EMILY’s List Endorses Gwen Graham

EMILY’s List has endorsed Gwen Graham in her race to unseat Congressman Steve Southerland in Florida’s Second Congressional District. EMILY’s List, with more than two million members, works to elect strong female candidates who are willing to stand up for women and families in Washington......here

Rick Scott: Every Floridian Should Be A Republican

Rick Scott spoke to a bunch of Dixiecrats in Graceville, a North Florida town where folks still call themselves Democrats in part because their ancestors did, but they vote Republican in statewide elections. 100 people hung out with the Gov.dressed in jeans and a checkered shirt at the Circle Grill to shake his hand and hear him explain the benefits of Republicanism. It's difficult to find the benefits in Graceville's faded downtown. Lets give the panhandle to Georgia and Alabama or we can ask the Feds to let us become the 51st state. We can just draw a line across the state just below Ocala. .....here

The Lens In St. Pete

Supporters of the Lens have formed a political action committee and launched a website..... here

MacDill Air Force Base In Tampa

 Apparently all it takes to get into MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa which is home to two of the nation's premier combat commands - U.S. Special Operations Command and Central Command is a garbage can. Just ask Suzanne M. Jensen who has done it four times.....more

Flooded Bike Route

In Tampa

What Stogie Had For Lunch

Ropa Vieja
With black beans and yellow rice.
$3.99 at Las Palmas Supermarket In South Tampa.

"To Protect And Serve

Allen Daniel Hicks Sr
Poor guy, he has a stroke on I275 in Tampa and pulls over. When the the cops show up instead of calling EMS they pulled him out of the car, arrested him on a charge of obstructing a law enforcement officer when he did not respond to commands to exit his car and sent him to the Orient Road Jail where he did not receive a medical screening, but was put in a cell where he lay facedown on the floor or tried to crawl using the one working side of his body soaked in his own urine, his brain choked of blood, 36 hours later he was at last taken to Tampa General Hospital and diagnosed with an ischemic stroke. He slipped into a coma and died within three months. His family gets 1 million. How
 sad that we are treated this way by the people we pay to protect us.
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Tampa Bay Newspapers

The Tampa Bay Times on the left, the Tampa Tribune on the right
and Stars and Stripes in the center.

Marco Rubio A Piece Of Garbage?

According to the pitbull of the Republican Party Ann Coulter

It seems he is being courted by the right-wing to take up ban on abortions at 20 weeks. Remember his championing of immigration reform caused him to lose some luster among some conservatives. Rubio is considering becoming lead sponsor of legislation to ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization. Anti-abortion groups have asked Rubio to take the lead, and while his office says no final decision has been made, the senator is expected to sign on this week after returning from a family vacation. I have always stayed away from this issue becouse i am a man and this is a woman thing and it is none of my business. I can say that i find 20 weeks more then enough time. I mean this is 5 months more then half of the 9 month term.

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Tampa And Miami In Cold War Over Cuban Trade

We Were Here First
Tampa, whose Cuban population first came from the island in the 1800s, has spent the past decade on a careful plan to build relationships with Cuban officials.
here
Help, end the war on the Cuban people, they are being held hostage by a 
rabid  right-wing anti-Castro minority in South Florida.

The Stogie: 2073

A group of North Florida lawmakers met with governor Chiles in the South Florida capital "Progress" on monday to voice their concern with the large number of bars, casinos, marijuana dispensaries, brothels and womens health clinics that have sprung up along the state line on the South Florida side. Since the the creation of the new state of South Florida in 2026 North Florida residents have been flocking over the state line to get the services they cannot get at home. Governor chiles voiced concerns of her own. the north has installed checkpoints on interstates 75 and 95 and other major roads headed north. South Florida residents feel like they cannot leave the state without their cars being serched.
More on what this blog and the state of Florida might look like 60 years in the future.
click here

Work Will Make Tampa Roads Safer For Cyclists And Walkers

Work will be getting under way this summer to make some of Hillsborough County's most dangerous road segments safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Tampa Bay is one of the nation's most dangerous metro areas for pedestrians and bicyclists. According to a 2011 study by the group Transportation for America. Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner took note of the grim statistics and asked the Metropolitan Planning Organization to study bike and pedestrian safety in unincorporated areas of the county.

here

The Heart Of America: Ocala, Florida

Larry Klayman the Judicial Watch founder, conservative attack dog and wingnut lawyer says he will save the legacy of the country’s founders with his “citizens’ grand jury” investigating the Obama administration. It was for that reason that I took it upon myself to exercise the God-given rights of citizens to control their own fate and initiate citizens' grand juries in a place that represents the heart of America: Ocala, Fla. Ocala, which sits in historic Marion County, is a place that is down to earth, generally conservative in its way of life and thought, and very religious and forward thinking. The list of criminal charges emanating from Ocala is growing, and it could prove endless. This is the same guy that said jews are behind gay marriage and the IRS Scandal.
here
Religious and forward thinking?

Lakeland Preacher: Live Porn Free

Baptist preacher Jay Dennis of the First Baptist Church at the Mall in Lakeland, Florida launched a campaign at the Southern Bapstist Concention annual meeting in Houston this week to get “One Million Men” to destroy their porn stashes and live “porn free.”
here

Europe's No Fly Zone

Bolivian President's Plane Rerouted

I find it disgusting how European powers and the US have always treated Latin America. First the colonization and pillage of their natural resouses, surviving Washington's 20th-century history of backing repressive regimes and now the humiliation of one its leaders. France, Italy, and Portugal  should be ashamed. Could you imagined if this happen to our president. Why because he is a leftist they think they can get away with it. And what gives Austria and Spain the right to board and search his plane. This is a violation of national sovereignty. Hopefully these country's were not following orders from the Obama administration as President Morales seems to think
 Morales again blamed Washington for pressuring European countries to refuse to allow his plane to fly through their airspace on Tuesday, forcing it to land in Vienna.
and they were just kissing Americas ass. South America's leftist leaders rallied to support him and he warn that he would close the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia if necessary.
more
The Guardian is reporting: The Obama administration has taken a step that will resound through Latin American history. Someone almost certainly in Washington – arranged for France, Italy, and Portugal to deny his plane use of their airspace. It was forced to land for refueling in Austria.
here

Tim Hardaway Use To Hate Gay People

Former Miami Heat player Tim Hardaway use to hate gay people. He responded to John Amaechi's coming out in 2007 by declaring "I hate gay people," But he has changed his views. He was the first petition-signer on the Equal Marriage Florida effort to put a proposed constitutional amendment legalizing same-sex marriage in the state on the November 2014 ballot and has become an advocate for LGBT youth.

here

Happy Independence Day Tampa Bay

July Fourth events in bay area.
here

Jeb Bush Fundraises For Tea Party Governor

Jeb Bush on Tuesday attended a fundraiser for Maine’s Tea Party-backed Gov. Paul LePage. LePage is best known nationally for comparing Obamacare to Hitler’s Gestapo and telling the Portland NAACP branch to “kiss my butt.” Last month in the midst of a budget squabble with the legislature he said regarding State Sen.Troy Jackson, “Sen. Jackson claims to be for the people but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline.” Even his own party is embarrassed of him.
here
At Salon: Why is “sensible” Jeb Bush fundraising for nutty Paul LePage? The Maine governor seems to embody
everything Bush criticizes about his own party.
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Alan Grayson: Republicans Are Callous Bigoted Tools

Many of them (Republicans), as I said before, are callous bigoted tools. I take no pleasure in saying that. Well, yes, I do, actually.-Rep. Alan Grayson.
Alan Grayson: A Congressman with Guts

None Of The Above

Right Wing blogger Javier Manjarres has a poll on his blog Shark Tank on who should run For president in 2016. Here are his choices.
 Sarah Palin, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Allen West, Donald Trump or Rick Santorum. Right now Rand Paul is winning. If this is all they got, they are in trouble.
here
Sorry, none of the above was not listed.

florida's Land And Legacy Amendment

There's a once in a lifetime opportunity to ensure Florida protects its precious waters, wildlife, and open spaces, and we can't afford to let it pass us by. Florida’s Water and Land Legacy Campaign is working to place an historic conservation amendment on the November 2014 ballot that would ensure Florida is annually investing in critical land conservation. We need to gather 150,000 more signatures from Florida voters in the next five months. Please sign petition

Ben And Duncan's Family Blog

Copper And Wool the blog of the Kirby Family adventures from Gulfport, Florida and beyond. Ben Kirby of The Spencerian and his wife Duncan have started a new family blog. Welcome back, we have missed you guys.

Check them out here

3 Boys Farm Tee Shirt

One of Stogie's favorite local blogger Litbrit and her husband own 3 Boys Farm (Fresh, Florida organic pesticide-free grown food year-round). Check out their new T-Shirt.

here

Court Replaces Voting Rights Act with Katherine Harris Acts

Grand OLD Party

Greg Palast writes, they might as well have burned a cross on Dr. King's grave. Last year, the GOP Secretary of State of Florida Ken Detzner tried to purge 180,000 Americans, mostly Hispanic Democrats, from the voter rolls. He was attempting to break Katherine Harris' record. Detzner claimed that all these Brown folk were illegal "aliens." I'll admit there were illegal aliens on Florida's voter rolls – two of them. Let me repeat that: TWO aliens'–One a US Marine serving in Iraq (not yet a citizen); the other an Austrian who registered as a Republican. We can go from state to state in Dixie and see variations of the Florida purge game.

here

They know this is the only way they can win. The wealthy are but a few, and the idiots who keep voting against their own interest are dying off. Officials in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama — all states that were covered by the Voting Rights Act right up until Tuesday morning — started announcing their states' previously blocked voter ID laws would take effect immediately. They must not realize that the more they push the more we thrive. Look at what happen in this past election, their best effort at voter suppression failed. We came out in huge numbers. They lost hispanics, African Americans, women, young people and even the Cuban Americans in Miami voted  against them, something that i tought i would never see in my lifetime. They are making fools of themselves all over the country. (Michele bachmann, Jodie Laubenberg,Todd Akin, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Paul LePage) Look at what happened in Texas this past week, this wasn't just a state thing the whole country saw it. The only reason they control the house is becouse of gerrymandering. Just look at what they are doing to Wendy Davis:

the good ol' boy network in Texas has pretty much ensured Ms. Davis won't be reelected in 2014. After SCOTUS gutted section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the Republican leadership is now free to implement the previously ruled unconstitutional gerrymandered redistricting in Texas. Wendy Davis represents a district in Fort Worth that contains a vast majority of minority citizens. The new district as of today has split those minority citizens placing them in three different white districts. This will not only make her reelection almost impossible, it also takes away the strong advocacy that Ms. Davis has provided during her tenure.

here

The Republican party is history.

Tampa Bay Homeless

Meet Marco
He is from Detroit. He has been homeless 2 years.

The Stone Soup Company

What Stogie had for lunch
Lobster Bisque
At The Stone Soup Company in Ybor City. More here.

Alan Grayson: Uncle Sam = Big Brother?

In George Orwell's novel 1984, "Big Brother" is the dictator of Oceania. No one knows whether Big Brother is a real person, or simply the personification of the dictatorship. Big Brother spies on every citizen through "telescreens." Everyone is reminded constantly, "Big Brother is Watching You."
more

Check out
Republican Dirty Tricks

Florida Elections Chief Ken Detzner

Not our job to measure voting wait times
Florida’s top elections official said Friday the state has no plans to measure where polling place lines are longest, despite the eight-hour wait times that some voters endured last fall.
here

The Cuban Sandwich Show

The Cuban Sandwich Show (July 8-August 8) is an annual one-month long series of arts and cultural events about Tampa. Events include cinema, visual arts, music, culinary arts, poetry, happenings.

info

InVision Tampa

Using federal grant dollars, InVision Tampa is creating a master plan for the City Center of Tampa, Fla., spanning from downtown to Ybor City on the east, Armenia Avenue on the west, and north along historic Nebraska Avenue to Hillsborough Avenue.

info

Tampa Bay Homeless

 Meet Shawn, he is from Alabama. He has been homeless 1 year.

The Merchants Of Ybor

Gaby and Manny of Mace Multimedia having having lunch at
Stone Soup Company in Ybor City. It's nice to see Ybor City merchants supporting each other. 
STAY LOCAL!

.Mi Gente Tampa Bay: Florida Kid Care

Local Artist Manny Potter

mannypotter.com

David Warner's Story

Our own David Warner editor at CL Tampa had his  civil union certificate signed by Howard Dean who in 2000 was the first governor to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples. His  husband was on the fundraising team for Dean.
Read his story here

Speak up Tampa Bay: Homelessness

Rick Scott Preemptively Blocks Paid Sick Leave

Florida’s Governor Rick Scott is the latest Republican to block any initiatives in his state to enact paid sick leave for workers. As attempts to dehumanize the workplace go, few could be more sadistic than forcing workers to come to work sick, but that’s precisely what the Florida legislature and Governor Rick Scott recently did. This throwback to the Satanic mills era of industrial relations came in response to a successful petition by 50,000 voters in Orange County, Florida, to place on the ballot an initiative to guarantee a certain number of paid sick days to all workers in the county. Governor Scott and the state legislature did this at the behest of some of Florida’s largest employers, including Disney World, which might otherwise have suffered the inconvenience of employees being able to go to the doctor without losing their jobs.  A survey by the advocacy group Restaurant Opportunities Centers United found 64% of food service workers have reported working while sick.

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Imagine learning that your favorite restaurant doesn’t provide paid sick days for its employees. This would mean that criminally underpaid chefs and servers would have to come to work every day, even if they’re sneezing up a storm, in order to make ends meet. Pretty gross, right?
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Tampa Bay Driverless Cars

Tampa became one step closer to driverless vehicles on Florida highways.

The Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority (THEA) voted to develop a survey on implementing autonomous vehicle technology in Hillsborough County. The study is a collaborative effort between the THEA and the University of South Florida Center for Urban Transportation Research.

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Ybor City

 

 Lazy Afternoon

Kevin Beckner Is Making Progress

The Tampa politician brings some much-needed sanity to the Hillsborough County Commission. Beckner at a victory party celebrating the repeal of Hillsborough gay pride ban at Hamburger Mary’s in Ybor City.

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Tampa Bay Homeless

 The city is one step closer to enacting a new set of restrictions on homeless people.
Council members discussed two proposed ordinances that would add more restrictions to an existing six-day-a-week ban on roadside panhandling. The first would ban panhandling near downtown, Ybor City, banks, ATMs, sidewalk cafes and transit stops in an effort to stop people from begging in places others can't easily leave. The second would prohibit people from storing their property in public, urinating in public, and sleeping or camping in parks, on sidewalks or in public rights of way.
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thankfully we have  Mary Mulhern who said the city must first increase its shelter offerings before passing an ordinance like this. Courts have ruled that cities must ensure there are adequate alternatives before banning behaviors — such as sleeping on sidewalks — that are closely associated with homelessness. She was the only council member to vote against both proposed ordinances.

Elvis Sighting In Tampa

Met him on a HART bus.He has gone green and says he has lost a lot of weight since he started riding the bus. He is looking for gigs. Call him at 813.850.3085

Local Right-Wing Reacts

 "I believe the Supreme Court made a serious mistake today when it overstepped its important, but limited role." U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla

"It impacted federal law, not state law. In 2008, Florida voters amended our constitution and said that we are a traditional marriage state — marriage is between a man and a woman. As the governor of this state, I'll uphold the law of the land, and that's the law of our state." Florida Gov. Rick Scott

"Today's Defense of Marriage Act ruling flies in the face of common sense, tradition, reason and morality." Bishop Aubrey Shines of Glory to Glory Ministries in Tampa

"America, and Florida specifically, will continue the debate and advance the truths about why marriage is between a man and a woman and why it matters for children, civil society, and the common good of society." John Stemberger, Florida Family Policy Council

"Courts at every level are definning the social fabric of America" Terry Kemple, Local Bigot
here

Turanchik Bay Lines

High-speed ferry backers to hold community meetings. The group, fronted by former Hillsborough commissioner Ed Turanchik, a lawyer with the Akerman Senterfitt firm, holds its first meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Dickman Community College Center at Hillsborough Community College's South Shore campus. The address is 551 24th St NE in Ruskin. The second meeting takes places at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Hilton Tampa Downtown in the Buccaneer B Room. The address is 211 N Tampa St.

here

Florida Gas Drilling

It is just another sunny day in sunny Florida, but on this quiet day, two men ring your doorbell. You answer, of course, and find out that these men are from Total Safety, Inc., a company contracted by the independent oil company Dan A. Hughes Company, from Beeville, Texas. They ask you to provide your contact information and any other emergency contact info, just in case disaster strikes at the drill site operating barely 1000 feet from your house. For most of the citizens of Naples, Florida, this is the first they have ever heard of drilling, in their neighborhood.

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D iscrimination At Hands On Children’s Museum in Jacksonville

Is very specific about who gets a “family membership,” specifying that a family must include one mom and one dad. Karen Lee-Duffell’s family has had a membership there for three years, but when an employee noticed she had a same-sex partner, she was told she’d have to pay more to renew this year. As far as the museum’s staff is concerned, Lee-Duffell and her partner do not constitute a family.

here
The Museum denies discrimination against renewing couple's membership.
here

Learn How To Swim Miami

By century's end, rising sea levels will turn the nation's urban fantasyland into an American Atlantis. But long before the city is completely underwater, chaos will begin.

more

You guys might also want to learn how to scuba dive. You might try Sea Dwellers Dive Center just down the road. I use them all the time.

Clean Out Rep. Jodie Laubenberg R

During a debate in the Texas House of Representatives, Rep. Jodie Laubenberg explains that rape kits will "clean out" a rape victim "basically like a D and C." D and C stand for dilation and curettage. It is an abortion procedure. It is not similar to a rape kit. Wow! Put an R at the end of his name and these people would elect Charles Manson.

Sit-In At Marco Rubio's 0ffice In Tampa

The LGBT rights group GetEQUAL--best known for its sometimes confrontational protests of Don't Ask, Don't Tell--today staged a sit-in at Florida Senator Marco Rubio's office in Tampa.

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Brew Benefit in Ybor City

You are invited to Brew Benefit in Ybor City, Sunday, June 30th from 2-5pm.
This benefit is for WMNF and Meals on Wheels.
info

Commissioners Pay Millions Of Dollars For 375 Jobs

Commissioners voted unanimously (Shame on you Mr. Beckner) to give Amazon.com millions of dollars in corporate welfare for 375 jobs. TheCommissioners were enthusiastic about the vote. Chairman Ken Hagan called it a "grand slam" A grand slam for who?

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Support Same-Sex Marriage In Florida

A group that supports same-sex marriage in Florida said Wednesday that it isn't confident an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling will nullify the state's gay marriage ban and is starting a public opinion campaign while waiting for the court to decide. The idea is to build public support for gay marriage in Florida and eventually overturn the state's ban regardless of the Supreme Court's rulings.

more, Get Engaged