The Political Whore

Check out the following clip of McCain speaking about the recently passed G.I. Bill:

Now realize McCain was against this bill, and even proposed an alternate version that did not contain the provisions he’s bragging on in this video.

• Seymore Hersh’s latest New Yorker piece, on Bush’s increased covert action against Iran, is a doozy.
• Obama takes aim at southern voters.
• Tampa looks at minimum zoning requirements.
• Wall Street feasts on finger nails before the open.
• Some cry over Wal-Mart’s spilled milk.
• Will they or won’t they? Hollywood actors prepare to strike.
• Checking in on Oliver Stone’s W.
• The Bucs re-sign Earnest Graham.

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I will be out of the office on special assignment next week, so my blogging will be light. Hang in there. Joe B will continue to file the Short List every day, and I will pop in as often as I can from my remote locations to add my 2 cents.

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Tampa Tribune Editor Janet Coats will meet with her restless troops next week to discuss what they have all been awaiting/dreading: the future of the newsroom. She sent this e-mail to her staff today:

From: Coats, Janet E.
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008
Subject: Newsroom staff meetings

We’ll have staff meetings on Tuesday to talk about plans for the second half of the year. We’ll talk about the subject that is foremost in your minds – job reductions. But we’ll also talk about the new structure for the newsroom and the ways we see the newspaper and TBO.com changing in the coming months.

We’ll also try to draw a road map for the next few months. We live in uncertain times, and there’s not much I can do to change that. But I will try to give you a little better sense of the decisions we face in the next few months, and how we’re going to work through them to create the best opportunities to do good journalism.

Bonus cuts: 54 take buyout at Media General Fla operations; Closing the South Tampa office

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The McCain camp actually pulls off a decent viral video! I wouldn’t take a word of this at face value, but you have to admit the video is well done. If McCain knew what a computer was we might actually have a race here …

• Obama gives Clinton $2,300. (Side note: The Times should be shot for using that picture.)
• Novak says Colin Powell will endorse Obama at some point, but not because he’s a fan of Barack. No, he’ll do it to spite W.
• Speaking of traitors to their party: Time has a story on Joe Lieberman that made me puke in my mouth a little.
• Don’t blow your top trying to figure out the energy crisis, there’s a mountain of a solution out there.
• North Korea dynamites the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear power plant.
• One barrel of oil = 28 Subway footlongs.
• This weekend’s viewing: WALL-E is a “Pixar masterpiece.”
• “Six Crazy Hollywood Stories You Probably Haven’t Heard.”

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Our CL issue on newsstands as of yesterday is the (Openly) Gay Issue, and I wrote about the two groups that were formed to fight against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Why are there two?

 Blame the dueling PACs on partisan politics, ideology and — to a lesser degree — personalities. One PAC is pointedly bipartisan, while the other doesn’t identify with a party but is extremely pro-Democrat and progressive. It’s not that they aren’t both working against the amendment; they just can’t seem to do it under one roof.

“Personally, I am of the opinion that it is unfortunate that they went two separate ways,” said Jim Pease, the president of the Tampa Bay Log Cabin Republicans who is aligned with one of the competing yet cooperating groups, Florida Red and Blue. “Together as one unified front, as one single message, it would be better.”

The two groups, Florida Red and Blue and Fairness for All Families, are coordinating their message and sharing intel but have resisted efforts to merge into one political organization.

The rest of the story is online here.

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The Washington Post is reporting that the Supreme Court voted 5-4 along ideological lines to strike down Washington D.C.’s 1976 ban on handgun ownership. This marks the first time since 1791 that the Supreme Court has ruled on the second amendment or tried to sort out if gun ownership was tied to being in a “well regulated militia.”

Though some are sure to fears chaos in the streets, it is important to remember this simple fact: Though you have been unable to own a handgun in D.C. for the last 32 years, shotguns and rifles were still allowed. You read that correctly. Handguns, No way! Shotguns and rifles? A-OK. I take that to mean this decision will not result in immediate mass killings on the National Mall.

Best quote from the WaPo story:

The issue caused a split within the Bush administration. Vice President Dick Cheney supported the appeals court ruling, but others in the administration feared it could lead to the undoing of other gun regulations, including a federal law restricting sales of machine guns. Other laws keep felons from buying guns and provide for an instant background check.

Cheney needs to reconsider. If the people can get their hands on machine guns, ol’ Dick’s ass might be in some trouble.

(Photo Credit: Dubswede)

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Breaking news: John McCain is “aware” of both the Internet and computers. He doesn’t use them, silly. He just knows they exist — and that should be good enough for you.

• In other McCain news: Someone really loves their weekends.
• “Reporter M.E. Sprengelmeyer writes that Nader accused Barack Obama of ‘downplaying poverty issues, trying to ‘talk white’ and appealing to ‘white guilt’ during his run for the White House.’”
• The Supreme Court cuts the damages Exxon has to pay for the Valdez disaster to 1/5th 1/10th their original value. The best part: Alito had to recuse himself, as he owns Exxon stock and stands to gain from this decision.
• The Axis of Evil loses another member as North Korea is removed from the list. That just leaves Iran, right?
• Old school: Tuppeware parties. New school: Taser party.
• Coming soon: The Playstation phone.
• The Rays shelve the waterfront stadium plan … for now. (Does this mean they’ll stop winning?)
• Vinny to stick with the Lightning for life.

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I’m proud and happy to be the featured speaker at the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club meeting Thursday night on the USF-St. Petersburg campus.

USF St. Petersburg
140 7th Avenue S., St. Petersburg
Click here for campus map
5:00 - 6:00 p.m. - Hors D’oeuvres Reception*
*$20 for STBC members, students, faculty & staff / $25 for all others
6:15 - 7:15 p.m. - Program (open to all at no cost)

Details here. (I know the RSVP deadline has passed but contact Tiger Bay Club anyway; I’m sure they can make an accommodation.)

I will be talking about the impact of the youth vote in 2008, and I hope there are plenty of people there ready to take me on on the subject.

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It is nice to see today’s kids are taking advantage of our right to protest.

Two girls in Salt Lake City are protesting rising gas prices after their mom was forced to cut cable TV from the family’s budget because they could no longer afford it. The girls are upset because they can’t watch their favorite cartoons.

This is the way things work in America these days. Despite the world seemingly beginning to fall apart at the seams, there is little real uproar here in the US.

It’s because we’re all at home watching TV. Sometimes it takes something like cartoon deprivation to get us to take a stand.

Once we have to forego more of our guilty pleasures and distractions, we will all be on the streets protesting, despite the fact that it likely won’t force the price of gas any lower. Never mind the real issues; just don’t take away our Comedy Central.

I can see the signs that would be carried by the picketers:

“Beer should be an everyday thing, but gas prices have eaten away at my beer money! Stop the madness!”

“My Explorer runs on oil but my big-screen HD TV doesn’t! I can’t afford either!”

“My children deserve a future filled with electronic gadgets and video games! How can we leave them that legacy?”

We have become disconnected because we are so contentedly preoccupied. We find it easy to ignore what’s going on as long as we have something to distract ourselves with. It will be interesting to see the reaction once gas prices double again and we are forced to choose between paying for what we need and what we just really want.

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I wrote two weeks back about the power lunch spot in Tampa, Valencia Gardens, and true to form, as I was at lunch their today (with Hillsborough GOP political director Greg Truax), I spotted the following politicos:

• Former Congressman Sam Gibbons with a group of his old buddies. Gibbons made the PoHo blog earlier this month when he crossed party lines to endorse Republican Gus Bilirakis.
• Former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, who was meeting with McCain and GOP staffers. Greco, a DINO, made the blog recently when he crossed party lines to endorse John McCain.
• Al Fox, a former Democratic candidate for Congress, who crossed some Cuban-American leaders by taking VIPs from the USA to Cuba (including, on one occasion, Greco).
• Former CL arts critic and current Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern with Democratic House candidate E.J. Ford.
• Former House candidate from St. Petersburg Liz McCallum, who now works more in the film biz than in politics.

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How stupid are we as a nation? CNN interviews author Rick Shenkman, in this clip posted to YouTube on June 15.

• Nick of time: Congress acts to remedy the mortgage crisis.
• Alan Greenspan: “We are on the brink.”
• A new documentary on Lee Atwater has conservatives crying foul.
• The IRS opens an investigation of local firebrand Bill Keller. The preacherman cries “Romney!”
• Oh good, Imus is shooting his mouth off again. I had gone months without hearing moronic, racist drivel.
• Bet you don’t know how much oil there is in the world. Turns out, no one does.
• George Carlin’s final interview, a wide-ranging, bittersweet affair, po