Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 19, 2009, at 10:52 am
I was out of the office (and to some degree, out of touch with the important breaking news of the day) for the past two days, so the whole flapdoodle over First Lady Michelle Obama wearing (gasp!) shorts on her family vacation to the Grand Canyon got right by me.
But this morning, I got gobsmacked by the “news” when I broke my prohibition against watching The Today Show and saw not only a produced package report on it but an interview about it with the author of an upcoming book on Mrs. Obama.
So I’m damned if I write about this nothingness (because by doing so I am just perpetuating the media echo chamber on this particular non-news item) but if I sit by and let this phenomenon continue to go unchallenged I look either a) out of touch or b) like I condone such piffle.
So let’s be clear: Blame the Internet, blame the increasingly content-hungry online news media who will write about anything as long as it gets pageviews and resonates and gets Reddit’ed or Digg’ed or whatever’ed. But mostly, blame ourselves, the consumers of this mental junk food, because if we weren’t eating it, they wouldn’t be feeding it to us.
Posted by robpiccirillo on Aug. 13, 2009, at 5:00 am
By Rob Piccirillo PoHo contributor
It may be a surprise to most people who know me that I used to own an insurance agency.That’s right!I, Rob Piccirillo, for a period of about one year and seven months, owned and operated a Florida Insurance Agency, which specialized in selling private health insurance.
My company sold various forms of private insurance, but our bread and butter was Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage is a private option that beneficiaries may select instead of Original Medicare (parts A & B), which is provided by the federal government.
I will tell you now, and may the Lord Almighty strike me dead if this is not so: Sometimes it was hard to sleep at night knowing the disservice many in the industry, my cohorts, perhaps even those in my own company had done to many people on many occasions.And although the money I made got me the necessary REMs, the moral question made me quit the business!(That’s why I’m here writing this blog.Do you think the owner of a successful insurance agency would bother scribbling a Political Whore post?Negatory…)
Anyway, the fact of the matter is this: I received a bird’s eye view of what goes on in the health insurance industry.Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 12, 2009, at 2:03 pm
There is new video (a CNN feed from 10 Connects) from last week’s shoving and shouting match at the door to a town hall on health care reform featuring Congresswoman Kathy Castor in Ybor City. (h/t to Pushing Rope)
Posted by Tom Bortnyk on Aug. 12, 2009, at 10:10 am
By Tom Bortnyk PoHo correspondent
“Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American” -Nancy Pelosi
Madam Speaker, I could not agree more. Freedom of speech is one of our most cherished rights as American citizens. So, too, is the right to peaceably assemble and to petition the government without fear of punishment or reprisal. These rights are the foundation for Western Civilization as we know it.
Why then, Madam Speaker, do these rights only apply to citizens who share your ideological views? It seems to be the very definition of irony and a text book example of hypocrisy. The political Left in the US has been working diligently to silence opposition, not only with the current health care debate, but in numerous instances in the past.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 11, 2009, at 9:20 am
Pro-reform AARP has planned a town hall meeting for Wednesday afternoon in Lakeland, and the big question is: Will it feature the same kind of testiness, shouting, shoving and calamity that has befell other town halls, including one last week in Tampa’s Ybor City?
Organizers don’t think so. A Florida AARP spokesman told March on Politics that the organization has already held some of these town halls (part of a grassroots-TV ad blitz to support the president’s initiative) and while some got heated none reached the level of the Ybor event. UPDATE: Florida AARP spokesman Dave Bruns tells me this afternoon that while the AARP events have seen some “very pointed exchanges” (and, in Leesburg, one woman who came forward and dumped her cut-up AARP card in front of the speaker) that they have not seen the kind of disruptions that have plagued other town halls. “There’s been some backlash about what happened in Tampa,” Bruns said.
The town hall is on the radar screen of the Lakeland 9-12 Project, an offshoot of Fox host Glenn Beck’s right-wing fomenting. But RedCounty — a conservative blog that chronicles various counties across the nation, including Hillsborough — is urging civility:
Posted by Tom Bortnyk on Aug. 10, 2009, at 6:44 am
By Tom Bortnyk PoHo correspondent
There is no doubt that Sarah Palin has every intention in the world of running for higher office. You could see it in her twinkling eye as she made the announcement that she was stepping down as governor of Alaska.
Will she host her own talk show? Will she get a book deal? Speculation has run rampant, but the consensus among the political news commentators seems to be that she is gearing up for a run for president in 2012.
Oddly enough, this news is exciting for many Republicans. To quite a large sect of the conservative base, Palin is a rock star. She is the answer to their prayers, and the savior of the Party.
Such an analysis is misguided, at best. More accurately, it could be described as delusional.
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 Tom Bortnyk on Jul. 29, 2009, at 7:36 am
By Tom Bortnyk PoHo correspondent
The notorious Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara spent his entire life fighting the evils of capitalism and murdered anyone who did not agree with his socialist agenda. Yet here we are today, in 21st century America, where any hipster can walk into a Target super-store and buy a Che T-shirt and a “Yes We Can” poster. Apparently the college students wearing the shirts missed the chapter on irony in English 101; they must have been attending a “hope & change” rally. Politics, it seems, has become just as much of a battle of commercialism as PC vs. Mac or Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi.
There is no doubt that this is a distinctly 21st century phenomenon. Mass media and explosion of the internet into every household has only fueled America’s consumer culture, to the point where even our political candidates must be marketed and sold. If Billy Mays were still around, and the Sham-Wow guy didn’t beat up a hooker, odds are good we’d see them recruited for campaign ads in 2012.
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 Mitch Perry on Jul. 27, 2009, at 9:12 am
By Mitch Perry PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.
Last week had to the roughest in the first half year of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate would not be able to vote on a health care bill before the August recess; Obama admitted his comments regarding the controversy over the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates had in a way exacerbated the conflict; and one major poll now shows him below 50 percent in approval ratings.
To add to all of that, there was this: The bizarre world that is the deniers of his citizenship suddenly broke out of the conservative blogosphere and into mainstream conversation.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 24, 2009, at 6:38 am
From St. Pete’s best known anti-tax neurosurgeon, Dr. David McKalip, comes this e-mail apology this morning for the Barack Obama-as-Witch Doctor e-mail I chronicled late yesterday afternoon:
I have had a very hard day. When you stand up and fight effectively for freedom and to protect the rights of patients from control by the government and insurance companies – you develop powerful enemies. They have used the opportunity of a lapse in judgment to try to discredit me since they can’t discredit my arguments. I am proud of my accomplishments in this fight. I am more proud of the hundreds of thousands of Americans I have come to know who feel as I do and are willing to stand up for freedom. The next few days will be difficult, and I ask for your support.
DR. DAVID MCKALIP SENDS APOLOGY DIRECTLY TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 23, 2009, at 3:27 pm
FRIDAY AM UPDATE:He’s apologized. And he then resigned as president-elect of the Pinellas Medical Association.
Talking Points Memo is breaking the story that well known local brain surgeon and anti-tax crusader David McKalip forwarded this photoshopped illustration of President Barack Obama to a Tea Party e-mail group:
TPMuckraker calls it the latest example of online anti-Obama racism on behalf of conservatives. And McKalip told TPMuckraker:
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. 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.
Census figures released Monday show that of the 579,000 new voters who participated in Florida last year, nearly all were either Hispanic or black. Turnout among young voters increased from 39 percent in 2004 to 49 percent last year.
Young Hispanics and blacks helped boost the state’s voter rolls by 10 percent and lowered the average age among voters by one full year, to 50, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis.
Meanwhile, turnout among white voters remained stagnant last year while some of the state’s oldest voters stayed home: Turnout among voters 75 and older dropped from 72 percent in 2004 to 69 percent in 2008.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 20, 2009, at 10:49 am
My guest co-host for this week’s HoCast is Seth Nelson, a Tampa lawyer who is running for the Tampa City Council in 2011 (for Linda Saul-Sena’s citywide seat; she is term-limited).
He is a former law clerk on the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, so we look at how Sonia Sotomayor did in explaining her statement about policy being made at the appellate court level. Plus, we discuss Walter Cronkite’s death and how it shows what is wrong with today’s news media and ask ourselves whether Barack Obama’s health care reform effort is in trouble.
And between all those headlines, Seth talks about why he’s running for the Council and what his top priorities are.
While many US bishops would wish it wasn’t so, President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict are eager to dialogue and engage each other on the world stage. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t get me wrong, this is not the kind of affair that ends a political career. Unlike certain other political affairs of late (Read: Mark Sanford, John Ensign) this affair is not one of the scandalous variety. Quite the contrary. My affair with Alaska’s sweetheart could be just the thing that propels her into the White House in 2012.
See, it isn’t just me who’s having an affair with Sexy Sarah. She’s the darling of many conservative Americans. She stole our hearts from the moment she first stepped onto the national stage back in August as John McCain’s running mate. And now, she’s dissolving her marriage to Alaska to become better acquainted with us — her secret lover — the rest of America.
For me, the affair has lasted long after I met her backstage at a campaign rally shortly before the ‘08 election (see photo above). Of course, I’m not naïve enough to fail to recognize that much of Sarah Palin’s popularity has to do with the fact that she’s an 11 on the hotness scale. If she were an old, fat, white guy, I doubt anyone would care. Read the rest of this entry »
By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.
Last Saturday in Brandon’s Clayton Park, approximately 200 citizens gathered for a TEA Party (Taxed Enough Already) organized by conservative activist Terry Kemple, and featuring a rally-the-troops speech by State Senator Ronda Storms (right).
It was one of what was supposed to be over 1,000 such expressions of outrage at government spending under the Obama administration around the country on Independence Day, and followed a similar outburst of conservative sentiment at the first “Teabag” parties held on Tax Day, April 15th.
That day was also dedicated to federal largesse, though you may recall it more as a media battle between the seeming outright advocacy of the Fox News network, and the derision of it by more liberal commentators, including way too many allusions to what the phrase ‘teabagging’ meant. (This Keith Olbermann bit was just part of that onslaught.)
The growing federal deficit was on the minds of most of the citizenry. Despite the fact that a large part of the current deficit can be laid at the feet of former President George W. Bush (as my previous column, referring NY Times columnist David Leonhardt, can attest to), those in attendance on Saturday were of no mind to hear such specific facts. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by David Warner on Jul. 3, 2009, at 6:19 pm
Was this a wack-job move or the first salvo in her campaign for the presidency in 2012? Depending on your perspective, you can read Sarah Palin’s press conference today either way.
The breathless recitation of right-wing talking points and multiple excuses for skipping out on her job, recited as if her inner tape-recorder were stuck on high speed, could be viewed as a slightly unhinged monologue in the Mark Sanford vein.
Then again, a breathless recitation of right-wing talking points could be just the thing her base wants to hear, and you can already imagine the scenario that’s being shaped for future campaigns: “She couldn’t stand to take part anymore in big-government Obamanomics because she’s a maverick! She’s declaring her independence!”
Never mind that Alaska has been lapping up government welfare for years; suddenly when her erstwhile Democratic opponent was doing the doling out, the money was tainted. And no matter that she’s declaring her independence from a job the voters expected her to complete; she doesn’t play by those conventional rules, people!
See video of the conference after the break. Be sure to hang on for the basketball metaphors. Read the rest of this entry »
The Obama Justice Department has reached out to major gay rights organizations and scheduled a private meeting for next week with the groups, in an apparent effort to smooth over tensions in the wake of the controversy over the administration’s defense in court of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Tracy Russo, a spokesperson for Justice, confirmed the meeting to me, after I posted … that top gay rights lawyers were miffed that administration lawyers had rebuffed their requests to meet and discuss ongoing litigation involving DOMA.
At the meeting — which hasn’t been announced and is expected to include leading gay rights groups like GLAD and Lambda Legal — both sides are expected to hash out how to proceed with pending DOMA cases.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 8, 2009, at 2:18 pm
Major has-been Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gets another round with a national audience tonight, appearing on Sean Hannity’s unquestioning show to say “I told you so” about Barack Obama. She’s flogging the right-wing bullshit about how we are creeping toward socialism. (See the Political Whore post debunking that.)
From the interview, leaked (conveniently) to Drudge Report:
In a presidential proclamation issued on Monday, President Barack Obama officially recognized the month of June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.
LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The president’s call for equality and his acknowledgment of the many contributions LGBT people have made to America’s culture, society and politics despite being culturally, socially and politically marginalized are truly moving. However, I can’t help feeling slightly ambivalent about the whole thing. Here’s why:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 1, 2009, at 1:28 pm
Sonia Sotomayor with her kids nephews at a ballgame. She certainly will have to be alert for foul balls in the confirmation process. (photo courtesy of whitehouse.gov)
This week’s podcast breaks down the Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination with Tampa media lawyer David Snyder. We talk about her race-based rulings, her temperament, Rush Limbaugh and Tom Tancredo’s charges of reverse racism and whether judges really do/should make policy or not.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 26, 2009, at 10:19 am
Here’s a quick look at how the media — professional and otherwise — are treating this morning’s announcement of District Court of Appeal Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the first Latina to be nominated to the highest court in the land.
[UPDATE: after the jump, I've added the Libertarian Party's blistering assessment of Sotomayor as an activist judge.]
UPDATE 8:46 a.m.: Barack Obama will announce later this morning his selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Federal Appeals Court as his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, The New York Times reports. If confirmed by the Senate she will be the third woman on the court and the first Hispanic justice.
The MSM will undoubtedly cast Obama’s first Supreme Court choice in terms of liberal vs. conservative. While the consequences of Barack Obama’s decision will have political overtones, the real debate centers around how the document in question (the U.S. Constitution) should be interpreted.
In the one camp, there’s Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas.
In the other, Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and John Paul Stevens are firmly situated.
And Obama could announce the next member of the high court as early as today.
Ed.’s note: Peter Schweitzer is marketing and public relations professional who has worked in politics and the law. This is his first guest blog for The Political Whore.
By all accounts, President Obama’s recent controversial Notre Dame commencement address was a hit. He was cool, eloquent, and not the least bit intimidated by the U.S. bishops who had all but called for his head on a platter the weeks prior to the address. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 22, 2009, at 9:49 am
With a h/t to Tampa Bay political consultant Gregory Wilson, here’s a contrarian view on scoring yesterday’s pseudo-debate on terror, Gitmo and national security. I agree with Congressional Quarterly’s assessment of Barack Obama on conventional political terms. It is a truism: When you’re ’splaining, you’re losing. And I believe Obama made no headway with the crazy left who wants to shutter Guantanamo immediately and just cut loose the terrorists or bring them on down to circuit court for good ol’ U.S. justice system trials.
But Obama won the day, make no mistake about it. He was historic, clear in his ethics, determined in his purpose that we can win against terror without becoming terrorists ourselves. He may have lost in terms of short-term public opinion but he wins the longer war. And that is what CQ, in its traditional wisdom, fails to grasp.
Having said that, reading the full CQ article makes ya think…
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 21, 2009, at 6:08 am
Anybody needing a distillation of the differences between the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama on the “War on Terror” need look no further than today’s competing speeches by Dick Cheney and Obama on the subject.
President Barack Obama will attempt to regain control of a boiling debate over anti-terrorism policy with a major speech on Thursday — an address that comes on the same day that former Vice President Dick Cheney will be weighing in with his own speech on the same theme.
The dueling speeches amount to the most direct engagement so far between Obama and his conservative critics in the volatile argument over what tactics are justified in detaining and interrogating suspected enemy combatants.
The national security debate — egged on by frequent charges from Cheney that Obama is leaving the country more vulnerable to attack — is the only subject on which many Republicans believe they have been able to gain traction against a popular president and the Democratic majority that now dominate Washington.
It ought to be hilariou-scary to see Cheney defend torture and keeping Gitmo open. The key to today’s semi-debate is not whether Cheney, wildly unpopular even in his own party, wins the hearts and minds of the U.S. citizenry but whether the president can score points on the left and in the middle with his “walk a thin line” approach.
President Obama spoke at Notre Dame’s commencent address on Sunday. There has been some controversy as to whether Notre Dame would honor him with an honorary law degree or not. Some from Notre Dame are opposed to Obama receiving a honorary degree because of his policy preferences, such as abortion, have not reflected the Catholic morality.
The controversy over honoring Obama with a degree may not be the most impacting news story in the world, but it does speak volumes on the issue of morality and religion and how they intersect with politics.
See video of Obama getting his honorary degree at Notre Dame after the jump.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 15, 2009, at 2:34 pm
It’s not unexpected news that General Motors today started notifying some 1,100 dealers that they no longer want to do business with them, as we’re learning today, so why does President Barack Obama’s minions feel the need to euphemize the job losses?
Here is the top of the news release from Treasury:
Treasury Department Statement
on GM Dealer Consolidation Announcement
WASHINGTON – Today, General Motors initiated the dealer consolidation plan it laid out in its interim plan on April 27, 2009.
Under that terminology, we’ve got one helluva jobs consolidation situation going on right now.
General Motors notified 1,100 of its 6,000 dealerships Friday that it is terminating their contracts with the struggling automaker, the first step in cutting up to 40% of its retail network.
GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said that the dealers receiving notice Friday are being told that their contracts will not be renewed in October 2010. Many of them are expected to close shop this year.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 13, 2009, at 12:29 pm
President Barack Obama has reveresed himself on how open his Administration will be on the torture approved by the previous George W. Bush Administration of Horrors, refusing to release Abu Ghraib torture photos. Daily Dish reports:
In what can only be seen as a stunning reversal, the president is now refusing to release photographs that would help prove that the abuse and torture techniques revealed at Abu Ghraib were endemic in the Bush military. I can’t help but wonder if this is related to his decision to appoint Stanley McChrystal as the commander of his Afghanistan war and occupation. There is solid evidence that McChrystal played an active part in enabling torture in Iraq, and his activities in charge of many secret special operations almost certainly involved condoning acts that might be illustrated by these photos. The MSM has, of course, failed to mention this in their fawning profiles of McChrystal.
Federal investigators are sifting through the records of money that helped John Edwards’ presidential campaign to determine if any was used to keep quiet his affair with Rielle Hunter.
Edwards, a Democrat and former U.S. senator, acknowledged the investigation to The News & Observer.
“I am confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly,” Edwards said in a statement.
Hunter is the filmmaker employed by a PAC aligned with Edwards to make campaign films – while the two were “doing it.” While Edwards wife was being diagnosed with terminal cancer. While Edwards held himself out to voters as a paragon of caring for the little guy (’memba his work in Louisiana’s Katrina wreckage photo ops?).
