The Political Whore

Blessed weekend relief is just 8 hours away! In the meantime, here’s all the poiltical and media news that matters, with updates throughout the day in the box to the right:

• Game over in the Great Lakes State; McCain campaign is pulling out of Michigan.
• Orlando mayor is down with the LGBT and domestic-partner benefits.
• A South Florida congresswoman changes her mind about the bailout after a visit to her district.
• Confuserating the voters.
• How does an elevator explode? Here’s how.
• Bailout 2: Porky’s Revenge, set to open today in the House.
• Deggans is right about Ifill being even-handed; she was also boring as shit and didn’t follow up well.
• Tampa Bay’s got itself a brand-spanking newly confirmed US Attorney for the Middle District.
• St. Pete bans soliciting in the medians, screws the Times, MDA.
• Shooting guns and talkin’ politics: sounds like a GOP fundraiser to me.
• Oh, and the Duke insists that the biggest loser in last night’s debate was … the MSM!
• A maverick he is not. No maverick is he:

Today’s top political and media headlines from Tampa Bay, Florida and the world beyond. Updates in the aggregatin’ box to the right:

• FLA GOP leaders be freakin’ about John McCain’s big slide in this state.
• Pushing Rope to Netroots: Stop backing fringe candidates and get serious!
• One Tampa condo project gets a chance to survive after having its reorganization approved in bankruptcy court.
• The Right: Crist 2-for-2 on Supreme Court picks.
• Nader et al. taking votes away from … McCain?!?
• Economy may sidetrack class-size amendment; we can’t afford smaller classes now.
• Defending Gwen Ifill.
• Sarah Palin making a swing through Florida, including Coachman Park in Clearwater.
• FLA’s in Play! Three polls put Obama head of McCain in FLA, beyond the margin of error.
• Charges and countercharges between Vern and Christine.
• On the agenda: the selling of FLA (in this case, a longterm lease of Alligator Alley to private interests).
• In Hillsborough, no public dollars for letting the public know about a referendum to buy more environmentally sensitive land.
• Charlie not only <3 Carole; Charlie <3 the Rays.
• Tampa House candidate E.J. Ford’s homage to Mike Gravel’s Rock:

Your vital headlines in political and media news, with updates throughout the day in the update box on the right:

• You can see Russia from one part of Alaska; it’s just that Sarah Palin has never been to that part of Alaska.
• Gorilla Theatre in Tampa shut down by fire marshal.
• Big Film vs. RealNetworks’ new DVD copying software.
• Extending the Crosstown across the Gandy Bridge.
• Legs, legs, legs coming to Tampa Bay’s 10 weathercast?
• The “Newt Gingrich of the Left” on the bailout plan.
• Jay-Z to rawk Miami for Obama.
• The Miami Herald declares that independents rule the Ybor City night scene.
• One Orlando land speculator’s personal bailout, courtesy of FLA taxpayers.
• Everything’s that wrong with newspapers.
• Spokane daily is dropping the AP; rips them a new one.
• Double-shot Wednesday for vids: First up, the anti-Palin, anti-hunting spot:

• And the Democratic reaction to Orlando Congressman Tom Feeney’s “rookie mistake” Abramoff admission:

And no, I don’t mean Bardi and Silverman.

Make a notation in your PDA of choice for Thursday night at 9 p.m. for the vice presidential debates between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. I’ll be here (sorry, I was on the road traveling last Friday night for the first presidential debate) ready at the enter key for the veep battle, and I will open a thread just before the show starts.

In the meantime, some reading material background for you to digest so you can have informed and intelligent comments (along with the usual barrage of partisan insults and snarky remarks). This is from the Marist Poll, full text after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s top political and media news headlines, with updates throughout the day in that little box just to the right:

• More Sarah on the media interview circuit!
• Crist, Cabinet to consider funding final segment of Orlando’s beltway.
• Adam Putnam on why he voted for the bailout.
• Congress slips in authorization for Tamiami Trail bridge to aid Everglades restoration; Miccosukees outraged.
• Oh, and by the way, the Everglades restoration is bogged down and costing us more by the minute.
• Bloodied after her first encounter with Couric, Palin brings her dad to the second one.
• Lawyers delight: Court case deciding which government pays for roads near schools is over. Either way, the taxpayers were paying, so the only ones who benefited were those people racking up billable hours.
• City’s largest union turns down contract with 3.5 percent cost-of-living increase and 3 percent merit raises. How many folks out there got a 6.5 percent bump this year? Raise your hands? Anyone? Thought so.
• The wild, crazy and completely made-up conspiracy theory about Sarah Palin and Eric Cantor.
• Another sign of the impending apocalypse: AC/DC inks exclusive deal with Wal-Mart.
• Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday, man you’ve been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long:

Faithful PoHo readers will note the addition of a countdown clock at the top-right of the blog. The tick-tock is counting down to CL’s live blogging of first presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. The debate is scheduled to begin this Fri., Sept. 26, at 9 p.m., and we’ll have a thread open for live blogging before, during and after the main event. Expect something similar to what we did for both party’s conventions, with participants adding color commentary, instant fact-checking and the analysis with attitude that you can only get from Creative Loafing.

If you can’t make it on Friday, fear not faithful reader: We’ll be also be live blogging the other debates (two additional presidential debates, one V.P. debate), giving you four chances to add your voice to the animated conversation surrounding one of the most exciting presidential elections in American history.

Hope to see you Friday!

“Did he really call her a pig!??!” That’s the question flying around the Internet today. Only in a society this sexist could a male presidential candidate refer to a female office-seeker with the phrase “I think they put some lipstick on a pig.” Shame on you … John McCain.

My favorite part of the “Palin — The Other White Meat” controversy is that the Republicans anger is entirely misdirected. With the “pig” comment, Obama is referencing the McCain campaign’s switch from “experience” to “change” as their talking point of the week. If you take the time to listen to the 47 second clip, you can see that. However, if you choose to willfully misunderstand Obama and want to stretch his words into a personal comment about his opponents, I think it’s fair to say that Palin is the “lipstick,” and it’s actually ol’ Johnny Mac who is the porker.

But it has been fun today watching the McCain campaign gin up phony outrage. Then again, what did you expect from a pig but a grunt?

 John Stewart cut the hypocrites to ribbons this week in an excellent Daily Show segment on the media’s response to Sarah Palin. Enjoy. Live Blogging in 15 minutes…

While watching last night’s festivities at the Republican National Convention, I found myself coming back again and again to three distinct storylines floated by the speakers. The first is the obvious “Rah Rah McCain” story, which is quite easy to pull off when the candidate in question spent 5-and-a-half years being tortured harshly questioned by the North Vietnamese. Besides all that, there were the dual attacks of “Obama is not qualified to be president due to his youth and inexperience” and “Sarah Palin is a tough Washington outsider, a ‘hockey mom’ who loves her family, hates abortion and is out to clean up Washington just like she did Alaska!”

Here’s what The Washington Post’s excellent media critic Tom Shales said about Palin’s acceptance speech:

“If the Republicans win the presidential election in November, it may well be said that they won it last night — the night that John McCain’s brilliantly screwy choice for a running mate changed from laughing stock to national star.”

Somewhat predictably I’m afraid, those second two storylines and what Shales wrote are complete bullshit.

Here’s the truth: If Obama loses, it’s because he didn’t have the balls to stand up for his impressive record in the face of vacant Republican attacks.

Read the rest of this entry »

Does Sarah Palin believe that gays and lesbians are diseased and in need of a cure? That’s what her church seems to believe. Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out wants to know whether Palin agrees. Any Log Cabin Republicans want to weigh in?