Daily Loaf

As speculation continues on what led to Thursday’s crazed shooting spree by Nidal Hassan at Fort Hood yesterday, the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, General Eric Shinseki, is scheduled to speak today on the USF Tampa campus.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her underlings will be working furiously today to try to gather the 218 votes she needs to pass a health care reform bill that includes a public option tomorrow.

And the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce intends to honor Mayor Rick Baker tomorrow for all of the successes  that the Chamber believes have occurred under the Baker administration.  But there are activists who say the whole story needs to be told, and they plan on protesting the event tomorrow night.

We may not have an audio podcast up today.  But we’ll be back for certain on Monday a.m.

With more time to digest the results of Tuesday’s elections nationally, the question remains: what does it all mean?

The Tampa City Council today will vote on adding gender identity to their human rights ordinance, and in Hillsborough County, the campaign for a one-cent sales tax referendum slowly begins.

Download the report here.

Sadly, there will be no new Top Chef Las Vegas episode tonight – how will I get my Bryan Voltaggio fix? Luckily, we will be graced with a Top Chef All Stars Reunion! That’s right, now we get to catch up with some of the most loved (and loathed) cheftestants from seasons past.

First of all, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Italian stallion, Fabio (season 5), but why did they choose him to host the show? Yes, his mispronunciation of most English words and phrases is adorable, but we could barely understand him the first time he was on the show. Maybe they chose him to host because of his innocence and aloofness when pushing peoples’ buttons (see videos below) when asking why they were such jerks on their seasons and bringing up past rivalries. That way he might have a lesser chance of getting punched in the face, perhaps?

Be sure to check out the clip (below) where he interviews the biggest jerks (and least favorite contestants) from seasons 1 through 4: Tiffany, Marcel (still sporting the Dragonball Z hairdo), Hung, and Stefan. This is obviously just the beginning of tonight’s drama.

Also notice in the dinner party clip that all of the aforementioned jerks and hot heads from past seasons are seated at the center of the table and the nice guys, like Richard Blais, are at the very end. Who wants to hear from the people who stirred up the least drama anyway? (And why is Dale there at all?)

Finally, I’d just like to say that I’d pay to see Fabio put the smackdown on Marcel. As Bravo’s catchphrase goes: “Watch what happens!”

Tune in to Bravo tonight at 10 pm EST/9 pm C, check out our own live Tweets during the show (Jeff: @TheStew, Katie: @culinarypirate), and listen to our podcast when we return next week! (You can now download on iTunes and check out Jeff’s Top Chef Flickr page.)

Videos after the break:
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After spending a record $225,000, Bill Foster has captured the Mayoral race in St. Petersburg.

Nationally, Democrats and Republicans are spinning furiously about what if anything yesterday’s elections in New York, New Jersey and Virginia mean on a national basis.

And Hillsborough County Commissioners sit down to finally get serious about a possible referendum on transportation that could go before the voters in a year.

Download the report here

There will be no runoff election in Afghanistan this weekend (I know, we were all looking forward to the revote between Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah).  Karzai’s in, but what, if anything, will this mean for the U.S. interests?  Reportedly President Obama will meet at least two more times with his advisers on the strategy going forward.

As those discussions continue, the  young State Department official whose resignation was made public is getting  lots of face time.  Matthew Hoh appeared this morning on The Today Show, and yesterday on CNN

St. Pete Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 released a series of polls over the weekend, and it’s policy more than policy-makers that is most provocative in those results.

And on Sunday talk, Fox News gave Rush Limbaugh a platform for the first half of their one-hour program yesterday.  Too bad nothing interesting came out of it, other than the odious comment that President Obama’s appearance at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware last week was nothing more than a publicity stunt, according to Rush.

Most interesting was Joe Lieberman on CBS, saying he’d rather have nothing happen with health care reform than to allow for a government-run public option.

Download the report here.

The House Democrats dropped a bomb on D.C. yesterday – 1900 pages of health reform legislation that Republicans hate and even some progressive Democrats aren’t pleased with.  Meanwhile, activists will target local politicos Gus Bilirakis and Bill Nelson today.

Sports talk show host Dan Sileo has been sidelined by his Clear Channel bosses for his comments on the Bucs losing hundreds of millions of dollars because they got ripped off by Bernie Madoff.  But what about the ‘responsible’ news organizations that breathlessly reported his comments?

Former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth is helping out Florida Power & Light’s ‘damaged’ reputation because of their request for a 30% rate hike increase.  Say what?

Also, Pinellas County Congressman Bill Young is in the news today – and not in a good way.  You can read the story, but we’ll refrain from adding anything else just yet.  We’ve put in a call to the Congressman’s D.C. office for comment that he’s being investigated by the House Ethics Committee.

Podcast to follow.

Last week’s episode sure got my hopes up. I hate to keep complaining about what a snooze-fest this season is, but seriously, it is. Is it the contestants? Is it the editing of the show? Why can’t someone cut themselves or make out with another contestant like last season? Oh, it’s supposed to be about the food – right.

This week’s Quickfire consisted of creating a TV dinner (in a plastic tray, even) inspired by a classic television show. Redbeard (Kevin) gets The Sopranos, so he makes meatballs. Okay. Eli gets Gilligan’s Island, so he makes macadamia nut-crusted shrimp. Fitting. Ceveech (Jen) gets The Flintstones, so she makes a chicken roulade. Huh? And Jersey Mike has never even seen Seinfeld so he just pulls something out of his ass. I understand that most of the shows are a bit before their time, but seriously, who isn’t familiar with them? Maybe I expected some of them to be a little more cultured and up-to-date on their classic television (excluding Jersey Mike). Anyway, Redbeard takes the win. Big surprise, though I was a little amazed that he didn’t use pork in his dish.

For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs were let loose in Tom’s restaurant, Craftsteak, where they go apeshit over all of the choice proteins they think they’re going to use. Then their guest judge is introduced: Natalie Portman! And guess what? She’s a vegetarian! (Didn’t we see this in Top Chef Masters?) The cheftestants’ faces then immediately took on the “oh shit” look and they all turned white.

Jersey Mike claimed to be an expert on vegetarian cuisine, Redbeard said he doesn’t eat meat during Lent (meaning: he doesn’t eat pork products), and Eli proceeded to give vegetarians a lovely compliment by saying that they’re “lower human beings”. In the end, Jersey Mike tries to pass of undercooked leeks as a protein and gets the axe, while Redbeard takes the win with his “manly” veggie dish.

More fashion foibles this season: Padma’s tube top/pant suit atrocity, Ceveech’s tube top dress and open-toe ankle boots ensemble a la Pretty Woman, and Gail Simmons’ green prom dress circa Dynasty ‘86.

Podcast highlights: Natalie’s colorful language at the dinner table and her lack of ethnic friends, Ceveech’s “Philly Camaro” hair and falling self-esteem, and a plethora of ”That’s what she said” jokes.

Hear the hilarious podcast after the jump:
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There was a civilized, at times dare we say entertaining debate last night in Tallahassee on the proposal to repeal Florida’s ban on offshore drilling.

Tampa officials are studying the possibility of bringing red light cameras to certain intersections in the city.  Hillsborough County officials already agreed on doing so, with the first cameras going up tomorrow.  A state law mandating cameras could take precedence over both jurisdictions, but lawsuits will surely follow suit.

And the possibility of Hillsborough County using an old strip mall to house the homeless ain’t going to happen.

Audio podcast to follow this afternoon – we promise.

As we saw in last week’s episode of Top Chef Las Vegas, the stakes and drama are getting higher and it’s getting harder to predict who will be going home next (with the majority of the weak links now gone). We’ve seen some of the heavy-hitters, like Ceveech (Jen), slipping up and some of the underdogs, like Robin, excel. I’m just excited that we’re finally getting to the meat of this competition, after cutting away the fat like Phranc (Preeti), Mary Kay Letourneau (Eve), and cleaner of Picasso’s paintbrushes, Ash.

Tonight’s episode looks entertaining because the cheftestants are getting all kinds of curve balls thrown at them. Their Quickfire Challenge is to cook a TV dinner (complete with plastic tray) inspired by a classic television show, i.e.: M*A*S*H, Gilligan’s Island, etc.

After viewing the preview video below, it looks as if some of the chefs are out of their element, like Eli who claims to have never eaten a TV dinner. And why would he when he lives at home with his mother who probably waits on him hand and foot? Our one-time favorite, whom some of us had in their top three, Ceveech, looks like she’s drowning in self-doubt again this week as well. Will this affect her power ranking or even her spot in the finale? (I know I’m changing my bet on the finale trifecta.)
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Florida Chief Financial Officer and leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor, Alex Sink, has been very reluctant to comment on a government run health care option.  Not any longer.

Meanwhile, two members of the Florida Congressional delegation are making news - including GOP Brooksville’s Ginny Brown-Waite calling on President Obama to ask for permission to accept his Nobel Peace Prize.

And new national polls asking Americans their thoughts on President Obama and Congress reveal some interesting results.

Download the report here.

President Obama continues his stay in the sunshine state this morning, with a major speech on modernizing our electricity power grid at 12:25 this afternoon in Arcadia.

Kathleen Ford was asked yesterday to comment on her “HNIC” remark at Gibbs High School in St. Pete yesterday.

And Marco Rubio blasts Charlie Crist again, this time on MSNBC, a day after a Forbes columnist calls Crist the worst Governor in the country.

Download the report here.

Like me, most of you Top Chef fans probably get a little anxious by this time of the week – it’s been how many days since the last episode?! Well, I’m here to give you a Top Chef fix to help you get through the next few days. Since the Restaurant Wars episode aired last Wednesday, I have come across some very exciting news about  future seasons and a few stupidly entertaining videos from the current season.
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Over the weekend you may have read about Hillsborough County activist George Niemann’s ethics complaint against County Administrator Pat Bean’s self imposed pay raise now being investigated by the State Ethics Commission.

But I bet most people don’t know how the process works.  CL Contributor Niemann explains it all to you.  And it’s not pretty.

Polk County Congressman Adam Putnam is running for state wide office next year.  In case you forgot, he’s getting himself in the news today with his op-ed against excessive federal spending.  We haven’t heard that from Republican much lately, have we?

14 Americans were killed in Afghanistan today.  That makes Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold’s comments that he thinks the U.S. should pull out of Afghanistan all the more relevant.

And some Senate Democrats envision a public option in the health care bill being negotiated in Congress.

Download the report here.

There’s another local story today about former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco flirting with another run to lead the city.  My take.

Florida Senator George LeMieux’s past associations are creative waves, especially when it comes to the politics of offshore drilling.

And Fox News’ Karl Rove says that Barack Obama won’t announce he’s raising troop levels in Afghanistan until after next month’s gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

Download the report here.

Wow. I have to say this has been the first episode of Top Chef Las Vegas where I was actually on the edge of my seat and cared about who won or lost. It also showed us that maybe nice guys do finish last.

For the Quickfire, we saw the cheftestants divided into two teams of four and they had to compete in a blindfolded and gagged (no talking) relay race to complete a dish. Though the blue team, lead by Ceveech (Jen), didn’t really work cohesively for their dish they seemed to pull it off and take the win. I’m sure this added fuel to Angry Bro’s (Mike V.) fire to kick their asses in the Restaurant Wars Elimination Challenge.

At the beginning of the Restaurant Wars challenge, I really believe it was up in the air as to who would take the win. Though by service time, we had a much better idea of who would be on the chopping block. The red team, though led by a cruel tyrant, Mike V.,  bickering like school children, took their heated passion and directed it into their food – coming out on top and taking the win. Success stemmed from the leaders this episode and Ceveech’s stressing out (again) really took a toll on her team. Everyone on the blue team were just too nice and agreeable, leaving no one really in charge and a line of dishes that were ill-prepared.

In the end, Whatsherface (Laurine) was spared another grueling week on the show – as the majority of Top Chef fans probably wanted and/or predicted at the beginning of the episode. And then there were seven.

I hope that the action and excitement carries over into next week because this season has been blander than Jersey Mike’s dish that he served to Padma last night. Next week we get to see the cheftestants’ “oh shit” faces when they receive their orders from Natalie Portman – Super Vegan Challenge! What will Redbeard cook – tofu bacon?

Podcast highlights: We rag on the show’s fashion foibles, comparing the V. Brothers to characters in a Jane Austen novel, the Top Chef Las Vegas drinking game, and Jeff gives us more intriguing information as to the possible winner (no spoilers, though).

Hear the hilarious podcast after the jump:
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It happens every two years, but rumors again are circulating that Bill Young won’t run for re-election in 2010. His spokesman strongly denies that rumor.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner isn’t playing around on the whole Pat Bean giving herself a raise controversy.  He said yesterday that  he’s called the FDLE to check it out.

And Orlando Democrat Alan Grayson isn’t moderating his mantra that the GOP’s intransigence on health care is literally killing people.

Download the report here.

Drama! Action! Blindfolds! (Sounds kinky.) I know we’re going to see at least two of those in tonight’s episode of Top Chef…hopefully. It’s that time of the season again: Restaurant Wars! We’ll get to see who works fairly well together for the win and who gets the blame for having the losing restaurant, thus going down in flames.

Yet again, we see drama surrounding Robin and apparently she and Angry Bro (Mike V.) are the ones going at it this week during Restaurant Wars. It looks like, from the video below, that the V. Brothers and Robin are on a team working together in the kitchen for this challenge. With Angry Bro as the apparent team leader, it seems that he thinks it gives him an excuse to give Robin hell this week. I’m very much looking forward to her finally losing her cool and cursing him out, and also interested in seeing how the V. Brothers work together for this challenge, Will Mike will try to throw Bryan under the bus? Twenty bucks says he’ll try to do that to Robin.
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This reporter was at the latest Bill Foster/Kathleen Ford debate last night in St. Petersburg.  Not a whole lot of news being made, with the exception that Foster now says he supports domestic partnership benefits.

Very interesting new poll numbers are out in Florida’s Senate and Gubernatorial races this morning.  The big news here is that even though Marco Rubio is still down by double digits to Charlie Crist in their race for U.S. Senate, Rubio has made up 14% from a similar poll conducted two months ago.

Download the Report here.

Perhaps feeling massive guilt, Commisioners Kevin White and Al Higgenbotham plan to unveil a new plan on finding housing for the homeless at today’s Hillsborough County Commission Board Meeting.

Interestingly enough, Commissioner White, who has been under fire after he was found guilty of sexually harassing his aide back in August, has had a number of supporters come out for him at this morning’s meeting.

Support for a government run public health care option is rising in the U.S.  As activists prepare to protest in front of Senator Bill Nelson’s office today, perhaps the new numbers will inspire him and others to get more behind the idea?

One prominent Florida Democrat has no opinion about a public option,

and,  with just two weeks to go before election day in St. Petersburg, former police chief Goliath Davis weighs in on the recent controversial comments on race made by mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford.

Also in national news, the Obama Administration announced yesterday what they said they were going to do when they came into office – that is, stop prosecuting sanctioned marijuana suppliers or the patients who purchase medicinal pot.

Download the report

Attorney General Eric Holder had said his Justice Department would no longer go after those dispensaries when he took office, but his office did actually continue to do so for awhile.

And in the story I quote from, there’s this little caveat:

And while the policy memo describes a change in priorities away from prosecuting medical marijuana cases, it does not rule out the possibility that the federal government could still prosecute someone whose activities are allowed under state law.

Also, President Obama may be in Tampa next Tuesday.  We’ll report once we have the details.

And, swine flu shots will begin being administered in Hillsborough County schools today.  The School Board issue a press release this morning with results from a survey of parents on whether they will have their kid get inoculated.

The results? 55% said yes, 24% said no, and 21 percent were undecided.  Over 25,000 people responded.

The St. Petersburg Mayor’s race just got a whole lot more interesting.

The Obama Administration is not dropping its jihad against Fox News.

And some in the media are spreading the narrative that Barack Obama simply isn’t tough enough – but Obama’s radio address on Saturday threatening to revoke the health care industry’s anti trust exemption is a pretty serious threat.

Download the report here.

After last night’s brawl following the controversial St. Petersburg City Council vote on vacating the sidewalk of BayWalk, St. Pete for Peace says they’ll demonstrate tonight.

The Public Service Commission today rules on whether to impose a $200 million front end hit to ratepayers in the state.

And the Wall Street Journal blasts the National Football League for rejecting Rush Limbaugh.

Also in the news, as Congressional Republicans continue to criticize President Obama for ‘dithering’ in his deliberations regarding a new strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan, now comes word that there’s a good chance that there will be a run-off in the disputed presidential election there.

That report comes as the deaths of 4 Americans in Afghanistan are announced today.

Oh, and Florida’s unemployment rate is now at 11%.

Download the report here.

Is it episode 8 already? Well, we’re still here, still podcasting about Top Chef Las Vegas (no, this isn’t the Hell’s Kitchen podcast). Unfortunately this week we are sans our resident wine guru, Taylor. Fortunately, Jeff provided us with a different form of bubbly to enjoy during our gab session this week- Stella Artois (whose commercials play during Top Chef- coincidence?).

 At the beginning of the episode we learned that Angry Bro (Mike V.) thinks he’s the Babe Ruth of Top Chef and that Eli still lives at home – he’d admit this on national television, why?

The Quickfire revealed that Charlie Palmer is the guest judge and former boss of the V. Brothers (and swore he won’t play favorites), and their secret ingredient is a potato chip. Classy, Bravo.  They’ve already had to pair shots with dishes, so why not snack food this time around? Personally, I’d pair my Funyuns with a braised lamb shank in a lovely sherry demi glace. Ceveech was a nervous wreck again this week and it looks like she didn’t use her Macy’s gift card from last week’s win to get herself a makeover (your roots are showing, girl). Eli ends up taking home this challenge (cough*finally*cough) and represents for ATL. He also muses that he can be the first to win a Quickfire and Elimination Challenge in the same episode. Right.

For the Elimination Challenge, each cheftestant had to use a different cut of pork for their dish and pair it with the pinot noir they chose to use.  Who knew Eli was such a wino, I mean- wine connoisseur? They then had to cook for 150 guests at Charlie Palmer’s fundraiser event, Pigs and Pinot. Of course, the V. Brothers, Redbeard (Kevin), and Ceveech got great reviews, while Ash, Robin and Whatsherface’s (Laurine) dishes were not so popular at this event.

Much to our surprise (hint of sarcasm), Redbeard won with a pork dish again, and Ash ended up getting the boot. (Top Chef Rule #3: Don’t tell the judges that you didn’t cook the dish that you had originally intended to.) It was good that they put Ash out of his misery, though - after learning that he could no longer clean Picasso’s paintbrushes, he felt that the Top Chef life just wasn’t worth living.

Looks like it’s Restaurant Wars next week, so maybe we’ll finally see some action that will have us on the edge of our seats. Well, enough action to keep our interest, at least.

Highlights: Laurine makes cat food, Robin being “passive-aggressive” and at the center of the drama in the house (seen here), asking: “What Would Carla Do?”, our predictions for Padma’s baby-daddy, and the best “That’s What She Said” line of the episode.

Hear the hilarious podcast after the jump:
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Several stories in the news today – such as yesterday’s Mayoral Debate in St. Pete

St. Pete’s City Council again brings up BayWalk

And  there’s a protest at Bill Nelson’s office today on health care – also President Obama is  not popular in parts of New Orleans and San Francisco, which he visits today.

Download the report here.

As we’ve been discussing the last few weeks in the Top Chef Podcast, there seems to be a lot of tension between Robin and Eli. Well, between Robin and almost everyone, it seems. Is it because they don’t respect her as much as some of the cheftestants that were booted before her? Or are they just being childish and disrespectful? Tonight’s episode will give us more drama, as Robin and Eli get to smack talkin’ again and Robin proves that she is not Eli’s mother, as seen in the preview clip below.

Also, the V. Brothers (Hot Bro- Bryan, Angry Bro- Michael) have got their panties in a wad over this week’s guest judge, Charlie Palmer – a famous chef and restaurateur. You see, Charlie used to be both of the V. Boys’ boss, and it makes them quite nervous to be cooking for him in the Quickfire Challenge (or rather, heating up some frozen potato product, as it looks like in the video below). Ceveech (Jen) even looks to be losing her cool during this challenge. I think it’d be really hilarious and ironic if Robin took this win.
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In today’s podcast:

• Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner wants to clear the record on his Kevin White motion from last week, which did not support Rose Ferlita’s call to sue White to try to recoup some of the hundreds of thousands of dollars the County owes due to White’s transgressions.

• CFO Alex Sink on ex-felons’ civil rights: She wants to take some of them back

• Limbaugh wants the St. Louis Rams: TBO commenters just want to bash Al Sharpton

• You’ll never believe who’s against the tent city in Hillsborough

Download the report here.

Also:

Last night Bill Foster and Kathleen Ford battled it out on a debate televised live by BayNews9.  I’ll talk about this more tomorrow, as the two will be engaging in another debate on Wednesday afternoon.

And last, but certainly not least, the Senate Finance Committee will take their vote today on the health care bill coming out of the Max Baucus led group.  This comes the day after the industry group, AHIP – America’s Health Insurance Plans, released a 26 page analysis conducted by PricewaterhouseCooopers, which said that premiums would cost more under the Finance Committee legislation than under the current system.

The White House and Democrats are outraged, but in fact, as several political commentators have been saying, this almost insures that the much vaunted public option will end making it into the final legislation.  Why not?  If the Baucus bill won’t bring down costs (which , along with trying to insure more people, has been the driving goal of the Obama administration during this whole debate), then the public option is really needed, supporters can now argue.

The Florida Democratic Party hosted its annual state conference over the weekend at a Disney resort in Lake Buena Vista.  This reporter was there for some of the events, including a debate between Dan Gelber and Dave Aronberg, the aspiring candidates to be the Party’s nominee for Attorney General next year.  I’ll be writing a separate post on that later today.

Saturday, the conference was filled with speeches from some of the party’s leaders, including the woman that so many Dems have their hopes on for next year to be the next governor, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.  In her address Saturday night, she lit into her possible GOP opponent next year, Bill McCollum, saying, “”A career politician like Bill McCollum only talks about jobs and growth, but a leader like me creates jobs and growth. McCollum pretends to have all the answers, a leader asks the right questions.  He puts on a performance. A leader demands performance. He measures results by the polls he takes, I measure results by the progress we make.”

Download the report here.

That’s quite possibly the strongest rhetoric employed so far by the CFO in her campaign against the current Attorney General, but if you can’t get the grass roots of your party faithful up and cheering at your state party’s convention, when can you?

I didn’t arrive at the Conference until around noon on Saturday, which meant I missed appearances by Senator Bill Nelson and Congressman Alan Grayson, who has, pardon the cliche, become a rock star with Florida Democrats after having said Republicans want sick people to “die quickly” two weeks ago.

On Saturday, he said the GOP should be called “The Selfish Party,” and the 2,000 or so delegates in the hall ate it up.

Saturday morning Senator Bill Nelson addressed the crowd, and there were many in the audience who got up when he spoke, calling out “health care now! “  In the Senate Finance Committee, of which he is a member, Nelson did vote on an amendment sponsored by New York Senator Charles Schumer, and on Saturday he told the delegates and others in attendance that “I have heard you loud and clear” on the issue.  Nelson’s Committee votes on their bill tomorrow.

As a Quinnipiac Poll released last month revealed, Florida Democrats are solidly behind a government-sponsored public health care option in any bill that ultimately comes out of the Congress this year, so it’s perhaps no surprise Nelson is getting with the program.

Yet the Democrats’ potential standard-bearer, gubernatorial candidate Sink, still has not expressed her opinion on the matter.

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Stunning.

That had to be the overwhelming feeling among Americans as they awoke to the news early this morning that Barack Obama is this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.  It came in at 5 a.m. East Coast time this morning, and I literally jumped up and off my bed hearing the NPR announcer say at 5:04, “Repeating our top story, Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to enjoy the honor, but the first to win it during his first term in office (and in his first 8 months, to boot).  Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919 after helping to establish the League of Nations, and Teddy Roosevelt took it in 1906.

But as the Washington Post reports:

In contrast, Obama is struggling over whether to expand the war in Afghanistan, preparing to withdraw from Iraq, and searching for ways to build momentum to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and assemble an international effort to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Already the conservative media establishment is mocking the prize and our president.  But doesn’t that contradict what they were saying a week ago, when many people were almost as equally surprised that the International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago as the potential host of the 2016 Summer Games?

Former President Jimmy Carter, the 2002 Nobel Prize winner, called the award to Obama a”bold statement of international support for his vision and commitment.”

Download the report here.

Closer to home, the St. Petersburg City Council, or at least one member of it, was apparently stung by the criticism thrown their way by the St. Pete Times and other figures for their vote last week not to allow BayWalk to be given the public sidewalk that is the entryway to the struggling shopping complex.

Councilmember Herb Polson supported a motion to bring the issue back.

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This week, we’re back in the Champagne Room (aka: the podcast bunker) to kvetch about episode 7 of  Top Chef. (What did you think this was, the Project Runway Podcast?)

Was this episode painfully boring or was it just my short attention span? I’m going to sum it up much like the cheftestants had to get the specs for their Quickfire dish, Cookstr-style: Tired, bland, and contrived. Tyler Florence (insert Applebee’s sellout joke here) didn’t even add to the excitement as the guest judge:  he lacks the street cred that the majority of the prior guest judges this season had.

For the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs had to create a dish using the three description words that the Cookstr slot machine gave them. What is “stressed” food, by the way? ‘Stress food’, as in, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s? Or maybe a lobster that was just dropped into a boiling cauldron of water. I digress. Ultimately, we learned that passing off a Middle Eastern dish with Indian curry to Padma just doesn’t fly, Jersey Mike really knows his Asian food- note the sarcasm, and Ceveech sure loves her scallops (maybe we’ll start calling her ‘Top Scallop’ from now on).

For the Elimination Challenge, the players drew knives to see who they’d be teamed up with to cook a potluck-style dinner for Tyler Florence and Macy’s Culinary Council (some great chefs they gave no background info on)…in their own home kitchen. 10 chefs + 1 home kitchen = madness. Each team got a mystery bag of ingredients they had to use in their dish, along with whatever was in the pantry. The only major drama in this part of the episode was the pairing of Jersey and Robin, Angry Brother (Mike V.) losing power to his electric wok, and Ashley’s over salted gnocchi.

Ceveech ends up taking the win, getting a $10k gift card from Macy’s, which hopefully she’ll end up spending on a new wardrobe and on an entire makeover (too bad you can’t buy class). Much to my delight, greaseball Ben Folds was sent packing for her salty gnocchi and all-around bad idea for a dish. The show will feel much cleaner now.

Highlights: The horrid clothes this episode (namely Padma, Tom, and Ben Folds), Ash sure knows how to set a table (is this Top Tablescape Artist?), Hot Bro (Bryan) gets all sassy and puts everyone in their place for ragging on his lil’ bro, and where the heck is Whatsherface (Laurine) this episode?

Hear the hilarious podcast after the jump:
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The latest Senate health bill will cost $829 billion over the next decade AND slightly reduce the federal budget deficit.

That’s according to the official scorekeepers of such things, the Congressional Budget Office.  It said the legislation coming out of Max Baucus’ Finance Committee would also cover 94% of nonelderly legal U.S. citizens, up from about 83% right now — and it would cut the deficit by $81 billion over the next decade.

What does this mean? Theoretically, it should give cover to moderate Democrats, who are freaking out that the legislation would increase the deficit.

And who knows, maybe there might be a stray Republican in the Senate  who could join the lonely Olympia Snowe — not that anybody should take her vote for granted.

Mind you, the Baucus bill does NOT contain a government run public option. , which Many House Democrats, including Tampa’s Kathy Castor, have been on the record saying they would not vote for the bill unless it includes the public option.

Download the report here.

Another ignominious statistic for Florida.  We rank 50th among the states  and D.C. in its percentage of its children covered by health insurance, according to a new report.

It comes from the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based nonprofit foundation focused on improving health care access.

Most disturbingly, the report finds that most states showed an improvement in the percentage of children covered by health insurance — but not in Florida,where coverage of kids fell by 2 percent since 2005.

The killer paragraph in the story in today’s Palm Beach Post is this:

Eighteen percent of children in Florida lacked health insurance, compared to only 3.2 percent in Massachusetts, where health insurance has been mandatory for the past three years. The national median was 8.6 percent.

Meanwhile, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program this morning, where he talked a lot about deteriorating relations between the political parties in Washington.

He did take a couple of slaps at Barack Obama, saying he thinks that the President has an opportunity to find common ground with his opponents, but “doesn’t seem like he’s ready to take on that challenge. I think there would be huge support for him to move away from the orthodoxy of his party on some positions, and move to a third way.”

Yet later on in the conversation, Bush gave props to the Prez and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, saying he was “encouraged and excited ” that Obama has taken on the teachers’ unions and demanded accountability, saying he and Duncan are deserving of high praise on that front.

On health care reform, the former governor wasn’t nearly so magnanimous, calling the proposals in Congress ‘missed opportunities.”

Speaking of MSNBC and health care reform: One of that cable network’s stars, and a hero amongst much of the left wing in the U.S., Keith Olbermann went over the top last night with an hour-long “Special Comment” special devoted to him talking about the health care debate.

I only saw a few moments of it, but this review in Salon.Com seems to capture its essence, calling it “Olbermann’s Wasted Moment.”

Last but not least, the Hillsborough County Commission deadlocked yesterday on a proposal to sue Kevin White to recoup some of their financial losses due to his conviction on sexual harassment charges.

But as I noted in my blog posting on this yesterday, an interesting little event occurred at the end of the vote on Commissioner White’s financial situation yesterday.

That is a new ordinance that the County Commission will need to approve on issues like sexual harassment, which is a major reason why a federal judge ruled that the County was liable in the White lawsuit.

Commissioner Kevin Beckner asked Attorney Renee Lee to see if protections could be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Lee responded that that could be added.  But then Commissioner Jim Norman objected, saying he was disturbed by that exchange, calling it a ‘back door attempt’ to change the language in the County’s Human Rights Ordinance.  Norman said he’d call for full-blown hearings if that were to be the case.

In a brief interview late yesterday, Commissioner Beckner told CL that he thought Norman overreacted to his suggestion.  This story isn’t over.

In the wake of last week’s vote by the St. Petersburg City Council not to vacate the sidewalk that leads into the BayWalk retail complex, a vote that BayWalk owners had demanded before they would consider investing more money in the struggling mall, the activist group St. Pete for Peace says they will not protest on the sidewalk for at least the next year.

On the organization’s website, the group writes:

The recent Baywalk/sidewalk proposal was an attack on free speech and would have set a dangerous precedent for our city and our country.  In last week’s city council vote, everyone’s First Amendment rights were maintained and our right to demonstrate was upheld.  This is what we were striving for all along.

If the city and/or Baywalk’s owners again try to ban protesters from the public sidewalk in front of Baywalk, we will re-assess our position and again struggle to maintain people’s rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

This clearly puts the onus back on the owners, C.W. Capital, to put their money where their mouth is (okay, lame expression).  For months, they and their supporters in St. Pete have said that, despite the withering economy, they would only reinvest and could only re-market the complex by insuring that protestors could not disturb customers.  St. Pete for Peace has called their bluff.

Download the report here.

We knew that the Kevin White case was going to be brought up again today by Hillsborough County Commissioners at their bi-weekly meeting.

But we didn’t know that Commissioner Rose Ferlita would be announcing that she plans to ask her fellow commissioners to sue White to get back some of the taxpayer funds that are associated with his sexual discrimination lawsuit.

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The woman who hopes to become the first to lead the great state of Florida, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, is reporting that she raised $1.6 million over the past three months. Her top Republican Party opponent, Attorney General Bill McCollum, has yet to announce his fundraising totals over the past quarter year.

Sink is in better shape financially at this stage of her campaign — a little over a year before the general election — than were Jim Davis, Bill McBride or Lawton Chiles, the last three people to run for the Democratic nomination for Governor.  All three of those men lost.

For those who like their politics hardball, the Sink-McCollum race promises to provide the goods.  The Florida Republican Party has acted scared about Sink for a while.  The day after she announced her candidacy, the party, never known not to be in good stead with the financial industry, blasted Sink for her longtime banking ties (she worked in the industry for 26 years, ending her career as Bank of America’s president of Florida operations in 2000).

Download the report here.

The possible wild card in this race is whether Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery gets in the GOP race.  Read the rest of this entry »

Today the U.S. Supreme Court officially begins its new session, with Latina Justice Sonia Sotomayor bringing her perspective to the bench, succeeding David Souter.

USA Today reports that former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said over the weekend that she regretted that some of her decisions “are being dismantled” by the current Court, led by John Roberts.

When asked how she reacted to having some of her rulings “undone,” the first female Justice ever named to the High Court responded, “How would you feel?  I’d be a little bit disappointed.”

Download the report here.

Meanwhile, with concerns escalating that offshore drilling could be coming to Florida, there will be a debate in Tallahassee later this month on the matter.

This comes after nearly 20 local governments and chambers of commerce have gone on the record in recent weeks proposing resolutions to oppose any move by Congress or the state Legislature to promote offshore drilling in Florida (Sierra Club member Phil Compton proposed that the Tampa City Council follow suit last week, and the Council is working on such a resolution).

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Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson has made a name for himself over the past year — mostly among Netroots Nation Democrats who have been impressed by his fiery partisan language.

But the Orlando freshman has been catapulted into a whole new world of media coverage over the past 48 hours, after this statement: “The Republican health-care plan: Don’t get sick….if you’re sick, America, the Republican health-care plan is this: Die quickly!”

After being blasted by the GOP for his remarks and called upon to apologize, Grayson did — to the dead.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bill Clinton comes to West Central Florida tonight. He’ll be speaking in Sarasota at the Van Wezel Center at 7:45 p.m.  The event is being sponsored by the Ringling College Library Association. More on how the former commander in chief might, just might, have an impact on the Florida governor’s race later in the post.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman Kathy Castor is in the news. The Tampa Democrat is calling on the EPA to review the controversial mall proposed  in Wesley Chapel next to Cypress Creek, near the border between Pasco & Hillsborough counties.  The conglomerate trying to build the mall has been engaged  in a battle with  local environmentalists for years.

Less than a month ago, the Army Corps of Engineers lifted a suspension of its permit. That came after the developers agreed to pay a $297,000 fine for discharging muddy water into Cypress Creek, which is a tributary for the Hillsborough River, Tampa’s main source of potable water.

Castor is also defending herself against charges that she supported a vote to maintain funding for ACORN, the community activist group that has received an avalanche of negative publicity in recent weeks.

Download the Mitch Perry Report here.

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Governor Charlie Crist made the rounds of the cable networks this morning, and part of that offensive included contrasting the health care reform plans being promulgated by President Obama with his own modest endeavor here in Florida.

That’s despite the fact that (as the Miami Herald reported in August), the governor’s plan, called Cover Florida, had attracted only 3,757 people to the program, in a state with over 4 million uninsured.

Crist’s response when asked about that on CNN?  “It’s over 4,000 now.”

CNN’s John Roberts asked Crist how he could criticize big-government programs while boasting about  the growth of the state’s health care program for children, Florida Kid Care, which expanded to cover tens of thousands more kids this year.

“That’s for children,” the Guv responded.  Roberts rightly shot back, “What’s the difference?” Crist repeated, “It’s for children.”

However, it was a kinder, gentler, love-in type of interview over at Fox News’ Fox & Friends program. (Download the Mitch Perry Report below.)

Host Steve Doocy cheerfully advised (rather than questioned Crist) that the feds in Washington could do well to take up what Crist has accomplished so far in the Sunshine State.

Read the rest of this entry »