What Stogie Had For Lunch

Hot Dog, Chips and Drink $3.50
Dairy Joy 3813 S Manhattan Ave in Tampa
Great deal, tasty dog with mustard, onions and horseradish on a toasted bun. 

Fight Scott's Voter Purge

With the ink barely dry on the U.S. Supreme Court’s awful ruling to gut the Voting Rights Act, Gov. Scott has announced he plans to resume his recklessly partisan, undemocratic voter purge. We know what this is - Gov. Scott is getting desperate as poll numbers paint a dire picture of his reelection. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court just made it easier for Scott to make it harder for some Floridians to vote.Last year, Gov. Scott’s administration began purging alleged “non-citizens” from the voter rolls without seeking the Justice Department’s approval. Not only did Scott’s administration likely violate the Voting Rights Act at the time, but it was quickly revealed that the data used to purge the rolls was severely flawed. Bill Internicola, a 91-year-old World War II veteran, was one of many legitimate voters caught up in Gov. Scott’s flawed voter purge. The purge list mostly targeted minority voters with 58% of the list being Hispanic voters.

here

Florida's Castle Doctrine

Rick Scott finally came home from self-exile and met with protesters who are occupying the Capitol to seek repeal of the state's "stand your ground" law. In the end, the protesters made their case, and Scott was insistent that the self-defense law should remain on the books.......here
Stand your ground’ laws not just GOP policy. The Florida House vote was 92-20. Twelve Democrats voted in favor.......here

Justice For Horsley Shorter Jr

What is wrong with Florida's Legal and judicial System? This poor guy spends 26 years in the military, comes home safe to live out his life and then this career criminal who has been arrested on 37 felony charges and 25 misdemeanor charges since he was 14 comes along and shoots him dead. What happen to those private prisons republicans like so much. Don't they make money by having cells occupied.

here

Tampa Bay Homeless

Meet Shane, He is a local from Ybor City.Told me he lives in a tent. He said local shelters are nothing but a scam.

Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me

Boycott Florida

Check out the petition by MoveOn. Petition Statement: We're boycotting Florida tourism until the "stand your ground" law is overturned. Your state is not a safe place to vacation if your citizens are able to kill anyone they deem suspicious. here
Check out the page on Facebook. On Twitter and Facebook a number of hashtags — #BoycottFlorida, #BoycottFloridaTourism and #NotFlorida — have been created in support of boycotting Florida over the Zimmerman ruling. Marco Rubio called talk of a boycott of Florida "outrageous" and "divisive" Friday during a stop in Orlando. The Gov. said he hopes Florida withstands talk of boycott.

Oops, 2013 School District Report Card

Hillsborough County got a D, Pinellas got an A. How did that happen?
here 
April Griffin, Carol W. Kurdell , Doretha W. Edgecomb, Candy Olson, Cindy Stuart, Susan L. Valdes, Stacy R.White. Ask them here

Trayvon Martin Protest In Tampa

Sam Gibbons Federal Court House in Tampa

The Merchants Of Ybor

Gaby and Manny of Mace Multimedia  with Mo and Ester of Local Shops 1 at
Hamburger Mary's in Ybor City.

Tampa Bay Homeless

Homeless Living In Tampa
 Item #60 on the City Council Agenda. to be homeless within the Tampa city limits.
"Jail does nothing to solve the problem. It only tries to make the problem invisible. It's not even a Band-Aid," said Heather Curry, Ph.D. student at USF
"The wind has been taken out of my sails," said Steven Sapp, publisher of the Tampa Epoch and long-time homeless advocate. "What happened to unbiased journalism, focused on facts? I expected more out of the Tampa Bay Times and the new Tampa Tribune. They are doing nothing more than spreading false information and mostly grouping aggressive panhandling (ordinance 59) with sleeping outdoors (ordinance 60)."
The homeless advocates are disappointed, but are far from giving up. Future plans of the group include creating a network of organizations that focus on homeless relief, community awareness events, and advocating for Housing First models such as Resurrection House in Sarasota......more
Council members Mulhern, Reddick and Capin first trying to get a 90-day continuance and then voting no when they failed to delay the vote.

Let's Kick Miami's Ass

Local foodie blogger Carlos Hernandez had a vision, now more than 100 food trucks will assemble at the Florida Fairgrounds in Tampa in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest rally, and word on the street is Miami is mad. If successful, this will trounce the record set in April in Miami when 62 trucks convened at Magic City Casino.  "Some of the local promoters in Miami have some objections to this," said Jeremy Gomez, one of the organizers of the Tampa rally. "The promoters are very cutthroat and they've been telling their trucks that if they come to our event they won't use them anymore. They just don't want us to take their record." Sef Gonzalez, the Miami guy says this is bunk.  here

Ringmaster Rick Scott

Made CREW'S List of worst governors.
here Thay say he is a ringmaster.

On Ed Snowden's "Oppressive Regime Tour"

Deborah Newell Tornello
For those who argue--ridiculously--that Edward Snowden should have "faced the music" and stayed in the US rather than "tour the oppressive, anti-human-rights regimes of the world", a little reminder: Neither Russia, nor Ecuador, nor Venezuela, nor Cuba, The United States? We put 43 human beings to death in 2011 alone.
here

What Stogie Had For Lunch

 The Cuban Mary
With Black Bean Soup
$6.95 at Hamburger Mary in Ybor City 

Republicans Will Be Crucified By The Hispanic Media

 Jorge Ramos,  the “Walter Cronkite of Hispanic media said in an interview that Boehner and fellow House Republicans will get absolutely crucified by the Hispanic media if Republicans fail to support comprehensive reform. Ramos says, the bulk of the coverage in Hispanic media strongly suggests it will be hard for Republicans to avoid most or all the blame if it fails. “In the end, you just have to follow Hispanic media,” Ramos says. “The question is, who is responsible for failure? So far, the answer is Republicans.”

here

The Despicable And Pathetic Right Wing

 Lester Chambers  attacked on stage for dedicating a song to Trayvon Martin......here
The has-been rocker Ted Nugent blames Trayvon Martin for shooting in George Zimmerman case, calling the late teen 'a dope smoking, racist gangsta wannabe'.....here
Geraldo (Thinks he is a journalist) Rivera's claim that Martin brought about his own death
by dressing in a hooded sweatshirt the night of the killing was shocking, but not
surprising. Echoing earlier comments he made on the program, Rivera proclaimed:
\"You dress like a thug, people are going to treat you like a thug.".....here
 Prominent conservative websites published fake photos of Martin.....here
The Sanford Police leaked irrelevant, negative information about Martin....here
Race-baiters,’ ‘hustlers,’ and ‘pimps’: right wing attacks on civil rights leaders....here
Why The Right-Wing Media Spent 16 Months Smearing A Dead Teenager.....here
If Mr. Zimmerman was such a good neighborhood watchman and neighbor as one juror said he would of asked Mr. Martin to get out of the rain and given him a ride home.

Drones Falling Out Of Sky In Panhandle

The town of Deer Trail, Colorado is considering an ordinance that would create a license and bounty for hunters to shoot down drones. “We do not want drones in town,” Phillip Steel, the Deer Trail, Colo., resident who drafted the ordinance, told Denver’s ABC7 affiliate.
 “They fly in town, they get shot down.”
The Town of Deer Trail shall issue a reward of $100 to any shooter who presents a valid hunting license and the following identifiable parts of an unmanned aerial vehicle whose markings and configuration are consistent with those used on any similar craft known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government.....here

Stevie Wonder Reacts to Zimmerman Trial Verdict

What Stogie Had For Lunch

Raw Oysters
At Gaspar's Patio in Temple Terrace

Right Wing Attacks Move On

MoveOn's site just weathered a massive anonymous online attack—the biggest in our 15-year history. The attack seems to have been sparked by an NAACP petition calling for a Department of Justice investigation into the death of Trayvon Martin.

here

South Florida Anti-War Group Protest

 Despite a flood advisory and severe weather warnings, over 15 people gathered outside the U.S. Federal Building in downtown on July 13 for a vigil in solidarity with those who have fallen victim to U.S. drone strikes abroad......more

John Oliver Names Florida 'Worst State

According to current Florida law, you can get a gun, follow an unarmed minor, call the police, have them explicitly tell you to stop following them, then choose to ignore that, keep following the minor, get into a confrontation with them. and if at any point during that process, you get scared, you can shoot the minor to death, and the state of Florida will say, "Well, look, you did what you could."

Latinos Will Blame GOP Bigotry

If right-wing Republicans were to kill comprehensive immigration reform, that would make it the second time in six years they have successfully done so......here
“Voting against this bill is a disaster for the Republican Party…They need to be reminded there are sound policy reasons to vote for it but also significant political reasons as well.” Sen.Michael Bennet of Colorado
"The GOP will be blamed and "our party is in trouble with Hispanics." Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
"Don't Blame me if Latinos Don't Vote Republican." Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio
And check out Sens. Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz attackeing the recently passed immigration bill in the Senate
to chants of “kill the bill” from a swelling crowd at the D.C. March for Jobs rally. A woman from Florida told
the Washington Free Beacon “Marco Rubio is a traitor to Florida and the United States,” she refused to give
her name, citing fears of being audited by the IRS......here
Take notes kids, you are watching the end of a once great political party.

Trayvon Martin Civil Rights Act

Protesters occupy Rick Scott's office in Tallahassee to demand an end to Stand Your Ground law. The activists, known as the Dream Defenders, made other demands, too. They want Scott to convene a special session of the Florida Legislature to address racial profiling, zero tolerance policies in schools, and the so-called school-to-prison pipeline.
here

I Ordered A Riot And All I Get Is A Folk Festival?

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive

Stephen Colbert dedicated a “Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger” segment to America’s non-rioting African-Americans and to the Fox News Channel. In Tallahassee, Florida, a group of protesters sang quietly on the steps of the state capitol building. “‘Sang quietly?’” Colbert scoffed. “I ordered a riot and all I get is a folk festival? Stop singing ‘If I Had a Hammer’ and and start swinging one around.”

It Must Be A Bitch Being Black

to follow up on Pilar's post "Florida Coward" of a couple of days ago. Here is a 17 year old kid walking home after a snack run. This man starts to follow him, approaches with out identifying himself as Neighborhood Watch, they get into a fight. Then because he starts to get his ass kicked by a 17 year old he pulls out his gun and shoots, not in the air to scare him or arm or leg to wound him no he shoots him in the heart to kill him. Just what you are suppose to do to use the stand your ground law, the law he told a surprised Sean Hannity he knew nothing about. After all dead men tell no tale. When the cops show up he claims self defense. no investigation like maybe look for witness, no, they just let him go. No big deal just another dead black guy. It took a public outcry for the state to step in. i have been in the recovery Industry for over 20 years. i would roam the streets in the middle of the night looking for cars to reprocess. Not once in those 20 years did i ever have a black man sitting on me. and think about this i was doing alot more then just following someone around, i was trying to take their cars. i was thought to treat people with respect and take control of the situation. it worked for me, not once did i ever have to resort to violence, in fact by the end of the encounter people were thanking me for taking their cars. The prosecutors refused to bring up race but i will. this had everything to do with race. I still cant believe what one of the defense lawyer said after the verdict. "If Zimmerman had been black he would of never been charged." He might be partly right after Sanford PD had finished kicking his ass there would of been no one to charge. 

Jessica Ehrlich for Congress

Check out Jessica Ehrlich a St. Petersburg native who is running for Congress in Florida's 13th District. She out raises Bill Young. one of the local Republicans who just voted for billions of dollars in corporate welfare to agriculture Interest  but refuse to adequately fund or even take up legislation for a program that provides food aid to 47 million Americans, about half of them childrenWe didn’t just outraise him, we nearly doubled him - almost $154,000 to just $86,000 in the first three months of our campaign. In those three months, we raised more than Young raised in six!
Help her out here

Am I Suspicious?

business As Usual For David Gee

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office did not formally discipline any of its employees in the aftermath of a disastrous series of misjudgments that left a jail inmate going nearly 36 hours without treatment for a fatal stroke, agency officials said this week. Allen Daniel Hicks Sr., 51, was arrested in May 2012 by the Florida Highway Patrol after crashing his car into a guardrail on Interstate 275. Confused and unable to use the left side of his body, he was booked into the Hillsborough jail system and spent much of the next two days sprawled motionless on the floor of a cell. Hicks was finally sent to Tampa General Hospital and diagnosed with an ischemic stroke after a jail nurse found him lying in his own urine. He died from the stroke in August 2012. This year, the Sheriff's Office and Armor Correctional Health Services, the private contractor that handles prisoners' medical care, paid Hicks' heirs $1 million in a wrongful-death settlement.
here and here

Anti-Bullying In Florida

here

Tampa Bay Republicans: Fuck The Poor

Hungry Americans should long remember the vote taken last week by the House to endanger the nation's food stamp program. House Republicans stripped the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program out of the farm bill, where it had been since 1973, and then passed the legislation without a single Democratic vote. House Republicans are fine with spending billions of dollars to subsidize farmers, but they refuse to adequately fund or even take up legislation for a program that provides food aid to 47 million Americans, about half of them children. Every Republican member of Congress from the Tampa Bay area should explain why feeding hungry children is less important than crop insurance for agribusiness.
here
Republican members of the House from the Tampa Bay area who voted for the stand-alone farm bill last week, Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Palm Harbor; Richard Nugent, Spring Hill; Dennis Ross, Lakeland; C.W. Bill Young, Indian Shores; and Vern Buchanan, Sarasota. Only Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Tampa, voted against the bill. I hope you remember them come election day.
Republican Party’s Top Priorities

George Zimmerman: Florida Coward

Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville who is black fired warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.....here. George Zimmerman of Sanford who is white or hispanic what ever he wants to call himself racial profiles, stalks and kills Trayvon Martin a 17 year old African-American kid walking home goes free. You mean to tell me that a man that takes self-defense classes 3 days a week, outweighs Mr. Martin by 70 pounds can not defend himself short of shooting him. This trial was a sham from the begining. They never wanted to prosecute this man and only did it after public pressure. Florida state attorney Angela Corey who was appointed by Rick Scott as Special Prosecutor to investigate the killing and was the one who prosecuted Marissa Alexander was smiling like she just won the Super Bowl after the verdict. They should all be fired. Hopefully the Justice Department will go ahead with it's civil rights case. Mr Zimmerman is nothing but a coward, you don't bring a gun to a fist fight. His name is now synonymous with cowardness and will be for the rest of his life. Get use to it Georgie! Sign the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder here.

Trying To Shield Marco Rubio on Immigration Reform

Legalize Gay Marriage In Florida

Florida Legislators: Bring marriage equality to the ballot. Petition by Matthew Feck of Apollo Beach
Sign Here

A Conversation With Gwen Graham

EDWIN NARAIN STATE REPRESENTATIVE CANDIDATE

Spoke at the monthly meeting of the East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership. . He wants to replace State Rep. Betty Reed, who is term-limited after serving four terms in the House. The district includes Seminole Heights, East Tampa, Ybor City and West Tampa. Narain is an area manager for AT&T. He serves on the board of the Hillsborough County Head Start Policy Council and formerly was a member of the Hillsborough Community Action Board. He is earning a law degree from Stetson University. As an undergraduate, he was student body president at the University of South Florida. He faulted Gov. Rick Scott for not accepting federal money to expand the Medicaid program. "That is our money," Narain said. "It's shameful we don't expand Medicaid and Obamacare right here in Florida." He also opposes a so-called "parent trigger" bill. Check him out here

Tony in Tampa

His blood pressure spikes over leftist agenda. So he called Rush to tell him about it. RUSH: Here's Tony in Tampa. I'm glad you called, sir. It's great to have you here. Tony: Yeah. Thanks, Rush. Could you imagine if a Republican had this miserable, destructive record that Obama has with the unending golf, the never-ending vacations? You could imagine what the likes of Chris Matthews, that Sleeping Beauty Bob Beckel, Knee-Jerk Geraldo, Juan Williams, and Alan Colmes would do. They'd be crawling the walls! They would be threatening to gas themselves right on the air. It would be a billion-man march. Every street would be clogged with people. You wouldn't be able to get your car out of the driveway! You'd be eating pinto beans for weeks on end. More of Tony's call here

Tony as fellowTampans we suggest you get your head out of your ass, stop making a fool of yourself on the radio and do a little research. You might want to start here and check this out from Fact Check,or you can Google it and you will find all kinds of stuff. Oh wait, this is the Liberal media.

What Stogie Had For Lunch

Shrimp with Lobster Sauce With fried rice and a drink $4.99 at Taste of China in Tampa

Tampa Slumlord William A. "Hoe" Brown

Chairman of the Tampa Port Authority,a Rick Scott appointee and prominent Republican fundraiser, has been running an illegal rental property that Tampa's code enforcement director calls "deplorable" and "not fit for human habitation." "It's shocking. People shouldn't have to live like that," said Jake Slater, Tampa's director of neighborhood empowerment, who termed the squalor among the worst he's ever seen.....more

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.
more

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.

more

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