Political Whore Podcast #18: Bill Clinton in North Korea, Florida overrun by pythons and BayWalk’s sidewalks
August 7, 2009 at 5:00 am by Wayne Garcia
Scott Farrell of The Farrell Files on 10 Connects and Joe Bardi of Creative Loafing’s Film & TV section were on board again this morning to tape the weekly HoCast, in which we examined the week’s top political stories, made sense out of them and played funny-sounding audio clips.
Here was our tentative show rundown as written before taping; we added the Tampa health care reform “near riot” to the top of the issues list and had some audio from the unpleasantness:
1. BIll Clinton (and Al Gore??) set free the journo-hostages from North Korea. The price? An unsmiling photo-op with an equally unsmiling and flaccid Kim Jong-Il plus some “face” for the North Koreans. Worth it or not? What happens next time a nation takes poeple hostage and we don’t send Slick Willy or a different ex-president to rescue them? Can you imagine the hilarity that would have ensued if we’d sent former President George W. Bush?!? And how long will Hillary stand for Bill upstaging her?
2. Snakes in a State, starring Samuel L. Jackson Jr. Florida is overrun with Burmese pythons, and they’ve started eating our children and other endangered species. Time for a War on Snakes!
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/2009/08/06/its-war-florida-vs-burmese-python-snakes-with-a-possible-pet-ban/
3. Privatizing BayWalk’s sidewalks: the sidewalk turned from a pathway for pedestrians to a home for the homeless, a protest site for those opposed to the war (nevermind that BayWalk played zero role in the war) and various other sundry uses that damaged the retail center’s business. Now, the city wants to give it control of the sidewalk and push thep public off land that it now owns. What do we think? What other bothersome public lands are we ready to give back to private interests? The Everglades (and all those snakes?)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/06/060959/groups-protest-st-pete-plan-privatize-baywalk-side/news-breaking/
4. Hillsborough County votes to seek $15 million in federal stimulus money to pay for a temporary rehab of the Friendship Trail bridge. Is that what we should be using the stimulus for? And what do we make of the estimate that 600,000 people hike, bike or fish off the bridge every year? That is one in four Tampa Bay residents. Sounds a bit high to me.
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2009/8/5/505115.html?title=Commissioners%20vote%205%20to%202%20for%20Friendship%20Trail%20project&cid=rss
5. John Edwards’ mistress testifies before an NC grand jury about his campaign finances. We ask: how much can one piece of ass cost somebody?
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/08/06/edwards_mistress_testifies_before_grand_jury.html
Here’s the live video stream of our taping, which we get ready for starting at about 10 am and tape at 10:15 am each week. Drop in early and catch our live mic gaffes.
Live TV : Ustream
