Author: opinionstogo

Summer Theatre

For those who have never sampled the Tampa Theatre’s Summer Classic Movie Series: Try it some weekend this summer. I just sampled 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and was reminded all over again what it’s like to be transported.

 

It was much more than Newman and Redford together again on the big screen. It’s that architecturally eclectic, non-multi-plex, Roaring 20s movie palace – the one with a balcony and no video games in its lobby. It’s the Wurlitzer prelude. It’s the collective experience that only an appreciative crowd can provide. Tampa Theatre, we are gratefully reminded, is no museum piece.

 

And you always run into people you know. They invariably are the people you enjoy running into since you have classic movies and iconic theaters in common.

 

This summer’s features include “Casablanca” (June 27-28), “Citizen Kane” (July 26), “Gone With The Wind” (Aug. 15-16) and “The Wizard of Oz” (Aug. 22-23). And while it’s not typically referenced in the context of movie immortality, there’s also the 3-D classic, “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” (Aug. 2). It’s a campy hoot – and played to a packed house a couple of years ago.

 

Each movie starts at 3 p.m. Tickets are $8.

Dungy, FCAT And Pies

*We all know – at least we all say – that everybody deserves a second chance. Having said that, I had a hard time reconciling Tony Dungy and Michael Vick together. Recall that nobody ever said Vick, who once signed a contract for $130 million, was an otherwise pleasant fellow who just made one, uh, mistake. I think it’s only healthy skepticism to consider that Dungy is being cynically used in Vick’s comprehensive public-relations strategy.

 

*Anybody else do a double take when looking at those recent FCAT statistics? I was hoping for a typo, but sure enough 38 per cent of Hillsborough County 10th graders passed FCAT reading. And it’s not as if it’s hard. Worse yet, the trend is down; it was 41 per cent last year.

 

*I know some folks will disagree with this, but I still cringe when I see Hillsborough County teachers and administrators taking a pie in the face as their part in some educational quid pro quo with students. A point, and it is a valid one, is to not take your adult self too seriously. Motivation and fun should be part of the pedagogic process. But another point is to take yourself seriously enough so that others will too. Especially when, as a society, we keep trying – too often ineffectually – to bolster the status of the teaching profession.

Rap’s Sad Trap: “Street Cred”

So, Atlanta rapper T.I., who was born with the much more prosaic handle of Clifford Harris Jr., is off on his latest marketing tour. Perhaps you missed it.

 

Well, this one is for more “street cred,” as they say in concentric rap circles. This one is to the federal prison in Arkansas to serve a year and change on a weapons conviction.

 

Apparently the slammer is where rappers go to get their aforementioned “street cred.” And for the record, Talent Imposter – or whatever the hell T.I. stands for – was arrested for trying to buy, among other less-than-standard household items, machine guns and silencers. Indeed, who could be remotely credible without at least packing some semi-automatic heat?

 

Apparently Threatening Intimidation’s rap lyrics, as odious as they are, were not, in and of themselves, a sufficient guarantee of  “street cred.” He still lacked authentic thug bona fides; he still needed, well, a rap sheet. And the only way to earn one was via a complementary stretch in stir.

 

And courtesy of Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, here’s a sampling of some vilely vintage Trash Infusion lyrics:

 

“We know where yo’ family live/ Trust me you don’t want me up

in yo’ crib/ Wit a ski mask on duct taping your kids/ You can pray

all you want/ But I don’t forgive.”

 

This is a prime example of why so much rap has been labeled – ok, by me – “the anthem of a dysfunctional culture.” It is Barack Obama’s and Bill Cosby’s ultimate bete noire and a cultural and security nightmare to all those who think misogynistic, homicidal nihilism is more than another show-biz niche.

 

But this is what’s out there – under the guise of “keeping it real.”  And this one example, however realistically despicable its theme, is relatively sanitized. This is, after all, a respectable newspaper.

 

At the risk of outing myself as the quintessential philistine but with new-found appreciation for Jackson Pollock’s drippy canvases, I say, yet again, this is not art nor its practitioners artists. Moreover, Truculence Incarnate and other “rap artists” are merely oxymoronic examples of what you can do with a rhyming dictionary, an anarchistic attitude, no meaningful job skills and a gullible marketplace not yet sated by cultural chaff passing for societal wheat.

 

This couldn’t have been what Adam Smith had in mind. But it will take a less enabling, more discerning, less politically correct market – along with the propriety pulpit of the first African-American president – to excise this cultural cancer.  

 

 

 

Rays’ Ultimate Call

While most interest in the Tampa Bay Rays focuses on their slow start and burgeoning injured reserve list, another concern has more long-term implications. At some point, the Rays will have to have a new home. Preferably with a roof, ideally a retractable one.

 

The cat-walk house that is Tropicana Field is still among the worst in baseball. It can’t be perfumed any more. And a downtown St. Petersburg location — where the nearest market to the west is Corpus Christi — is obviously ill-suited demographically and geographically.

 

Ideally, the Rays would homestead in Tampa, the hub of this 3-million population market, but that — given the Rays’ lease obligations — is not likely to happen. One of those alternative sites in north St. Pete – near Tampa Bay – would be most practicable. Notably Carillon Town Center across from Feather Sound. But, yes, there are significant costs – as well as relocation reluctance among St. Pete officials – that are formidable impediments to all Trop alternatives.

 

But the bottom line remains this: The Rays will always be swimming upstream to compete against Boston and New York. For the long-term viability of a relatively small-market franchise in a non-traditional, asymmetrical marketplace, the Rays have to move closer to the population core.

 

Not surprisingly, that rationale doesn’t sit well with St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker, most of those vying to succeed him or David Goodwin, the city’s economic development director. But the relevant reality is this: the Rays, who are now officially skeptical about building a new stadium anywhere in downtown St. Pete, will ultimately do what is in their best interest. What’s best for downtown St. Petersburg is a subplot.

Justice Sotomayor

Amid all the partisan sound bites about President Barack Obama’s nomination of U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court, this much seems certain.

 

*She is eminently qualified and has a compelling life story.

*She is left of center but hardly far left of center.

*She has a couple of quotes she would dearly love to have back, but in context, she’s

  nobody’s quota queen or token ethnic.

*It will be awkward — at best — when the Supreme Court hears the high-profile, New

  Haven firefighters’ (Ricci vs. DeStefano) reverse-discrimination case and likely

  overturns a ruling she supported on the 2nd Circuit.

*The Republicans won’t filibuster her nomination. But they’ll go after her “Latina

  woman” empathy and probably go overboard until a Judiciary Committee Democrat

  reins them in with a reminder about Justice Samuel Alito’s testimony that referenced

  his unique Italian roots. To wit: “When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think

  about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic

  background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that in account.”

*The Republicans will go hard at her decision on Ricci — and rightfully so. It wasn’t her

  finest hour.

*But this isn’t a (Robert) Bork or even an Obama (who, as a senator, voted against both

  John Roberts and Alito) pay-back. Certainly not for a party that can ill afford to

  marginalize itself further in the eyes of Hispanic voters.

*And then Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed as an Associate Justice of the U.S.

  Supreme Court.

Texting Drivers Deserve Media Attention

Count me among those who think that accident the other day involving the texting teen who rear-ended the police car at a red light was, indeed, a pretty big deal. Notwithstanding the comments of the teen’s mom who didn’t appreciate the notoriety resulting from widespread news coverage.

 

The local print and electronic media, never known for nuancing the news, were correct to play it up the way they did. That’s because this is an alarming public safety issue – one that the duty-derelict Florida Legislature failed to address in its recent session.  

 

There’s a reason why a dozen states and the District of Columbia have flat-out banned text messaging while driving. It’s because drivers, passengers, other drivers and pedestrians are all at risk when a distracted driver — and the statistics skew disturbingly young on this — is under the influence of cell-phone texting.

 

Until there’s an enforced law prohibiting it, expect the rate of accidents, injuries and deaths due to mindless text messaging to continue to ratchet up. In the mean time, it falls to the high-profile vehicles that are the media to remind the public — and parents of teens — of this public safety menace.

 

Oh, and that texting teen should have been at her school, Freedom High, when she plowed into that police car.

NIMBY Politicians

The biggest impediment to moving any Guantanamo detainees to American soil has little to do with the law or the Geneva Conventions or, candidly, national security. It has, instead, everything to do with familiar, mundane (Not In My Back Yard) NIMBY scenarios and old-fashioned, disingenuous politics.  

 

Consider the comments of these three, Exhibit A pandering Congressional pols: Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

·         “Well, I don’t think you can convince the American people that you can bring the people from Gitmo to their states, and they will be safe,” declaimed Shelby.

·         “I don’t know why it is better to have somebody in a so-called ‘supermax’ facility in, say, Colorado than it is to keep them in Guantanamo,” opined Kyl.

·         “I think they need to be kept elsewhere, wherever that is,” prattled  Nelson.

 

Ironically, one of the upsides of leading the world in incarcerations is that along the way, we’ve learned how to build a pretty good “supermax.”  That’s where the terrorist likes of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Zacharias Moussaoui are: the Colorado “supermax” lockdown. They’re not going anywhere but to an occasional shower stall. Charlie Manson has a better chance of tying some sheets together and slipping back into the populace than “supermaxed” terrorists have of escaping.

 

Not only is the “supermax” super safe, it is the anti-Gitmo, which is critically important. In other words, it won’t be an ongoing source of jihadi pep rallies and a geopolitical nightmare for the U.S. And it won’t be a reminder to the rest of the world that America still occupies a sliver of the sovereign island of Cuba, which can’t be helpful.

 

The three NIMBY senators know it, but would rather pander to their constituents’ unfounded fears. And let’s not forget who set the alarmist predicate on this one: former Vice President Dick Cheney. “To bring the worst of the worst terrorists inside the United States would be cause for great danger and regret in the years to come,” apocalyptically warned the erstwhile Darth Veeper.

Polling For Frontrunners

Thanks to some recent polls, we now know that Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum has a gubernatorial lead on Democrat Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, and that Gov. Charlie Crist is comfortably ahead of Marco Rubio in the Republican U.S. Senate primary. The elections, lest we forget, are in November 2010.

 

What the polls have revealed is that those candidates with the most name recognition are ahead. In the case of Sink, it’s likely that there are voters, including females, who don’t even know that “Alex” is derived from Adelaide. That’s why we have campaigns, which are won’t commence for a while.

 

In the case of Crist, a career politician best known for being ideologically safe and personally pleasant, he also has the GOP establishment behind him. Rubio, the former Florida House Speaker, is attractive to the increasingly marginalized base of the incredibly shrinking Republican Party.

 

This far out, the polls could only confirm that candidates whom voters are most familiar with would be in the lead. But we already knew that.

Cheney’s National Security Gospel

Stay with me on this one.

 

So, what to make of the Dick Cheney “Obamanator” Tour? Including, of course, that virtual mano a mano duel with President Obama recently. Overlapping agendas, it would appear.

 

First, for an ideologically marginalized entity labeled the “Party of No” amid unprecedented, multiple crises, Cheney is — if not GOP manna — certainly most welcome. A higher power than Palin is obviously needed, even if not acknowledged.  These are troubled times for the incredible shrinking tent that is today’s Republican Party.

 

Cheney’s obvious appeal is national security. Its catastrophic breach, hardly inconceivable, trumps all other issues. After all, who — really, really, down deep — doesn’t want to do everything possible — including the ethically and morally problematic — to prevent a 9/11 sequel? Ticking time bomb and all that. Who would truly care, goes a certain line of theoretical reasoning, about post-apocalyptic consolation prizes — such as the still fluttering flag of ACLU principles amid chaos and carnage?

 

Love him or loathe him, Cheney’s the avatar of national security. If this country gets hit again — big time — then industry bailouts, protectionism, abortion, national debt, stimulus scenarios, energy policy and health-care reform will be rendered instantaneously moot.

 

Cheney, the embodiment of the GOP’s uber talking point, is ostensibly a reminder that your churlish, old uncle who carries a big (waterboard, rendition, warrant-less wire tap) stick would be better in a zero-sum, security punch out than a less experienced sort better known for charisma, eloquence and vision. You betcha.

 

And Cheney is hardly shy in framing the GOP position on the basis that America hasn’t been hit again since 9/11. “You think that would have happened under a Gore Administration?!” goes his all-but-asked rhetorical question.

 

Cheney is his own best advocate because he’s the ultimate neocon. He believes it all.

 

Having said that.  

 

It was, after all, on the Bush-Cheney watch that 9/11 actually HAPPENED. Cheney was pre-eminent among those who had dismissed the warnings of national security guru Richard Clarke as the rantings of a Clinton-era Cassandra. Recall that it was Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush who allowed Osama bin Laden to avoid a Tora Bora capture or cave-in by shifting America’s military priorities to their war of choice, Iraq.

 

And then there’s the strategy, per se, of al-Qaeda.

 

To be sure, fundamentalist killers were disrupted in their communications and money laundering by steps taken by the Bush Administration. But al-Qaeda had already made its point that America was not untouchable.

 

David Kilcullen, the Australian counterinsurgency expert who wrote The Accidental Guerrilla, quotes bin Laden (from 2004) on al-Qaeda’s post-9/11 tactics: “All we have to do is send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a cloth on which is written ‘al-Qaeda,’ in order to make the (U.S.) generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses…so we are continuing this policy of bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.”

 

Moreover, why risk re-ceding the moral high ground that was accorded the U.S. immediately after 9/11 by most of the world?

 

And then there’s the more personal level.

 

It’s altogether plausible that Cheney was tired of having been a second banana to a junior executive for so long. He was smart enough to be a puppet master but not providential enough to be president.  

 

Grabbing the bully pulpit on national security was a way of addressing that accident of history. Now was certainly not the time to emulate the classy code of partisan silence being invoked by former President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

 

And going public was also a way of guaranteeing the highest possible bid for the memoir Cheney is known to be shopping around.