The Slippery Slope....

"Slippery slope"~ a suggestion that one action will initiate a chain of events culminating in an undesirable event later. Why is it that: they had fences keeping Soviet citizens in the USSR ~ we have fences to keep people from coming in the USA in droves? Why people risk thier lives to sail from Cuba to the USA; yet US citizens have no thoughts about even visiting Cuba? How China and Korea have hundreds of millions deaths by starvation every year and the U.S. bails them out yearly with donations of hundreds of billions of dollars?

Things that make you go "Hhhhmmmmm....."

Even at the age of 36, I have to admit my Dad ROCKS! As a child, I was raised knowing the difference between communism, socialism and capitalism and A LOT about world politics. OK, maybe it was a little weird being the only kid in elementary and middle school that knew that MAD was not an emotion and SALT was not just a seasoning on the dinner table..however the lessons proved to be valuable. These lessons haven't been taught in our school system for a long time.
This was waiting in my inbox this morning. Oddly enough, I knew the answers...do you?

A little history lesson:
If you don't know the answer, take your best guess.
Answer all the questions before looking at the answers.

Who said it?

1. "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

(A) Karl Marx
(B) Adolph Hitler
(C) Joseph Stalin
(D) None of the above

2. "It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few...and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity."

(A) Lenin
(B) Mussolini
(C) Idi Amin
(D) None of the Above

3. "(We)...can't just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people."

(A) Nikita Khrushchev
(B) Josef Goebbels
(C) Boris Yeltsin
(D) None of the above

4. "We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own...in order to create this common ground."

(A) Mao
(B) Hugo Chavez
(C) Kim Jong Il
(D) None of the above

5. "I certainly think the free-market has failed."

(A) Karl Marx
(B) Lenin
(C) Molotov
(D) None of the above

6. "I think it's time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in (the) entire economy that they are being watched."

(A) Pinochet
(B) Milosevic
(C) Saddam Hussein
(D) None of the above

Answers

1. (D) None of the above. The statement was made by Hillary Clinton ~ 6/29/2004
2. (D) None of the above. The statement was made by Hillary Clinton ~ 5/29/2007

3. (D) None of the above. The statement was made by Hillary Clinton ~ 6/4/2007
4. (D) None of the above. The statement was made by Hillary Clinton ~ 6/4/2007
5. (D) None of the above. The statement was made by Hillary Clinton ~ 6/4/2007
6. (D) None of the above. The statement was made by Hillary Clinton ~ 9/2/2005

....and just to make the circle complete: The USSR, China, Korea and Cuba got into the possition they are (were, in the case of the USSR) in by "enlightend thinking" that lead to communisim/socialism. How does Hillary Clinton compare to those leaders? How many of you guessed one of the "revolutionaries" as the author of the statements?

Wake up. Listen up. Study the options, then vote.

Cuyahoga County Commissioners Demora and Hagan have watched "Field of Dreams" one too many times; they are starting to have delusions of "Build it and they will come" (add freaky ghost like sound effects at will).

The Cleveland Medi-Mart has about a snowballs chance in Mexico City (close to hell, from what I know).

Look, from what I can tell, this Medi-Mart plan is a two part selling system:

MMPI and Cleveland attract the Manufactures.
Manufacturers attract the Buyers.

Then, and only then, can trade shows or medical conferences happen.

Every sales person knows that one of the basic requirements you need to sell your product is to provide an answer for the buyer’s “WIIFM” or “What’s In It For Me?”

So, first off: We have to sell the Medi-Mart to the Manufactures.

To talk about this, allow me to give a little background on tradeshows:

ECRM provides high end trade shows around the world, In 2004 they attempted to “break into” the medical trade show market. ECRM does hold some "health care" and "pharmacy" shows, but for the most part, the major medical manufactures turned their noses up at ECRM and did their own thing.

Just for the record: ECRM operates out of Cuyahoga County and not one of the shows is anywhere near Northeast Ohio. All are in warm-sunny-vacation-places-with-big-expensive-hotels. Why? Half the year Cleveland has questionable weather, not a vacation spot, nothing to do, a high crime area…hell, all the reasons we gripe about Cleveland.

Now, if you Google the terms “medical conference trade shows” you will see many conferences come up and most are either:

“traveling shows” (manufacturers traveling to cater to the needs of the buyer – close to the hospital or treatment facility saves on time and costs);

or

“home shows” (so the manufacture can control their goods and close to the manufacturing site to save on transportation and employee costs);

....neither of which fits Cleveland’s Medi Mart or ECRM’s game plan; both of which answer WIIFM's for the Manufacturers and the Buyers.

Cleveland is not close to ALL the hospitals; nor is it close to ALL the manufacturers. Just to be fair, warm-sunny-vacation-places-with-big-expensive-hotels can’t fill that requirement either (however, ECRM has business in many other markets; Cleveland's Medi-Mart will not).

Basically, it boils down to three things: Location, Location, Location.

If we can’t sell it (‘it’ being Cleveland) to the Manufactures, how can the Medi-Mart work?

No manufactures = no buyers = no conference/trade show = no revenue for the MediMart.

Result: MediMart dies a quite death, we have another failed “attract people to Cleveland” scam and the constituents: another tax burden.

Finally, take a look at what The Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc (MMPI) state in the MediMart concept:

Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises first posited the idea of a medical mart in Cleveland in the mid-1980s. Forest City proposed converting one of its Tower City holdings, the former U.S. Post Office building that now houses the engineering firm Washington Group International’s offices, into a showplace for medical products.

Two decades later, Merchandise Mart Properties feels it is time for the medical mart concept to become a reality. MMPI’s interest in investing in Cleveland began with an informal conversation between our company’s president, Christopher Kennedy, and Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan in late 2005.

If it is such a great idea, why didn’t MMPI act on it in 20+ years? Now they are on fire and ready to do it, but not in their base markets (Chicago, Boston, New York, LA and somewhere in Canada).

What is different now? Was it just not a good 20 some odd years for MMPI to make extra cash?

Why Cleveland?

Because the Cuyahoga County Taxpayers are forced to cough up the cash & taking the risk; both were shoved down our throats by our elected officials, one of which has been planning the deal for around 2 years!

If the MediMart fails miserably, and I am betting it will, MMPI will loose some money, and little to no bad press, on the venture and we, the taxpayers, will be stuck with the bill.

If MediMart pulls off a Hail Mary and it works, MMPI will enjoy the expansion, however the most the tax payers will get out of it is maybe a thousand jobs and tax revenue; which will be squandered away by Demora and Hagan and the rest of the clowns running Cuyahoga/Cleveland.

In conclusion, these bozos need to drop the delusion or modify it to the vision/dream of "Fix Cleveland, and somebody might consider coming".

Until that happens, Demora, Hagan and all those "leaders" (particularly the "party of lower taxes and less government" Republicans, whom tucked tail or SUPPORTED this fiasco) need to be removed from office, ASAP!