As our loyal readers know, for the past seven years, COAST and the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP have partnered on issue after issue to effectuate progress for the working men and women of Cincinnati:

1. Opposing a new jail tax,
2. killing Red Light and Speeding Cameras,
3. ending the trash tax,
4. stopping the glass atrium atop City Hall, and
5. in a dramatic 2013 crescendo, with a law suit and a referendum petition drive, stopping Mayor Mallory’s Parking Plot.
6. We also shined the light of truth that still is bright today on the Cincinnati Streetcar boondoggle, with two separate ballot issues.

But in order to advance these important initiatives, the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP necessarily had to be independent from the national democrat establishment of labor unions, left-wing politicians and contractors-on-the-dole propped up by their excessive spending.  It is a mighty fortress spewing out irrational policies in city after city in America, a lock on urban politics that is tough to break, but break it indeed we have done, led by Christopher Smitherman and the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP.

But the Empire Strikes Back.  The democrat party, the national NAACP, and organized labor have simply decided to end free thought in the local NAACP branch.

Let’s connect the dots of seemingly unrelated matters in the news that have culminated in the vote suppression emanating from the national NAACP seeking to change the outcome of the local leadership election:

• In a remarkable break from policies of local liberals, in early 2012 Christopher Smitherman bravely opposed City funding to Mahogany’s Restaurant.  The restaurant grant and loan was a rally cry for misled liberals and was foisted against public opinion by Mayor Mallory.  As it played out, it was a shameless waste of City monies that drove Mahogany’s owners into financial distress.  This was the straw that broke the establishment’s back and they declared war on the current NAACP leadership.
• In opposing the Streetcar project, Smitherman and the NAACP awakened the giant of contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff and the dozens of other hangers-on who profit from capital boondoggles, the benefits to the public be damned.
• In the 2013 election, labor union thugs spent more than $200,000 secretly and illegally seeking directly the defeat of Christopher Smitherman, with ads and mailers primarily targeting the black community.  It did not work.
• The same hucksters opposing Smitherman have rallied around the criminal conduct of Judge Tracie Hunter and used the trial as a cry for organizing against the leadership of the local branch of the NAACP.
• Then, two of the boosters of union leadership seeking to take over the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP, Rob Richardson’s employee and sister-in-law, falsely accused new NAACP President Ishton Morton of criminal assault at the January NAACP meeting.  This week, after a four-day trial, Judge Heather Russell found Ishton Morton “not guilty,” further exposing the lies perpetrated by forces seeking to control the local chapter of the NAACP.
• Finally, facing another certain defeat in the 2014 NAACP leadership elections, the national organization cancelled properly-called elections and has engaged in shameless vote suppression activities to manipulate the election to assure the union thugs take over NAACP leadership.  Judge Martin has enjoined their bogus “election,” and has demanded a fair election for control of the local.

These actions are all aimed at undermining and disempowering those who would challenge liberal orthodoxy within the democrat establishment, and specifically to re-take leadership of the local branch of the NAACP for the establishment democrat party and its allies.

We are certain that the final chapter in this sorry tale has not been told.  Local blacks are being to told to end their independent thoughts and actions, with a strong corrective yank on the tight leash upon them from the national liberal establishment.

We pray they maintain their independence, and refuse to allow anyone to tell them how to think.