Clicking and Driving Around Cleveland So, in keeping with the new message that "the public approves of Big Brother", Cleveland has gone live with its red light and speeding cameras. While I am anxiously awaiting reports that these cameras have been sabotaged by kids in the neighborhoods they've invaded, I say hats off to Ward 13's Joe Cimperman for opposing the cameras so staunchly and articulately. The link to this Crane's profile is courtesy of the (nose-holding gesture) conservative Right Angle Blog, which I've clicked my way to a number of times over the past months. Here you'll find some free-marketeer ditto-heading in the comments, but hardly a peep of pro-war wing-nuttery. I guess this is the one benefit of keeping it local. I would like to believe that this blog--and the whole Republican party really--is kept up by the sort of moderate, money-motivated Republican who reads (and understands) George Will's logically constructed (albeit overly pro-ownership class) arguments, and looks to some romanticized image of the WASPY elite for his image of "the city on the hill." But either there are fewer of these Republicans around these days, or, if they are around, they're not admitting that they're Republicans. Anyway, perhaps the link to the article about Cimperman is evidence of Right Angle's moderate position. Cimperman himself seems to have developed quite a mastery of Clintonian "centrism" and triangulation. Here here he is, in the Crane's article, moderating (yet holding) his stance on Wal-Mart:

"That’s an interesting debate and I’m happy you brought it up. When the whole issue came up a few months ago about Steelyard Commons, the debate really wasn’t about Wal-Mart. Do I have feelings about the company? Of course I do. Do I also realize that there are things about the company that its opponents don’t like to talk about? Yeah, there are two sides to every story. Where the issue became something that I felt very passionately about, is that the city of Cleveland for the last 10 years has been funding, aiding and subsidizing grocery stores, because we realize that grocery stores are a critical component of keeping people in their neighborhoods and in the city of Cleveland. My concern with the development wasn’t so much with the company itself, but when they add a grocery store to their unit, because when that happens you often see local grocers struggle. But this is a free-market society. This is capitalism and people make choices. I still think people will choose Dave’s and the West Side Market instead of going to a superstore for their grocery items. But I don’t think it’s wrong to have that kind of debate."