Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 5, 2009, at 2:36 pm
Just in time for Marco Rubio’s announcement today that he will seek the U.S. Senate seat in 2010 from Florida comes a film that features the man widely expected to be running against him, Gov. Charlie Crist. Outrage appears to be a well told look at the hypocrisy of closeted politicians, done by director Kirby Dick.
The film opens this Friday nationwide but we have not been able to find a Tampa Bay location for it yet. Will update when/if I do.
Here is the synopsis from the Outrage website:
Academy Award nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated) delivers a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to. OUTRAGE boldly reveals the hidden lives of some of our nation’s most powerful policymakers, details the harm they’ve inflicted on millions of Americans, and examines the media’s complicity in keeping their secrets.
And the long-rumored bisexual life of our governor is a topic for the film, reports Bob Norman, the Broward-Palm Beach New Times reporter who had documented several men who say they have had sex with Crist:
I’m in the new film Outrage about hypocritical gay Republicans. And no, I offer no proof that our governor is gay.
Just a lot of compelling evidence.
The Academy Award-nominated documentarian Kirby Dick — who has compiled an excellent body of work – came to my house to talk about my reporting on Jason Wetherington and Bruce Carlton Jordan, the pair of Katherine Harris campaign staffers who told numerous witnesses they had affairs with Gov. Charlie Crist. The filmmaker interviewed me and retraced some of reporting on those stories for the movie.
Watch the full trailer for Outrage after the jump:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 5, 2009, at 6:15 am
It’s on like Donkey Kong: a battle for the heart and soul of the Florida Republican Party!
Conservative standard-bearer Marco Rubio has thrown his hat into the post-Mel Martinez 2010 U.S. Senate elections, setting up a likely battle royal with Gov. Charlie Crist that will be one of the national Republican Party’s highest profile battle between its conservative faction (Rubio, Jeb Bush) and its centrist, big-tent faction (Crist, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as examples).
Rubio made the announcement on the Spanish language Univision and followed up with a video on YouTube this morning.
Rubio says he wants a balanced budget amendment and pro-business laws. He also obliquely acknowledges the 800-pound GOP elephant in the room that is Crist: “I know that there are people more famous than I who will enter this race. But nothing in life worth doing is easy.”
By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Well, for one the now State Sen. Victor Crist, who has an eye on Ken Hagan’s county commission seat in a game of musical sprawlers and just voted to throw Hillsborough under the bus by gutting what meager growth management laws we do have. Yep, he voted YES on the deplorable bill SB 360 denounced by environmentalists, smart growth advocates and anyone with two brain cells that touch (who aren’t in the pockets of developers).
[EDITOR'S UPDATE: Legislative records show that Crist changed to a "No" vote on the bill. In an interview with PoHo, Crist said he was off the floor in a budget conference meeting during the vote in question and another Senator "voted his button," a fairly common practice in the Legislature. Crist said he noticed the yes vote and changed it by the end of the day. More from Crist in the comments section. The Senate floor vote record is here.]
Remember that in 2010 when we have the “special election“ experts think is going to occur for Hagan’s seat. I didn’t know anything about Crist one way or the other before this, but voting yes on SB 360 tells me all I need to know. Looks like some of his constituents aren’t all that happy with him either regarding past issues. You can contact Crist here and tell him what you think.
A friend of mine wrote to C.W. Bill Young regarding a pending federal hate crimes bill (H.R. 1913 AKA The Mathew Shephard Act) that would expand the 1969 federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. I’ve posted the Congressman’s response in its entirety after the jump. I found it offensive both intellectually and morally.
The first 100 days of the president’s administration is usually used as a report card to judge its success or gauge where it might be for the rest of its term. However, the closing of President Obama’s honeymoon may not even be the news headline as reports of Arlen Specter switching parties overshadows the president. This completely arbitrary 100th-day-mark might underscore more the status of the Republican Party than anything else.
In what could be huge news out of Washington, Senator Arlen Specter (R) has announced that he’s switching parties, and will run for re-election to the Senate in 2010 as a Democrat instead of as a Republican. From Sen. Spector’s statement:
Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.
When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.
Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.
I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 21, 2009, at 11:43 am
It’s a tangled web, so maybe that is why it is not exactly evening news material. But the revelations this weekend that former AG Alberto “I know nooooo-thing” Gonzalez blocked a criminal investigation into a member of Congress as a political favor is explosive stuff. Here’s a recap from Mother Jones:
Everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence–at least in a courtroom–but it is certainly suspicious that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not denied the most recent allegations against him. My CQ colleague Jeff Stein reported late Sunday night that Gonzales had blocked a preliminary FBI investigation into Democratic Representative Jane Harman, who had been captured by NSA eavesdroppers telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would try to use her clout to lessen espionage-related charges filed against two AIPAC officials. In return for her assistance, the suspected Israeli agent reportedly offered to help Harman become chair of the House intelligence committee. On Tuesday, The New York Times confirmed much of the story–including the piece about Gonzales: that the then-AG killed the inquiry because Harman, then the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, could help the Bush administration defend its use of warrantless wiretaps.
So there are two lines of inquiry that official investigators ought to follow. First, whether Harman broke the law by offering to lean on the criminal investigation of AIPAC for help in advancing her career. (The Times reports that the suspected Israeli agent promised that media mogul Haim Saban would threaten to hold back donations to Rep. Nancy Pelosi if she did not award Harman the top slot on the intelligence committee; Saban’s spokesperson did not respond to the Times’ request for comment.) Second, whether Gonzales stopped a criminal investigation because the target (Harman) could help the Bush administration. Harman has put out a very carefully-worded denial that’s full of holes. Gonzales, though, hasn’t said anything. That’s not very reassuring. Shouldn’t a former attorney general be able to declare that he never halted an investigation as a favor to a lawmaker who was doing the administration a favor? If not, there’s a problem–and a problem (no matter Barack Obama’s penchant for leaving the past behind) deserving a thorough examination by someone with subpoena power.
The CQ story: http://static.cqpolitics.com/harman-3098436-page1.html?docid=hsnews-000003098436
And the NYT folo: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/us/politics/21harman.html?_r=1&hp
Okay, if you were asked which local governments were early proponents of all things green, you may think: Sarasota with its early adoption of green ordinances; St. Petersburg, Florida’s first certified Green City; or Tampa with its initiatives and recent Green City designation. Yes, all good choices, but I bet it would surprise you that Hillsborough County led the pack. With little fanfare, one of the county’s employees has been quietly implementing energy saving strategies. It all started way back in 2000 when the county made the bold move of hiring Energy Manager Randy Klindworth. Back then, all he set out to do was curb expenses. Nine years ago, who would have thought that carbon footprint, sustainability, green, or Energy Star would be part of the vernacular?
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 20, 2009, at 4:39 pm
The St. Petersburg Times can thank former Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia for its most recent Pulitzer Prize, because as it turns out, the right-wing Democrat is the one who inspired the creation of PolitiFact, the fact-checking website that won the 2009 National Reporting category award.
“It was at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, and it was the speech by Sen. Zell Miller making claims about John Kerry,” recalled Bill Adair, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for the Times who came up with the idea for PolitiFact. “I was thinking, that’s not true. [But] I didn’t do anthing about it.”
Adair had other stories to write that night, not covering a minor speaker at a speaker-laden national convention, and documenting lies in politics must have seemed like trying to count water molecules in the Atlantic Ocean for reporters seeking a traditional news story on deadline. But the problem of letting politicians get away with lying stuck with Adair.
“A lot of things that Zell Miller said went unchecked,” Adair said late Monday afternoon from the Times‘ newsroom, where a celebration was winding down. In spring 2007, Adair and Times editors were planning coverage of the 2008 elections, and he suggested they do a website that looked at truth in politics. “It was based on my own and others’ sort of shortcomings, that we didn’t do a lot of fact checking in the past and we let a lot of candidates get away with misstatments,” Adair said. “This is penitence for those shortcomings.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 17, 2009, at 4:13 pm
Steve Schmidt was a senior advisor to Bush and has conservative credentials aplenty. He also has a lesbian sister, and so he plans to tell the Log Cabin Republicans that gay marriage is compatible with conservative Republican Party thought.
We don’t expect establishment Republicans in Washington – or establishment Democrats, for that matter – to suddenly endorse gay marriage. But in a possible sign of the momentum of the gay-marriage movement, Mr. Schmidt, who was a senior adviser to the Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, last year, is promoting gay marriage this afternoon.
He endorsed same-sex marriage last month, in an interview with the Washington Blade.
Today, Mr. Schmidt, who also served as a top Bush aide, discusses the subject with the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that supports gay rights. According to CNN, he will call on conservative Republicans to drop their opposition at a lunchtime speech in Washington.
Mr. Schmidt, who has a sister who is a lesbian, plans to say that there is nothing about gay marriage that is un-American or that threatens the rights of others and that in fact it is in line with conservative principles.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 15, 2009, at 3:33 pm
The Florida Consumer Action Network is hosting a Town Hall meeting at BayWalk’s Muvico Theater on Thursday night to ramp up the focus on health care reform.
Speakers include Elizabeth Rugg of the Suncoast Health Council; Ethan Rome of Health Care for America Now; and Peter Gamache, of the USF Department of Child & Family Studies.
Nationwide Movement Demanding Health Care Reform Now Will Come to Pinellas
Florida Health Care for America Now to hold Town Hall;
Tell Congress No More Excuses, No More Delays
St. Pete, Florida – Florida health care advocates have invited Congressman Bill Young (R-District 10) to join a town hall meeting on Thursday April 16th to talk about why real health care reform must happen in 2009. The event will be one of 90 taking place in 43 states nationwide over the April Congressional recess. The people of Pinellas County will share with Rep. Young their concerns about health care and push back against those who say we can’t afford to fix the system now.
“President Obama has made an unwavering commitment to health care reform this year, and the people of Florida want Congress to support the President and do what it takes to pass quality, affordable health care for all in 2009,” said Chrystal Hutchison, Deputy Director from Florida Consumer Action Network.
Health Care for America Now (HCAN) – the nation’s largest health care campaign –is holding events across the country during the recess from April 6th to April 17th to stress health care reform is an urgent must-do for Members of Congress when they get back to Washington.
WHAT: Health Care Town Hall
WHO: Speakers Include:
1. Elizabeth Rugg, Executive Director of The Suncoast Health Council will speak about the issues the uninsured in Pinellas County must deal with.
2. Ethan Rome, Campaign Field Manager of Health Care for America Now will describe the steps necessary to guarantee quality affordable health care access to all.
3. Peter Gamache, Research Faculty member of the Department of Child & Family Studies at the University of South Florida, will discuss the disparities in health care access for minorities.
WHERE: Muvico Baywalk 20 – Theater 13
151 2nd Ave North St.
Saint Petersburg, FL 33701
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 15, 2009, at 9:53 am
Celebrating April 15, Tax Day, for those who hate it and those who tolerate it.
First up, the Beatles (actually George Harrison’s anti-tax sentiment) from their horrible 1960s cartoon that didn’t even feature their real voices (except for the songs).
Donald Duck is pro-tax (if it means having enough money to beat back facism):
Oh, and by the way, didja know that paying taxes is voluntary and the IRS is illegal? After the jump …
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 15, 2009, at 9:26 am
From time to time I either teach or lecture about public records and how our government information can be accessed. I almost always focus on Florida records for a variety of reasons, one of which is that the federal equivalent of our state’s Chapter 119, the Freedom of Information Act, is so cumbersome and useless that I never, ever use it.
Now a new quantitative study by the Sunshine in Government Initiative confirms that despite presidential efforts and directives, getting an FOIA request answered still remains a long-term endeavor.
Despite reforms enacted by Congress and an order from the last administration to do a better job, federal agencies continue to give those seeking information a frustrating and oftentimes unsatisfying experience, an analysis of federal agency FOIA reports shows.
Backlogs persist despite fewer FOIA requests, agencies continue to miss the statutory response deadline in a majority of cases, and agencies said they rejected a highest percentage of requests since performance reporting began, according a quantitative review by the Sunshine in Government Initiative of federal agency FOIA reports.
The worst agencies for backlog, ranked by their longest standing request?
Posted by Ben Luongo on Apr. 14, 2009, at 10:15 am
Conservatives have not been shy to voice their concerns about Obama and his stimulus plan, especially with their new fad, Tea Parties. More than 600 Tea Parties are planned nationwide on tax day Wednesday, according to taxdayteaparty.com. There will be around 40 to 50 Tea Parties here in our home state. However, its not clear as to what the concerns over the stimulus really are because the protests are rife with attacks calling Obama a “socialist” or “commander in thief.”
Check out the video from taxdayteaparty.com below:
However, the dumping of tea into rivers and lakes is not only a waste of tea, it’s a waste of an opportunity. I propose an alternative plan which will put that tea to good use:
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.
Every year at high schools across the country, female students take part in Powder Puff football games. They compete against each other while male students dress in drag to perform as cheerleaders. It’s a silly and ridiculous ritual.
But in the grand scheme of things, the tradition is rather harmless. Students raise some needed funds and everyone usually has a good time before retiring to the captain’s house for a raging kegger.
They also sell Powder Puff t-shirts to commemorate the event.
Administrators at Sickles High School got into a bit of trouble with this year’s t-shirt when a few parents called to say that the shirt was “obscene” and “inappropriate.”
As a teacher, I saw obscene and inappropriate shirts on our students every day. Rarely did parents complain. So when I heard this, I naturally had to see the offensive garb for myself.
Posted by David Warner on Apr. 9, 2009, at 7:37 am
By David Warner, CL Editor and PoHo contributor
I’m an occasionally conflicted 24 fan. I’ve also been feeling a mix of outrage and doubt about the recent arrest of Youssef Megahed by U.S. immigration officials after he’d just been acquitted of criminal charges. So I tip my hat to Howard Troxler, whose column in today’s St. Pete Times tackles both Jack Bauer tactics and the confusions that surround the Megahed case. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by David Warner on Apr. 8, 2009, at 2:28 pm
By David Warner, CL Editor/ PoHo contributor
Sometimes the headlines can make your LGBT head spin. Take the front page of today’s New York Times print edition, where there were two major stories about gay issues, both above the fold. The good news: the Vermont state legislature’s override of Gov. Jim Douglas’ gay marriage veto. The bad: Openly gay Iraqis are being murdered with the tacit and sometimes overt approval of police and families.
Locally, there was good news for Susan Stanton. Fired in 2007 from her position as Largo City Manager after announcing, as Steve Stanton, that she would be undergoing a change of gender, she has finally found another city manager position after two years of searching all over the country — and she found it in Florida, no less. And meanwhile, here at Creative Loafing, Eric Snider’s Devil’s Advocate feature right here on The Daily Loaf is treating us to the enlightened views of evangelist Bill “I don’t hate gays, they just disgust me” [my paraphrase] Keller, and even better (or worse), the comments of his supporters.
On SiriusOutQ, the LGBT satellite radio station I only recently discovered and can now not live without, the news roundups each hour offer the same head-spinning mix. One day you hear the news that national “pro-family” groups plan to combat the Day of Silence — the anti-bullying initiative famously criticized by Brian Blair — by keeping kids home that day if their school is observing it. And then you hear that, for the first time, gay and lesbian parents are being invited to the White House Easter Egg roll.
It’s a contradictory, confusing, exhilarating time to be gay. We’re welcomed, we’re condemned, we’re cheered, we’re murdered. The progress we have made cannot be denied, but the reminders are there every day that the haters refuse to be denied either. Stay vigilant.
Maybe because it happens so infrequently, but it seems that every time a Democrat gets elected President, Americans of a certain persuasion get psyched that maybe marijuana use could become legalized.
Jimmy Carter was considered to be a reformer regarding the herb, but he quickly disabused Americans of that notion when he endorsed the Mexican government’s use of the herbicide paraquat on marijuana fields in Mexico in 1977.
Bill Clinton infamously smoked but didn’t inhale in his halcyon days, and of course, Barack Obama infamously admitted in his first memoir Dreams of My Father that in his confusing days in high school, “Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it.”
But when asked about legalizing pot at his town hall Internet meeting last month, the president was quick to dismiss such thoughts, saying he had no intention of doing so.
By State Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg
PoHo contributor
Kriseman is guest blogging throughout the Florida Legislature’s 60-day session.
The House Democratic Caucus is imploring Speaker Larry Cretul to consider a renewable energy package. At a time when most states are moving forward with innovative policies, such as feed-in tariff, and are making real progress in adhering to a true renewable portfolio standard, Florida appears to be stuck in neutral. Even in the state senate, where at least some energy policy is being considered, the opportunity to create and invest in renewables is being diminished by a “clean” energy standard which includes nuclear power and coal gasification.
As the Ranking Democrat on the Energy & Utilities Policy Committee, my office worked with the Democratic office to craft a letter to the speaker. In the letter, Democratic Leader Franklin Sands writes that ”after months of committee meetings and four weeks of session, the Florida House of Representatives has no energy package. None.The impression in any thinking Floridian’s mind is that we are ignoring not just initiatives that will directly benefit Florida, but ignoring a worldwide movement, and firmly embracing an obsolete status quo.With no energy policy, we risk losing badly needed federal economic recovery dollars which could spur an explosive growth in green technologies here in Florida.”
We’re just past halftime. It’s not too late for the 4th Floor of the Capitol to see the light. As long as that light is powered by a renewal source of energy.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 2, 2009, at 6:29 pm
If you’re former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, you’re going to Disney World. Or at least that is where Blago and family were reported to be in Orlando when his indictment was announced in Chicago.
Rod R. Blagojevich, this state’s ousted governor, was charged on Thursday with 16 felony counts, among them racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and extortion conspiracy in a wide-ranging scheme to deprive residents of “honest government,” prosecutors said, including trying to leverage his authority to pick someone to fill President Obama’s former Senate seat.
Five of his closest advisers, including his brother, Robert, a top fundraiser, and two former chiefs of staff, were also charged in the 19-count indictment.
Prosecutors said Mr. Blagojevich used numerous elements of his state work – including appointing people to state boards, investing state money and signing legislation – as a way to seek money, campaign contributions and jobs for himself and others.
One of those indicted with Blago was his brother, Robert, a distinguished alum of the University of Tampa and a commencement speaker in recent years. Here’s my story on the Blago-Tampa connection from earlier this year.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 2, 2009, at 2:14 pm
We all ‘memba Tim Mahoney, the Democrat who won a GOP seat down in the Stuart-West Palm Beach area when Mark Foley got caught having e-mail sex with male congressional pages? How Mahoney himself was dethroned after news of two extramarital affairs broke?
Well, his soon-to-be ex-wife Terry has him tied up in court trying to extract a pound or two of justice. According to Palm Beach Post celeb blogger Jose Lambiet, depositions are coming up later this month and ought to be oodles of voyeuristic fun:
Court papers show they include: Mistress No. 1, former Mahoney aide Tricia Allen, the one he agreed to pay a total of $227,000 to shut her up about their affair; Mistress No. 2, Martin County engineering department employee Kim Roden, whom he took on skiing vacations in the Canadian Rockies; a former Tim Mahoney employee, Alejandro Munoz; Leonard Sokolow, a Broward County lawyer and accountant who was one of Tim Mahoney’s business partners in vFinance, a venture capital company; West Palm Beach lawyer Jack Goldberger, who once repped billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; Gary Isaacs, another local lawyer who represented Mahoney as the sex scandal broke last year; and forensic accountant Michael Kridel. Tim Mahoney, too, will be grilled.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 2, 2009, at 11:37 am
FreedomWorks Foundation is putting together a Tea Party of Tampa’s own, for April 15, after a similar protest of the bailout and government spending drew 4,000 in Orlando. I’ve talked with one politico who plans on being there and he said he was told to expect 5,000-10,000 people at the twin rallies at noon and 5 p.m. in downtown Tampa’s Gaslight Park.
Here’s the details from FreedomWorks, plus a Tea Party video after the jump:
By Alexandra Koutsogiannopoulos
PoHo Contributor
Alex is the program director for the United Nations Association-USA’s Tampa Bay Chapter and is an occasional guest on the Political Whore podcast.
President Barack Obama recently outlined his plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The following is a brief report of his statements about what he wants to do:
In announcing a plan on Friday that could be his signature foreign policy effort, Mr. Obama said that he would send more troops — some 4,000 — but stipulated that they would not carry out combat missions, and would instead be used to train the Afghan Army and the national police.
… Mr. Obama framed the issue as one that relies on one central tenet: protecting Americans from attacks like the one that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 1, 2009, at 6:26 am
From London today, where the leaders of the G20 developed nations are finding themselves in the midst of large, but so far peaceful, protests. The Independent UK reports:
Marches to the Bank of England, in the City of London, were designed to highlight a variety of causes. There were few signs of pinstriped suits as many City workers heeded advice to dress down.
Protesters became excitable outside the Bank of England and appeared to be tussling with police. Objects were thrown towards police photographers – including a policeman’s helmet. And officers were pelted with fruit as a red smoke cannister was let off. But by noon such incidents had been isolated and the Metropolitan Police said no arrests had been reported.
There were reports that City workers were taunting the protesters – waving £10 notes from office windows.
Demonstrators covered their faces with bandanas and handkerchiefs and waved signs such as “Balls to the Banks”, “Abolish Money” and “All You Fascists Are Bound to Lose.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 31, 2009, at 10:04 am
Following up my story from this weekend on the possibility that 27-year-old Ashley Biden was video’ed snorting coke, here’s this “exclusive” from RadarOnline.com:
RadarOnline.com viewed the tape but did not offer to purchase it. The man who made the tape shopped it to several media outlets but did not receive any written offers, we’ve learned.
Now, RadarOnline.com has discovered that the woman who is alleged to be Ashley Biden was set up in an elaborate plot by her “friend.” The man bought cocaine and a hidden camera and brought the cocaine to a party.
He then made sure that he was in correct position to film her when she snorted the drugs.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, appeared on ‘Fox News Sunday’ with Chris Wallace this past weekend to discuss U.S. foreign policy. The major topic of discussion was North Korea’s probable launch in the next week. Concerning the launch, Wallace asked “and there’s nothing that we can do about it?”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 30, 2009, at 6:40 am
The Open Left blog raises an interesting philosophical question about the future of news media: do we try all kinds of machinations to save the existing traditional media or move to recognize the role of bloggers by getting them better pay?
One counter-argument that does make sense to me on both a political and personal level is that local newspapers provide good local jobs. The blogosphere, by contrast, is giving rise to something akin to a digital sweatshop. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Americans are producing enormous amount of content for pay that is just above, or below, minimum wage and includes neither benefits nor weekends. That is not a sustainable model for the people producing the content. If that is the brave new future we face, then maybe instead of talking about saving newspapers, we should be talking about creating a national union hall for paid blogging. If a news outlet, or a computer company, or a progressive organization want to hire someone to blog for them, maybe there need to be standard, minimum rates of pay that everyone is forced to observe. Any website that does not observe that policy gets de-linked, or something.
The story mentions a bill introduced last week that would allow newspapers to operate as 501(c)3 nonprofits, similar to the public broadcasting model. One big change in that model: nonprofits are not allowed to make political endorsements.
President Barack Obama announced on Friday his new Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy, which he says has a clear goal:
To disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That is the goal that must be achieved. That is the cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same – we will defeat you.
Listen to his speech below:
To achieve this, Obama is sending an additional 4.000 U.S. troops to the 17,000 scheduled to be deployed to the region in the next couple of months. He is also sending a civilian “surge” which would include mostly diplomats and specialists.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 26, 2009, at 12:24 pm
More money is trickling down from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as the Barack Obama White House today announced Florida is getting more than $160 million for greening up the state. Tampa gets $3.7 million; St. Petersburg gets $2.3 million, and other Tampa Bay governments likewise are getting millions.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 19, 2009, at 6:13 am
St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Jamie Bennett is set to announce this morning that he will ask the City Council to put “a slightly modified version” of one of POWW’s referenda on the ballot, a prohibition against building anything but park space at the Al Lang Field site.
He is not, however, taking up the mantle of POWW’s second referendum item, which would prohibit spending city money on professional sports teams without voter approval.
In prepared remarks posted to his campaign blog this morning, Bennett said, “Today, it is my honor to carry on that legacy as I ask my colleagues on the City Council to join me in supporting a referendum that will preserve and protect our city’s waterfront for future generations. I certainly cannot take all of the credit for drafting of this referendum. It is, after all, a citizens’ initiative. The credit, therefore, must go to the dedicated citizens of Preserve Our Wallets and Waterfront.”
He is expected to be joined by Hal Freedman, the head of POWW.
Bennett’s campaign said the candidate will first ask that the current referendum language be reviewed by the City Attorney’s Office for any possible tweaks. There may be an unintended consequence of the current language that would affect current parks on the waterfront. The full City Council would then need to vote to put it on the ballot, as early as this fall’s city elections.
It is an interesting strategic move for Bennett, and it would appear to move him into an area that would have been staked out by opponent Kathleen Ford, who was one of the original POWW members before resigning from the group shortly before announcing her candidacy. It was expected that Ford’s opposition to the waterfront stadium would be one of her strongest campaign issues, one that she alone in the mayoral field could run on.
The full text of Bennett’s remarks are after the jump.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 18, 2009, at 10:32 am
Edward Liddy, public enemy No. 1 in today’s hypernews cycle, is set to testify in front of a Congressional subcommittee about the millions of tax-subsidized dollars that are being paid to AIG employees as a thank you for tanking the company and forcing a taxpayer bailout. Liddy is AIG’s chairman and CEO since late last year, and let’s make this clear, he didn’t create the mess there; he is trying to clean it up at the request of our government.
Nonetheless, the public demands a head, and today, that head is Ed’s.
From Liddy’s prepared remarks, these gems:
Mistakes were made at AIG on a scale few coudl have ever imagined possible. The most critical of those mistakes was that the company strayed from its core competencies in the insurance business. This was typified by the creation of what grew to become an internal hedge fund, which then became substantially overexposed to market risk.
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.
“Is President Obama giving money to the people in Gaza who hate us and want to destroy Israel?”
That’s the question posed to me by my 9-year-old son. One of his friends at school told him this disturbing bit of news and so he came home and asked about it over dinner that night.
What the f*ck? Isn’t he still supposed to be asking if Superman is real?
I told him that there are people in Gaza who are hungry and sick. If we don’t help them, they will get help from bad people who will use that assistance as a way to get more support for doing bad things. If we do help victims in Gaza, maybe they will reject bad ideas from bad people. I told him we need more friends and fewer enemies in that part of the world.
Speaking of friends and enemies, the following day I was in the car and turned on the radio to catch True Talk on WMNF. Host Ahmed Bedier uses this forum to discuss Muslim issues and events.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 16, 2009, at 3:16 pm
I mentioned former CL reporter Alex Pickett’s new blog last week but just realized I never mentioned the new blogs from the other two editorial colleagues laid off in December.
Copy editor Anthony “Sal” Salveggi’s VIrtual Journalist keeps you up-to-date on media news and pop culture.
And music writer/Bar Tabber Wade Tatangelo is pointing to his freelance work from all over (*tbt, St Pete Times, New York Daily News et al.) on his eponymous blog.
Just in time for Marco Rubio’s announcement today that he will seek the U.S. Senate seat in 2010 from Florida comes a film that features the man widely expected to be running against him, Gov. Charlie Crist. Outrage appears to be a well told look at the hypocrisy of closeted politicians, done by director Kirby Dick.
