Opinions to go Online

The unique perspective and provocative opinions of Joe O’Neill

Archive for July, 2006

Blight House

Wasn’t there a time when a visit to the White House was pretty much reserved for a special class of honorees? Those of accomplishment – from the heroic to the scientific to the artistic. Think: John Glenn or Jonas Salk or Norman Rockwell. And to be sure, there have been luminaries from show business and [...]

Lieberman's Lot

There’s the pragmatic – and oft times cynical – political endorsement game. And then there’s what happened last week in Waterbury, Conn. Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, the third-term lawmaker who was almost vice president. Now his primary hopes are in serious jeopardy against (heretofore) little known Ned Lamont. So [...]

Sport Shorts

*Amid the countdown to football season, it’s easy to lose focus on other late summer and fall sports. But USF has high hopes for its (men’s) soccer team. The College News’ Pre-Season Poll has USF listed 11th – ahead of such perennial powers as Indiana, Clemson and Notre Dame. *Sign of the times: At the [...]

Inventive Town

According to collaborative research by iPiQ, an intellectual property consulting firm, and the Wall Street Journal , California still dominates when it comes to inventive cities – as defined by overall patents. Twelve of the “Top 20 Inventive Towns” are in California – topped by San Jose (3,867 in 2005). None were from Florida. In [...]

Quotables

*Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of the former president, in the documentary film “Why We Fight”: “On a least one occasion (President) Eisenhower was heard to say by those in the room, ‘God help this country when somebody sits at this desk who doesn’t know as much about the military as I do.’” *Bear Bryant, the late, [...]

Journalistic Guidelines — Or Shinola Happens

When Tampa Tribune Managing Editor Duke Maas was asked by a deputy editor how he felt about having “damn” and “s—” in a given story in the next day’s paper, he was properly taken aback. In fact, it would have been understandable had he used one or both of the potentially offending words to express [...]

Irony And Timing For Gallagher

Gubernatorial candidate Tom Gallagher trails Charlie Crist in the polls and in the coffers. The Gallagher campaign, it would seem, also lags in chutzpah. That was apparent after a group of 10 Republican state legislators formally requested that Gallagher drop out of the race for the sake of party unity. And, no, these were no [...]

USF-ND?

Rockne. Leahy. Parseghian. Leavitt. OK, it’s a stretch, but it’s what can happen when you share a marquee, and reportedly USF and Notre Dame could be squaring off in a home-and-home series within the next decade. To anyone who’s been around awhile, this is still very heady, barely believable stuff. A decade ago USF was [...]

U.S. Big Enough To Talk To Anybody

Back in the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter fired UN Ambassador Andy Young for talking to the Palestinians. Young acknowledged the transgression, took one for the team and let others more vigorously make the case. And that case was: If you aspire to something other than heated public rhetoric, impasse, and worst-case scenario, you can’t preclude [...]

Shriner Epilogue

By all accounts, the Shriners’ convention, Tampa’s largest, came off well. And well it should have. It was a holiday; event venues were dispersed; the visitors were folksy and well received; and the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau had five years from the booking date to do its scouting and planning. “We knew this [...]