Author: opinionstogo

Bob Graham Blasts Post 9/11 Foreign Policy

Should George W. Bush not be re-elected, there will be considerable speculation about where Sen. Bob Graham’s name will be on several John Kerry Administration short lists. That includes the CIA, where some think Graham could confer, in effect, footnote status upon Porter Goss — for having the shortest tenure of any CIA director.

For now, however, the outgoing, three-term Florida senator — and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee — isn’t encouraging any such speculation. He dismissed such scenarios and told a recent luncheon crowd at the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa that he was more interested in enjoying his 11 grandchildren.

What he wasn’t reluctant to offer, though, were criticisms of America’s intelligence failures leading up to Sept. 11 and denunciations of subsequent Bush Administration missteps. The former were familiar assertions from his book, “Intelligence Matters.” The latter largely focused on the decision to go to war in Iraq — at the expense of flushing out Osama bin Laden. Some outtakes:

*”We’re no longer protected by oceans. We need anticipatory information. This is an enemy that was less known to us than the Soviets were in 1947. A tribe of tribes

Central Park: Plan C

For those who have been following the sad soap opera that is the crumbling, 28-acre Central Park Village — and its seedy environs — it has come down to this. If all goes well with a Tampa public housing plan, the 484-unit CPV, the nether world between downtown and Ybor City, could become a nicer public housing project — still surrounded by all that seediness. That will have to qualify as progress.

When the Hillsborough County Commission nixed the Civitas proposal, a public-private partnership that planned a mix of subsidized and market-priced housing on 157 acres, it eliminated the only scenario for meaningful success.

Then the Tampa Housing Authority was forced to scramble — unsuccessfully — to land a federal grant to replace the complex.

Now there’s a new plan afoot — cobbled from low-interest, tax-exempt bonds plus HUD tax credits and project-improvement funds — calling for a $56-million, 590-unit “Historic Central Park.”

For the residents and the city, anything is better than the status quo. But that never should have been the standard.

Voter Responsibility Should Count

We really don’t ask much of voters in this country.

We’re not particularly interested in their literacy or familiarity with the issues. Early and absentee voting obviates the need to queue up at the polls. We just want them to participate and respond — if that’s what it takes — to get-out-the-vote campaigns, whether sponsored by hip-hop performers, swift boat vets or Michael Moore-ons.

But is it asking too much of voters to register properly? The Florida Voter Registration Form requires an answer to an inarguably pertinent question: Are you a U.S. citizen? It then provides two boxes, labeled appropriately enough “Yes” and “No.”

Secretary of State Glenda Hood, while not necessarily the paragon of all things bipartisan, says an unchecked “Yes” box is a pretty good reason to deny a vote. Others, such as the League of Women Voters, Florida ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and the Kerry campaign, are crying foul — or at least much ado about a technicality.

Such scenarios of sloppiness tend to proliferate where there are third-party groups doing the registering — as in Florida. It also appears would-be Democratic voters are largely affected.

Pasco Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning put it best: “Voters have to take some responsibility to make sure that form is completed.”

What a concept.

Uniform Recognition For USF

In many contexts USF is still a relative upstart in the world of big-time college athletics. So, it’s noteworthy that the Bulls were prominently mentioned in “Sports Illustrated’s” 50th Anniversary Issue. Among all the chronicling of a half-century’s worth of prominent players, big games and notable trends.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that SI focused on the female basketball player who, as a recent convert to Islam, had wanted to take the court and represent USF in a Muslim head scarf, long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Ultimately the student, Andrea Armstrong, left the team amid an unfortunate, if predictable, backlash of negative public opinion.

Included in the SI piece was this quote from Ahmed Bedier, a spokesman for the Council of American-Islamic Relations: “Had Andrea been a Buddhist, Jew or even a Satan worshipper, she would not have sparked this kind of controversy.”

That’s probably true unless, of course, the Satan-worshipping power forward was holding out for a devilishly customized look. Or she wanted to wear a Gators’ jersey.

Needless to say, these are extraordinarily sensitive times for all post-9/11 Americans. We can’t mandate that ethnocentrism be purged; xenophobia be banned; or common sense be uniformly applied.

But we should be able to say to public university, scholarship-subsidized athletes: You can wear your religion on your sleeve — of your uniform.

Freedumb Flag Flap

Here’s a suggestion to the administration of Tampa’s Freedom High School. You’re the adults; act like it.

Allowing an arbitrary rule about a national flag (that of Colombia) — during Hispanic Heritage Month — to fuel a furor of student overreaction and suspensions is an absolute abdication of common sense. How would you handle a real problem?

Freedom’s Hispanic enrollment is about 18 percent. Whatever demographic fissures might have existed, it’s likely some have now become fault lines. Quite the educational experience.

NASCAR Priorities

Let’s hear it, albeit temperately, for NASCAR. It made good on a warning to its drivers that swearing in broadcast interviews wouldn’t be tolerated. So it fined Dale Earnhardt and assessed him a stiff 25-point penalty. He had blurted out on air — in Victory Lane — that his win at the EA Sports 500 at Talladega “don’t mean shit, (oops, earthy expletive).”

Of course NASCAR had been motivated by the Federal Communications Commission’s crackdown on foul language over the airways. But it’s more than that.NASCAR is alone among the major sorts in this country in ensuring that its well-cultivated fan base — including a number of families — always comes first. This is a function of that. A refreshing one.

Riverfront Hat Trick

Mayor Pam Iorio’s recent announcement to set aside primo real estate for the new home of the Children’s Museum of Tampa spoke volumes about the city’s commitment to the downtown riverfront. The property, worth some $3 million, is adjacent to the Poe Parking garage and near the proposed Riverwalk along the Hillsborough River and just north of the future Tampa Museum of Art. It had been ogled as a condo tower during the last days of the Greco administration, but Iorio never signed off on it and looked to a more public use.

The new, 25,000-square-foot Children’s Museum would be part of a nationwide trend — and could attract an estimated 100,000 visitors a year. Its projected opening is 2007. A $10-million capital campaign would still await.

Also in the wings — a Pamglossian scenario: Key cultural synergy with the new art museum and the Performing Arts Center; a leg up on downtown as more of a destination point; and the opportunity for critically important, early learning activities and experiences for children.

That may be as close to a hat trick as we’ll see around here for a while.

Debris Tip

Call this a public service tip.

Chances are there are other MacKay Bay Transfer Station rookies out there, who need to clear debris and all kinds of junk quicker than the city can officially get around to it. Thanks to some three dozen decrepit, raftered screens that have been displaced in my garage by plywood, I had reason to come calling on MacKay at 112 South 34th St., about a half-mile south (on the left) of Adamo Drive.

It’s an easy process to drive in and drop off — and a lot of it is gratis.

Here’s what’s free of charge: appliances (2 per visit); televisions (2 per visit); carpet; tires (4 per visit); furniture and mattresses; yard waste (no stumps over 100 lbs. or limbs over 4 feet in length.)

Here’s what you pay a fee for: commercial waste; items delivered in commercial vehicles; large quantities of items that appear to come from a commercial establishment; construction debris such as bricks, tile, concrete, plywood, roofing material, plaster, cabinets, doors, windows, etc.; large automotive parts; household garbage; and mixed loads of free and chargeable items.

Hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Wednesday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed on Sunday. Phone number is 242-5320.

By the way, it cost about $4 to jettison those screens.

Castor’s South Florida Strategy

Before the senate primary campaign was over, the Betty Castor campaign was already busy allocating resources and strategizing in South Florida about the general election. Not that the campaign was overconfident — although the polls consistently had accorded Castor a double-digit lead over eventual runner-up Peter Deutsch — just that it knew its chances against the Republican nominee could depend significantly on South Florida scenarios. To wit: Would the support of Congressman Deutsch and Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas prove to be token or true? Would there be a meaningful get-out-the-vote effort on behalf of Castor?

Still fresh in the collective Democrat memory was the ill-fated Bill McBride gubernatorial campaign after the narrow primary win over South Florida native and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. There was never any coalescing of the Reno constituency — card-carrying Dems and minorities — for McBride in the general election. More like a groundswell of indifference. Could there be a reprise in the works?

For the record, the Castor camp doubts such a scenario and remains optimistic about South Florida support.

“A presidential year is much different,” reminds Castor Communications Director Matt Burgess. “Democrats who may not turn out for a gubernatorial race turn out in much higher numbers for a presidential race.

“Congressman Deutsch has been helping with fund raising, and some of the Penelas staff have actually come aboard and are helping with Hispanic outreach,” adds Burgess. “Betty’s been down there quite a bit already. We’re thrilled with the support we’re seeing.”

The Three Amigoons

What could be more appropriate than naming the new Ybor City Post Office, set to open later this year, after Ybor icon Roland Manteiga? The late publisher of the influential weekly, La Gaceta, was a tireless advocate for Tampa’s historic Latin Quarter.

Hardly matters, however, to the usual suspects: U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, the three hard-line Cuban-Americans from South Florida. They are derailing the effort because they can’t countenance the thought that anyone who wasn’t against Fidel Castro from the revolutionary get-go could be worthy of having a local post office named after him.

Presumably, the Fulgencio Batista Post Office would be more appropriate.