Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 21, 2009, at 5:00 am
For logistical purposes, CL has been consolidating its multiple blog platforms into one, and now it is The Political Whore’s turn to hang out the “We’re Moving” sign. It makes sense: we can’t use a common search engine among more than one blog right now. And we have to cross-post Green Community posts to both sites, to use just one example of content that fits into both blogs.
This will be the last post in this old blog site (Friday, August 21, 2009). Future PoHo posts will appear in our Daily Loaf blog, which also includes Green Community, arts, entertainment, sports, sex & love, film, TV and other pop culture posts.
You can read PoHo news pretty much the same way you read PoHo now, if you just want news & politics and not the rest of the Daily Loaf fare. Just change your bookmark from http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/
By Catherine Durkin Robinson PoHo contributor Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was questioned earlier this week about her views and how they compare/contrast with President Clinton’s views during a visit to the Congo. (The student meant to say President “Obama.” Right.)
By Catherine Durkin Robinson PoHo contributor Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.
When he speaks about the impact of captivity on the mammals, he doesn’t sound like a showboater, and what might seem like New Age-y talk about dolphin intelligence is pointed up with footage that left me haunted, too. That smile, says O’Barry, is nature’s greatest deception. Dolphins smile even when they’re crying on the inside.
Living in Florida, I am used to certain theme-and-water-park douchebaggery.
Comes with the heat, bugs, and old people driving 30-mph down the highway.
But there is something vastly disturbing about certain aquariums and water parks. And not only in Florida.
(Read the rest and see the film’s trailer after the jump)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 12, 2009, at 5:58 am
Last night some Facebook users were invited to be part of a beta test for Facebook Lite (the link now bounces you not to Lite but to regular Facebook), but they soon found that the invitation was premature: Facebook pulled the trigger on too many beta testers, only to shut down the link.
So, what is Facebook Lite?
Depends on who you ask. Tech Crunch reports that it looks much like Twitter or FriendFeed:
Okay, while it seems that most of the users who are getting this message now are not seeing much different, earlier this week, it looks like a very select few may have gotten a sneak peak at Facebook Lite. According to their tweets on it, it appears to be a more Twitter-like. One user notes that it, “looks like a simplified version of twitter with comments enabled. On 2nd thought, it looks like simplified FriendFeed.”
That is of course very interesting since Facebook just bought FriendFeed for around $50 million yesterday.
Tech Crunch features this screen capture of Facebook Lite.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 11, 2009, at 2:00 pm
Back when it started, TBO.com was a pioneering website, easy to navigate with lots of good info fed into it from a robust Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV newsroom.
Today, 15 years after its birth, TBO.com is the growth engine on Parker Street for Media General, but it is a shadow of itself content-wise. It also uses video poorly (given all its access to video from owning the top-rated local TV station) and has an absolutely incomprehensible and unnavigable blog structure.
August 11, 2009 – Today, TBO.com celebrates 15 years of serving the Tampa Bay community online. August 11, 1994 marked the first date of online publishing for TBO.com, making The Tampa Tribune one of the first newspapers in the nation with a dedicated news Web site.
… Today, TBO.com serves more than 3 million unique visitors each month with well over 20 million page views every month. TBO.com recently introduced new interactive elements to its site including VIPIR Interactive Radar from Storm Team 8 allowing users to zoom down to street level and view storms just above their neighborhoods. TBOsnap.com launched as the new user video submission tool, allowing Tampa Bay residents to record news and report it straight from their video cell phones via e-mail to myshots@tbosnap.com. Also as a leader in mobile Web technology, m.tbo.com recently released news and weather videos on the iphone platform and is receiving record views from TBO mobile iphone users.
“The biggest change in 15 years has been the growth of digital news – first on the Web, and now on mobile and social networks. We’re proud of the team that’s dedicated to the success of this 24 hour news service and that continues to work every day to make us Tampa’s No.1 source for breaking news,” says TBO.com’s Content Director, Loren Omoto.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 11, 2009, at 8:14 am
Somebody’s cranky…
(It turned out that the question was wrongly translated, but wow, is our Secretary of State a little fed up with Bill getting the lion’s share of headlines?)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 10, 2009, at 2:04 pm
From Kansascity.com comes the tale you just knew would happen — an injured anti-Obama Town Hall protester is taking up collections to pay for his medical care because he lost his job and has no insurance:
Backers of Kenneth Gladney, 38, of St. Louis, gathered Saturday at the offices of the Service Employees International Union for an event organized by the pro-limited government Tea Party coalition.
The group claims union members attacked the politically conservative Gladney at the event two days earlier. But members of the union, which supports the president’s health care plan, say Gladney initiated the fight.
The melee, which ended in six arrests, was one of several at town hall meetings around the country as Democratic lawmakers returning home faced resistance to proposals to reform the nation’s costly health care system. U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, a Missouri Democrat, organized the event in Mehlville.
Gladney’s attorney, David Brown, received cheers from the crowd of about 200 people when he read a statement written by his client.
“A few nights ago there was an assault on my liberty, and on yours, too.” Brown read. “This should never happen in this country.”
Brown told the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was laid off recently and has no health insurance.
You can watch video of the attorney speaking for Gladney at the rally after the jump:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 10, 2009, at 10:45 am
Another TV news personality has been urged not to have children. The twist is that this time it is a male anchor, not a woman.
For those not enamored of following Florida media insider baseball, you can bail out now. But for the rest of us media whores, there is a wonderful story that has been playing out for a week or so in Miami, where the ABC affiliate WPLG has fired one of its anchors who now claims it is because he is (gasp!) gay.
Charles Perez has fought back, with a sexual orientation discrimination complaint (which he claims triggered the firing) and a blog post in the Daily Beast in which he details his claims that station management was afraid of his increasing gay profile and urged him not to have children with his male partner. (The station, in written statements, denies Perez’s allegations.)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 7, 2009, at 6:35 am
The summer recess of Congress has sent politicians back home into their districts and straight into the guerilla theater that has overcome reasonable discussion about how to reform the nation’s broken health care system.
Witness: Hundreds of angry conservatives and anti-Obamacare people (a few violent) turned up at a town hall organized by state Rep. Betty Reed in Ybor City last night with one mission in mind — some with one mission in mind: disrupt the forum and get headlines.
They succeeded.
Driven by right-wing media nutz such as Rush Limbaugh (who mentioned Kathy Castor’ appearance at the forum during his Thursday radio show, bemoaning that she would be surrounded by “union goons”), the state and local GOP and Glenn Beck’s 9-12 movement, the anti-Obama crowd banged on windows and doors in an attempt to get into the overcrowded Children’s Board meeting room.
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?
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 6, 2009, at 6:37 am
Hey, with all our other civic problems, transportation shortfalls, educational deficiencies comes this real news:
We Floridians are sick and tired of these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking state!
Burmese pythons have overrun the Everglades and are being openly hunted. Now, the state is considering banning them as pets after a pet snake killed a 2-year-old recently.
State environmental officials told Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday they are considering a ban on Burmese pythons, the mammoth snakes threatening Everglades restoration.
Col. Julie Jones, law-enforcement chief of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the agency is strongly enforcing rules to keep track of pet pythons. In addition to a $100 annual fee, the “reptiles of concern” are having microchips implanted so that, if they are illegally released or escape, owners can be tracked down.
An 81/2-foot pet python escaped its tank and killed a 2-year-old girl at her Central Florida home on July 1. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has called for a federal ban on importing the snake, which can grow to 26 feet and 200 pounds.
The FWCC is running a “reptiles of concern” roundup. So far, seven herpetologists have been issued permits to trap them and three more are being screened by the agency.
By Mitch Perry PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.
With the recording industry in freefall, the manager of one of the most respected bands in rock announced last month a new sort of record label, perhaps more akin to a venture capital company.
Brian Message represents Radiohead. But now with Polyphonic, a new company he’s helping to create, new artists will be signed and given funding but then will record their own music and choose outside contractors to handle their publicity, merchandising and touring.
According to the NY Times,
Instead of receiving an advance and then possibly reaping royalties later if they have a hit, musicians will share in all the profits from their music and touring. In another departure from tradition in the music business, they will also maintain ownership of their own copyrights and master recordings — meaning they and their heirs can keep earning money from their music.
Meanwhile, Nielsen reports that sales of physical albums fell off , while individual digital tracks rose 27 percent. That follows news from earlier this year that indicates that teenagers are not only buying fewer CD’s (nothing too radical there), but also fewer digital downloads of music, prompting a market researcher to remark, “ These declines could be happening due to a lack of excitement among teens about the music available, but it could also reflect a larger shift in the ways teens interact with music, given that so much music is now available whenever and wherever they want it.”
Intrigued, I asked one of the veterans of the music industry, Danny Goldberg, what he makes of what’s happening in the industry he’s worked in for his entire adult life. He said these developments are part and parcel of the radically different environment in the music industry.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 31, 2009, at 6:54 am
Scott Farrell of The Farrell Files on 10 Connects and Joe Bardi of Creative Loafing’s Film & TV section join me later this morning to tape the weekly HoCast. What do you think about this week’s top political news? Have something to say on the show topics below? How about your nominee for Political Whore of the Week? Post a comment or tweet it to @poho and we’ll try to read it during the podcast.
Download or listen to a streaming version of the podcast, after the jump:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 30, 2009, at 10:22 am
From New Scientist comes proof why we watch insipid pundits on television, even long after they have been proven wrong time and time again (I’m looking at you, Jim Cramer):
EVER wondered why the pundits who failed to predict the current economic crisis are still being paid for their opinions? It’s a consequence of the way human psychology works in a free market, according to a study of how people’s self-confidence affects the way others respond to their advice.
The research, by Don Moore of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, shows that we prefer advice from a confident source, even to the point that we are willing to forgive a poor track record. Moore argues that in competitive situations, this can drive those offering advice to increasingly exaggerate how sure they are. And it spells bad news for scientists who try to be honest about gaps in their knowledge.
In Moore’s experiment, volunteers were given cash for correctly guessing the weight of people from their photographs. In each of the eight rounds of the study, the guessers bought advice from one of four other volunteers. The guessers could see in advance how confident each of these advisers was (see table), but not which weights they had opted for.
From the start, the more confident advisers found more buyers for their advice, and this caused the advisers to give answers that were more and more precise as the game progressed. This escalation in precision disappeared when guessers simply had to choose whether or not to buy the advice of a single adviser. In the later rounds, guessers tended to avoid advisers who had been wrong previously, but this effect was more than outweighed by the bias towards confidence.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 29, 2009, at 2:40 pm
Nobody emerged with a clear advantage from today’s federal bankruptcy court hearing in Tampa for the post-bankruptcy ownership of Creative Loafing. Judge Caryl E. Delano kept intact a negotiated set of auction rules while saying that she’s waiting until the Aug. 25 equity auction bidding to decide how to define and decide what the “highest and best” offer will be.
While today’s hearing about the rules and procedures for the bidding was given a pretty high-drama buildup in a 1B St. Petersburg Times story and in the Chicago Reader last week, it didn’t live up to its billing and was actually a complex, confusing, and undramatic court session.
Delano approved the negotiated set of bidding rules that was contested for two hours today, but she left some core issues unresolved and said, “I’ll make my ruling as to what the highest and best offer is” on Aug. 25.
If there was real news out of today’s hearing, it was that Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason is considering stepping down temporarily to focus on formulating a new equity bid for the post-bankruptcy company.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 29, 2009, at 9:47 am
I’m headed over to the Tampa federal courthouse to report on Federal Bankruptcy Judge Caryl E. Delano expected ruling after she hears both sides (and maybe more) argue about the rules and procedures for the planned Aug. 25 equity auction that will determine who owns the post-Chapter 11 Creative Loafing alt-newspaper and online news company. Will update once the 11:45 am hearing is over.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 29, 2009, at 7:14 am
Brian Blair: the political action figure, fighting for the rights of parents everywhere
You knew this was coming: Brian Blair has started his comeback bid after being cleared of child-abuse charges in a fight with his sons, even as he also fights elections law charges in connection with checks he accepted during his failed 2008 campaign.
Blair, in an exclusive sit-down with News Channel 8 set to air tonight at 11, said:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 28, 2009, at 11:21 am
Because we just can’t get enough of her, the farewell speech of (now former) Alaska Gov. and Head GOP Whacko Sarah Palin is on full display on the interwebs, first off with this link to stunning interpretation of the Republican grande dame’s verbiage, as performed on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien by “master thespian” William Shatner.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 26, 2009, at 11:38 am
Illustration by Slug Signorina
From this week’s Straight Dope column:
Superman is able to use his super strength to squeeze coal into diamonds. Theoretically, if someone had unlimited strength in real life, would it be possible to do this?–marcusbrute
You realize, Marcus, we’re talking about what (a) a fictional character of virtually unlimited powers (barring kryptonite-related issues) could, (b) if real, be (c) theoretically but (d) realistically expected to do. Even by Straight Dope standards this takes us into a pretty abstruse realm. That’s probably why I got into a big argument on the subject with my assistant Una, who’s normally as tranquil as a September morn.
1. Craig Pittman of the Timesdetails how Tampa Bay Water was too inexperienced and rushed its massive public works projects, notably the cracked-and-expensive-to-repair CW Bill Young Reservoir. Public officials such as Ed Turanchik lauded its construction at the time, Pittman writes, but put an inexperienced 29-year-old in charge of managing the project and hired an engineering firm that had never built such a large reservoir.
2. Florida’s funniest newspaper columnist-turned-novelist Carl Hiaasen blasts Charlie Crist’s growing turn to political whoredom: “Unlike Sarah Palin, Charlie Crist has chosen not to quit his governorship early. Florida’s own one-term wonder is using his remaining time to ingratiate himself with as many deep-pocket interest groups as possible. The governor’s unseemly burst of groveling is directly connected to his upcoming run for the U.S. Senate. Sucking up to the National Rifle Association and the Christian right, Crist last week declared his opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whose confirmation is already a done deal.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 24, 2009, at 12:36 pm
Yesterday, former 2nd District Court of Appeal Judge Thomas E. Stringer Sr. pleaded guilty to one count of mortgage fraud in connection with a home he purchased in Hawaii with New York stripper Christy Yamanaka. PoHo has been abe to obtain surveillance audio from that real estate closing, and we warn, it is Not Suitable For Work (and entirely satirical):
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 24, 2009, at 8:59 am
Mrs. Former Fort Myers Beach Town Manager
This week’s HoCast marks a revamp of my format. While I will continue to do long-form interviews with political figures as podcasts, the PoHo brand will feature a fairly regular cast and a quick, funny format that looks at the top political and media issues, the Quotable soundbite and the Political Whore of the Week.
1. The shameful Today Show coverage of the Obama health care newser
2. The firing of the town manager of Fort Myers Beach for marrying a porn actress (shown above)
3. The Barack Obama-as-Witch Doctor e-mail flap
4. ESPN’s multi-problems with censorship (the Ben Rothlisberger story)
5. Mary Mulhern uses tax dollars to go to Cuba
This week’s PoHo Award nominees are:
New York stripper Christy Yamanaka, who was involved in the Judge Thomas Stringer scandal. He pleaded guilty this week to one count of mortgage fraud in connection with a house the two bought in Hawaii.
And, via txt message from an anonymous politician, this nomination:
“The Jersey 44, that’s lookin’ like a real political gangbang! Even by Jersey’s standards.”
Listen to the HoCast after the jump to find out who won:
Should a civic employee lose his/her job because they married an adult star?
That is the question behind the firing of Scott Janke, former town manager for Fort Myers Beach. The town council removed him from office with a vote of 5-0 after finding out that he is married to Jazella Moore.
Kiker acknowledged that Janke had violated no rules or laws and added that he had done a good job for the island town that had about 6,500 people, according to the 2000 Census. But the mayor was concerned whether Janke could remain effective and not distract the community from the business of the town along the state’s west coast. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 23, 2009, at 10:29 am
UPDATE: It was Judge Stringer! Feds announced the charges today. Our condolences to all the Buddy haters out there.
The St. Petersburg Times blows up the buzz in downtown Tampa today with the revelation that a federal public corruption case is just about to pop.
From the story:
During a public interview Wednesday for his office’s top job, a high-ranking federal prosecutor from Tampa said he is close to charging a public official with public corruption.
The person has agreed to plead guilty, said Robert O’Neill, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa.
He did not name the public official. He noted that the case resulted from allegations he learned about in the newspaper.
Find out the leading suspects and take our poll about who you think it is, after the jump:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 23, 2009, at 10:00 am
I’m retooling the Political Whore Podcast (or the HoCast, we we lovingly call it ’round these parts). I’ve added two regular guests, broadcaster/lawyer/former political candidate Scott Farrell of The Farrell Files on 10 Connects and Joe Bardi, our associate editor whose political views shaped our hilarious Short List online for years.
We want to hear from you as we look at the hottest topics, sexiest political scandals and goofiest politicians each week. We’ll also name a Political Whore of the Week, somebody in national, state or local politics or government who best exemplifies that they are only in it for the money — or the stupidity.
We’re taping our weekly installments on Fridays at 10 am, so you can get us your ideas, questions or Whore nominations via Twitter (@poho) before then, or live during the podcast taping from 10-10:30 am. We’ll do our best to get the best of the tweets on the HoCast.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 23, 2009, at 8:34 am
A few weeks ago I announced to my wife that I would not be watching The Today Show in the mornings any more. I just got fed up with its growing tabloid style and insistence on flogging non-stories to death. Like this week’s “exclusive” multi-day interview with Susan Boyle. Or the dude trying to get his kid back from Brazil who is interviewed at least twice a week. Or the latest family with a loved one attacked by a critter/rescued from a certain death/dying from a disease/etc.
But this morning, I broke my rule and paid the price for it. Meredith, Matt, Al and the rest of the formerly great NBC morning news show led the broadcast with this top story: Barack Obama had ruined his newser on health care last night by criticizing the wrongful arrest of prominent Harvard prof Henry Louis Gates Jr. last week.
ABC’s Good Morning America apparently did the same thing.
St. Petersburg Times media critic Eric Deggans noticed, too, writing this AM:
…[W]hy did the Today show — by far TV’s most-watched morning show — spend its first segment this morning discussing what the president said about the arrest of a black scholar in Cambridge, Mass.?
Here is how the “journalists” left at NBC played the president’s desperate attempt to pull out his health care victory on the website this AM:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 23, 2009, at 8:01 am
Stuart Mellish Thinks the Republicans should get out of the way and let Obama fix this Country. You had your 8 years and you screwed it up. STEP ASIDE!
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 22, 2009, at 10:05 am
From Media General, which owns TBO.com, the Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8 in this market:
RICHMOND, Va., July 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Media General, Inc. (NYSE: MEG – News) today reported net income for the second quarter of 2009 of $20.6 million, or 90 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $532.2 million in the 2008 period, which included a non-cash, after-tax impairment charge of $532.1 million. The current quarter included a $7.1 million after-tax gain on the sale of a CW television station in Jacksonville, Fla., a $3.6 million tax benefit that resulted from a favorable determination concerning a state tax issue, and $7.5 million of tax benefits attributable to the company’s first-half results from continuing operations. Excluding severance expense from both quarters, and last year’s impairment charge, income from continuing operations before taxes was $3.8 million in 2009’s second quarter compared with $2.6 million in the year-ago quarter.
“A 23-percent decrease in total operating costs year-over-year was a major contributor to the company’s improved operating results, helping to offset a 20 percent revenue decline. Actions driving the lower expenses included reductions in force across the company, a furlough program, a suspension of matching in the company’s 401(k) plan in 2009, and the final freeze of the company’s pension plan effective May 31, 2009. Service accruals ceased in the partial freeze of the plan in 2006 and now future salary increases do not affect retirement benefits. Media General has implemented many difficult but necessary expense reductions that strengthen our ability to weather the deep recession and recognize the reduced revenue streams available in our business. As a result, we are in a stronger position to take advantage of an economic recovery,” said Marshall N. Morton, president and chief executive officer.
“Our aggressive cost elimination actions were particularly evident in our Publishing segment, which generated a $12 million profit in the current quarter compared with $6.8 million in the prior-year. Publishing revenues declined 20.3 percent in the second quarter, about the same as the first quarter. We saw the rate of Classified advertising declines abate somewhat in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of 2009, mostly in the automotive category, and particularly in our Florida, Virginia and Alabama markets. The decline in Retail advertising in the current period was also less severe than in the first quarter of 2009.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 22, 2009, at 8:12 am
Michael Miner, the media writer at our sister Chicago Reader, has a good piece with Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason in which the once-and-possible-future owner of the online media and alternative weekly newspaper chain talks about how he plans to win a bankruptcy court equity auction to maintain control of the company.
The difficulty is that the company bidding against him, Atalaya Capital Management, could have deeper pockets. Atalaya loaned Creative Loafing $30 million in 2007 to finance the purchase of the Reader and Washington City Paper and is now owed in the area of $31 million.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 22, 2009, at 5:30 am
Thanks to a little internal housecleaning at Creative Loafing (I mean that literally, not in the figurative sense of firing folks), a copy of “President Obama’s 500 Promises Deck” showed up on my desk this week. The card deck — not quite a game — is a partnership between the St. Petersburg Times‘ Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact and U.S. Game Systems Inc.
The Deck features 500 campaign promises that Barack Obama made during his campaign and that PolitiFact is tracking after the president said, “I want you to hold me accountable.”
It has been on the market for several months, but it’s not tearing up the sales registers of America.
“I think it had a little bit of a problem finding its niche,” said Lynn Araujo, communications director for US Games Systems.
The cards don’t have a partisan slant; they merely recite one of the many campaign promises that candidate Obama made and invite card owners to go to PolitiFact’s online site to see an update on what progress President Obama has made on each pledge. They look like this:
But while that is pretty nonpartisan, apparently would-be buyers don’t see it that way.
