The Political Whore

Dan Ruth, unceremoniously dumped from 200 S. Parker St. earlier this year, is apparently not content with his every-Friday column in the rival St. Petersburg Times; he has started his own blog.

In a welcome to the Ruthington Post, Dan writes:

It has taken a while for someone who began in the newspaper business back in the lead type days to come around to the vast world of the emerging new technologies, but with the help and encouragement of friends, here it is – the Ruthington Post blog of Daniel Ruth.

I’m still learning how to work with this form, so please bear with me. I will probably spend the next few days playing around and experimenting. But in the future I hope to be posting a daily blog that will deal with all manner of issues, from politics, to popular culture to who knows what?

Stay tuned. Let’s see what the future holds.

Welcome to the blogosphere and its world of quality journalism, Dan.

h/t to Sticks of Fire

Ah, the evolution of media. Murphy-Goode winery is looking for a blogging-tweetering “social media whiz” who is into wine to move into their vineyards home for six months and jump-start its viral marketing efforts.

CL’s own wine expert, Corkscrew author Taylor Eason, is an applicant, and here is her video:

You can vote for Taylor, if you are so inclined.

And Taylor is not alone among Tampa Bay social-networking oenophiles seeking the “really goode job.” Read the rest of this entry »

Actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad name for a law firm, “Welcome to Niemann, Sullivan, Leto & Schweitzer, how may I direct your call?” But back to the job at hand: I have four new contributors to announce. I am excited about the knowledge and qualities they bring to PoHo, including some indepth writing on historic preservation (Leto) and the intersection of religion and public policy (Schweitzer).

Here are their bios, after the jump. I will have some more to announce by the end of this week:

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s just like the old days for campaign consultant Peter Schorsch, a favorite whipping boy for some on the St. Petersburg Times‘ blogs. Before disappearing from the local scene for a few years after getting into legal troubles, Schorsch was very active in the blogosphere and a favorite target for critics, who he regularly engaged in comment wars on various blogs. Now Schorsch, who is helping manage St. Petersburg City Councilman Jamie Bennett’s camapign for mayor, writes on his own blog that he will no longer comment on or read the Times‘ Bay Buzz:

I am not giving up the BB because of what is written about me, although no one would be surprised by my decision if that was the reason. The libelous, offensive comments that are posted by anonymous writers are so hurtful that I would be lying if I said they did not effect me. There are also several pricks on there who do nothing but re-post my mugshot from when I am was in trouble. And there are the douchebags, like Jim Donnelon, on there who do nothing but tear everyone down. And that’s his and their right, but I would never sit next to them at a bar. I would never have them over to my house. They’re losers. They’re dorks. I would beat the shit out of them, in a heartbeat, if there were no repercussions. I don’t want to be associated with anonymous dorks.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gary Fineout did a pretty good job as the capital bureau reporter for the Miami Herald and other state newspapers. (I remember his work being a pain in the ass to some of my Republican legislative clients, so he must have been good.) Now that he is out of the daily paper biz, he is starting his own blog, The Fine Print.

Fineout’s first post takes apart Charlie Crist’s proposed budget. Here’s a sample:

2. School recognition grants: Despite the fact that Crist got criticized by George P. Bush last weekend, the Republican governor decided to keep intact funding for one of the key elements of former Gov. Jeb Bush’s A+ education reforms. He has set aside $206.7 million for the program that rewards schools that show learning gains based primarily on results from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. It won’t take long for Democrats, many of whom who praised Crist for his budget proposal, to start questioning why the Legislature should fund this program during a fiscal crisis. The GOP will assert that getting rid of this program will hurt teachers since much of the money winds up as bonuses.

3. Sweetener for the U.S. Sugar deal: Crist has included $5 million in his economic development funding recommendations to be used for “areas impacted by the South Florida Water Management District’s acquisition of land from the U.S. Sugar Corporation. Impacted areas include Hendry and Glades County and the communities of Belle Glade, South Bay and Pahokee.”

4. Doctors and Medicaid providers are winners: Probably due in no small part to the influx of federal dollars, Crist has not only recommended keeping Medicaid intact he recommended paying more to Medicaid dentists and physicians that specialize in dermatology, neurology and orthopedic surgery. Crist also recommended spending nearly $800 million to rescue the state’s Medically Needy and MEDS A/D program – which helps the disabled and elderly. Crist also recommended spending $52 million more to add 46,000 children in the KidCare program.

You can find The Fine Print here.

It was supposed to be the next big thing in online news and blogging. But Pajamas Media never quite caught the wave, and with an unclear mission, it is now the bane of its former blogging network.

Founder Roger Simon wrote this to them:

I wrote a letter to the Pajamas Media network bloggers yesterday, some of whom took it a bit more personally than intended. We disbanded the ad network part of our business for a simple reason: it was losing money and we couldn’t see how in the reasonable future that would change.

Actually that part of our business has been losing money from the beginning, so the people getting their quarterly checks from PJM were getting a form of stipend from us in the hopes that advertisers would start to cotton to blogs and we could possibly make a profit. Didn’t happen. No wonder those people are kicking and screaming now that they are off the dole. I might too. [What's their beef? I thought most of them were free marketeer libertarians or something.-ed. Go figure.]

One blogger’s response.