Clifton

No to Manipulating Citizens
I think you have the right idea about shining a light on the obfuscated fantasy that we're a nation run by the people, of the people and for the people ("Power to the Corporations," issue of Jan. 30). This topic isn't just about Cincinnati, because Cincinnati is a microcosm of the macro in this country.

Carl Lindner and his family and corporations certainly do run our city more than people are aware -- and if they were aware, they would not be too thrilled about it. Most people here look at Lindner as a kindly, insanely rich self-made billionaire, sort of everyone's grandfather who worked his way to riches while spooning ice cream into cones at UDF.

He's seen as a philanthropic benefactor to hospitals, museums and many worthy causes. What people do not seem to know is he has a dark side. A superficial Google search for Lindner's political contributions shows that he was heavily involved from the start with the Swiftboat Veterans smear campaign against John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election. Is this what a kindly philanthropist does? Spread lies to deliberately manipulate a major election that ultimately led to prolonged expansion of the war in Iraq, gutting of environmental laws protecting our people and resources for decades and many more evils?

-- Richard Lee, Batavia