He came. They saw. He conquered. The Barack Obama “‘O’ Train” made a whistle-stop appearance in Tampa last week – at a private, $2,300-per-person fund-raiser and a later $25-per-person gathering at Ybor City’s Cuban Club. Things could not have gone any better for the Illinois senator and prominent presidential candidate – including threatening weather that [...]
Say this much for Don Imus, that crappy-headed foe of all things politically correct. This was nothing new. He’s also made a career out of crudely railing against polite society in general. There’s obviously a viable market for low-brow mockery as humor, and he long had the advertisers, the listeners, the ratings, the simulcasts and [...]
This much we can all agree on. The status quo of Ashley Drive is unacceptable for anyone wanting to cross it. At rush hour it’s beyond daunting. Now fast forward a few years. There’s the new Tampa Museum of Art, the new Children’s Museum, the new Curtis Hixon Park, the regional library and a finished, [...]
It was a long time coming, but Florida now exits that short list of retro states that, in effect, didn’t restore the voting and civil rights of felons who had completed their sentences. Led by neo-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist — and over the vigorous objection of Attorney General Bill McCollum — the Board of Executive [...]
The John McCain candidacy: RIP. The Arizona senator is no longer a refreshing maverick. Or any kind of maverick. He’s still a staunch “surge” supporter who impressed no one by touting his recent maximum security shopping spree in Baghdad’s central market. Conservatives know he can never be one of them: He doesn’t believe in supply-side [...]
Of course, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s well chronicled trip to Syria was blatant, politically-motivated grandstanding masquerading as “fact-finding.” But so was that of the Republican trio of congressmen who had immediately preceded her. And then there was last year’s Syrian sortie by Florida Senator Bill Nelson. This is obviously no way to conduct a coherent, [...]
Notice has been served. The National Football League has a new sheriff, Commissioner Roger Goodell, and it’s open season on the NFL’s chronic miscreant and criminal elements. That became abundantly evident when Goodell suspended Tennessee Titans’ cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones for a year and the Cincinnati Bengals’ wide receiver Chris Henry for half a season. [...]
However belatedly, Britain’s Defense Ministry did the right thing by reversing itself and banning military personnel from selling personal stories to the news media. As in those 15 British sailors and marines who had been held hostage in Iran. And as in those notorious London tabloids. Alas, it wasn’t soon enough to prevent two Brits, [...]
Joe Piscopo did “Saturday Night Live,” made movies, had his own HBO comedy special, guest-starred on major TV series, appeared in the long-running Broadway revival of “Grease” — and continues to pack them in to his retro, song-and-comedy nightclub act in Las Vegas. And last week he played the Sorrento Cheese Festa Italiana in Ybor [...]
An inaugural is a unique event. Take this city’s most recent one. It’s part civic pep rally: celebrating the avatar of the democratic process – even if many voters elected to stay home. It’s also a most welcome respite, however brief, from the purely political. A time reserved for swearing in, not swearing at. For [...]
