Monday, September 14, 2020
Hillsborough County Corporate Welfare: $15.5 Million
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Tampa City Council Stop Wasting Our Money On Consultants
GO Hillsborough and what did that get us? The start of the solution is simple. Buy the CSX tracks and some trains. Is someone on the council also in bed with
Beth Leytham? here
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City Council remember you work for us, not FDOT. The state tried taking away the power of cities with Fracking and they lost. You want to keep your jobs or move up? Check this out!
Huntersville NC. Mayor Jill Swain and two town commissioners were booted from office because of residents’ anger about the state’s plans to widen Interstate 77 with toll lanes. here
Sunday, December 23, 2018
The 2019 Dream with Asher
Thursday, March 17, 2016
sanctions for Commissioner Sandy Murman
And Ober suggested sanctions for Commissioner Sandy Murman - and training for other commissioners - over non-criminal public records violations. here
Friday, August 7, 2015
Local Hero Guido Maniscalco
8people, most of whom wore suits (or in the case of the representative for Jeff Vinik‘s group, a dress). none of whom are believed to live in the district, and several of them representing
major business organizations.
Just like GO Hillsborough they let us think we had a say in the matter. In the end they don't give a shit what we think. After three hours of discussion, the MPO voted 13-1 to support the project. The only dissenter was Tampa City Councilman
Guido Maniscalco. here
Who is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
here
Mr. Beckner, Ms. Montelione and Mr. Miller, Shame on you!
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Sierra Club's Letter To Hillsborough County Commissioners
Monday, October 12, 2015
More Lies About GO Hillsborough
- "Based on telephone responses and town hall meetings this year, most Hillsborough County residents want to fix the roads and bridges in existence."
- ( Note chat above, this is not true. Rail IS our top priority.)
- Telephone responses here
- Voters between the ages of 18-29 were automatically eliminated.
- Taxpayers who did not vote in last year's gubernatorial election didn't get to participate in the focus groups were which conducted last November.
- Consultants only talked to Republicans without any registered Democrats, but only conservative members of the GOP who always vote in Republican primary elections were included in the Republican group.
- Those who labelled themselves as moderate or liberal Republicans were not invited to the GOP focus group.
- Participants in the focus groups were chosen from Carrollwood, Westchase, Town and Country and Brandon which means which means South Tampa, West Tampa, Central Tampa, Temple Terrace, East Tampa, Plant City, South Shore, South County and Sun City were excluded from having their voices heard in the focus groups.
- The participants were each given $75 to take part in the focus groups and among the major takeaways are , there is no sense of crisis in transportation; rail is not seen as a viable alternative; the bus system has a major image and usage problem.
- Read more about this sham here
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
GO Hillsborough Meeting Today In Temple Terrace
One of our last chances
Don't let these corporatist Republicans ruin our future.
If you Dems would of voted Pat Kemp would be in office and we would not be dealing with Higginbotham. No one even ran against Hagan.
10901 N 56th St
Temple Terrace
Friday, April 22, 2016
Tampa Vote No on Go Hillsborough
Hillsborough commissioners approve transportation plan. here
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Vote Jae Passmore For Hillsborough County Commissioner
Caps On Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Slithers Out
Worked to derail Go Hillsborough
Supported barring discrimination against LGBT
Please note: This blog takes full responsibility for this post.
Not endorsed by any candidate.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
"Go Hillsborough" Is A Sham
in Temple Terrace
Monday, March 27, 2017
State Ethics Investigation Into Sandy Murman, Ken Hagan And Bob Buckhorn
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Tampa Right Wing Attacks
But when county sheriff’s investigators last year asked Calvert and Rashid for evidence of wrong-doing, the critics came up empty. “Investigators asked if they had facts to support their claims and allegations but they had none to provide,” investigators said in records released Monday. here
Friday, December 23, 2016
Tampa's Culture Of Corruption
Friday, February 15, 2019
Community Forum on Transportation - February 13, 2019
There were about 50 people representing the interests of the public and a grand total of 3 public officials on the panel. In this first serious attempt to establish a line of communication between our government officials and the public, of the 7 members of the County Commission, only 3 bothered to answer the open invitation to attend, Commissioners Mariella Smith, Kimberly Overman and Pat Kemp. Of the 14 members of the HART Board of Directors, only 3 members attended and coincidentally they were, Mariella Smith, Kimberly Overman and Pat Kemp. Of the 7 members of the City Council of Tampa, not one councilperson showed up. In the audience, there was 1 candidate for the upcoming election for mayor, Topher Morrison, and 2 candidates for councilmen, Walter L. Smith II and John Godwin. This dismal turnout of county government officials and candidates seems to me a clear indication that, despite the rhetoric to the contrary, the large majority of present and future hopeful officials have their own agenda of how they intend to spend this new transportation windfall and have no serious interest in the wants or needs the public, who voted for the initiative and is financing it in full. I have to add that John Turanchik, the son of Ed Turanchik, candidate for mayor, spent some time outside the event handing out flyers promoting Ed's "Go Plan", his agenda for transportation. John didn't attend the event itself. If your interest is in the people who actually rely on the bus system in Hillsborough County, I can only add that, when the host of the event asked for a show of hands of how many people in the audience had taken a bus to get to the event, only 1 person, myself, raised his hand. When he asked how many WOULD have taken a bus if there was one available to get them there, nearly half the audience raised their hands. I think the host was trying to make a point of how lacking our bus system is by asking these questions but I, personally, interpreted the responses completely differently. I found the responses rather odd because the HART MetroRapid has a stop 3 blocks from the event and I find it difficult to believe that I alone among the 50 or so attendees of the forum live near enough to a bus line capable of getting me to the event. I hope you get my point.
I also hope that, in the near future, I will see a real concerted effort to establish a working relationship between our government officials and the citizens of Hillsborough County. I'd like to see the schools in the county handing out notices to their students, to take home to their parents, advertising upcoming forums in their school auditoriums. I'd like to see questionnaires on all the buses that can be filled out and returned to any driver, asking riders what they want from the new bus system and inviting them to future outreach events. I'd like to see an upsurge by the public, demanding of the county officials, who THEY elected and whose salaries they pay for, listen to their concerns about the future of the transportation system they are funding. I'd like to see an indication by our county representatives that they will at least make an effort to reach out to the public they supposedly represent. Voting for the transportation initiative is a fine example of talking the talk. County officials telling each other how important it is to establish a concerted program of community outreach is a fine example of talking the talk. I'm hoping to see many, many more of these people begin actually walking the walk......but I'm not holding my breath.
Finally, there are thousands of Hart patrons who rely on the buses to get back and forth to work or school every day and will continue to suffer a dismally broken bus system for at least another year thanks to a lawsuit, meant to completely undermine the intent of the transportation initiative, filed by the self-serving Commissioner Stacy White. Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or any other political affiliation, you must know that Stacy White does not represent you and should not have a seat on our county commission. I urge everyone to keep this in mind when the elections come around next year.
Friday, February 10, 2023
From the Devil's Own Mouth
Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan still thinks it's 50/50 that the Rays end up in Tampa
Ken Hagan says that he was not surprised by the Rays redevelopment deal, and that this is a good thing for the team and the area. Pat (iHeart Radio's Pat and Aaron Show) asks him if this makes Tampa more aggressive, and Ken Hagan says he doesn't blame him and others for thinking that Tampa isn't being aggressive. He says that the Tampa Bay Rays know that they need to be in Tampa, and that they are waiting for all the info from the Pinellas side to come through. He says they won't be able to go into a bidding war with St. Petersburg, and that Major League Baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays know that. He goes on to say that it would be a huge black eye on the area if they were to lose the team.
Listen to the Ken Hagan interview HERE
In this interview, Ken Hagan unabashedly states that Pinellas County would be able to invest more in a new stadium than Hillsborugh County because they collect more in their "bed tax" than Hillsborough County does. This is a clear indication that Hillsborough County would use public funds to help pay for the new stadium.
Friday, March 18, 2016
Upgrade Ken Hagan, Sandra Murman and Bob Buckhorn
Smoking Gun
Friday, April 22, 2016
The Liberals In Tampa Demand
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Neo-Fascists target Hillsborough County School Board Members under guise of Parental Rights
Governor Ron DeSantis and his neo-fascist allies are wading into school board races as part of a calculated plan to up-end all the progress made since the Civil Rights movement. Public education has been the core component of social mobility in America. It now stands under attack at every avenue. Whether the efforts to decertify teacher’s unions, remove diversity and equity trainings, or out right erase history with white-washed fallacies, all these multi-pronged attacks serve one ultimate goal, the reversal of progress in America. Progress has been characterized as “Woke” ideology. To understand this fight, first allow me tell you what “Woke” truly means…
For those familiar with the 90s-2000s movie franchise of the Matrix, a dystopian future where artificial intelligences utilize human beings asleep in a virtual reality as batteries in the real world, being woke is to unplug from the artificial reality. Much in this way the moniker of “stay woke” was popularized by young African American scholars in last 20 years as a reminder to avoid falling prey to the artificial realities created by the mainstream media and global political systems. And, somehow right-wing activists and politicians have co-opted and appropriated “woke” as a blanket term to classify any policies which forward diversity, equity, and inclusion. Their long standing war on LGTBQ+ culture has now allowed them to target African American culture and any allies to either group. Gone are the days when political correctness would have right wingers call these folks special interest groups. Political correctness itself is now seen as woke ideology. Where their grandfathers had no problems dropping racial epithets in public speech, now Ron DeSantis and his Moms for Liberty now utilize the term woke in its place. These are dog whistles to a conservative base that fears the progress in America. Years ago I recall the warnings that conservatives were going to begin targeting school board races to reverse the work of desegregation. Now it is clear that they affirm to go much further in controlling curriculum from pre-K to PhD. Fascism in America was always going to be wrapped up in rallying cry for liberty while carrying a cross. This is exactly what DeSantis and his allies intend. To play victim and say their freedom is under attack, that their Christian values are lost in a public school system separated from Church by the State.
Their next target is Hillsborough County. Jessica Vaugh and Nadia Combs, two outstanding school board members are being targeted in this next election cycle by Moms for Liberty for their progressive ideals and desire to keep kids safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Make no mistake, if DeSantis gets his way, Hillsborough County will no longer be a school system that produces scholars that can compete on an international level. We will become a bastion of pseudo-science, fascism, and false history instituted by a regime of his choosing as part of the greater culture war to destroy American progress. Gone are the days when David Duke and Klan are actively working to reverse our hard fought progress, now its Karens claiming their parent rights are infringed upon because their kids have to learn that their grandparents didn’t want to attend integrated schools. I would encourage any human being with an ounce of sanity and the right to vote to get out in this next election and ensure that these Moms for Liberty have several seats, and not ones on the school board.
Christopher C. Cano, MPA, Concerned Tampeño
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Tea Party Bloggers In Their Underwear In Ruskin
Mayor Bob thinks Beckner's plan "threw the cities under the bus" and negates 2½ years of effort, including nearly 100 public meetings that led to the drafting of the sham that is Go Hillsborough, the one under investigation. He is willing to take that risk and not back down in the face of three tea party bloggers sitting in their underwear in their basements in Ruskin. here