Disney, Red Lobster and Olive Garden

Mickey Mouse now has a side gig as a corporate lobbyist?!

Apparently. Because right now in Florida, in the final days of the state legislative session, Disney is working to make it impossible for local cities and counties to pass earned sick time laws. In fact, as reported in the Orlando Sentinel, Disney helped write the bill! “Walt Disney World and Darden Restaurants, owner of the Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains, helped draft the legislation,
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Nothing like having your food cooked or served by someone who is sick.
Eat Local

Terry Kemple: A Crime Against Sanity

As a Hillsborough County taxpayer the thought of someone who is anti-Muslin, antigay, antiknowledge and even antimatter sitting on a government body charged with educating our community's children would be a crime against sanity. Terry Kemple on the School Board would visit a plague of demagoguery on the body politic. His term would be a fractious, disruptive, moveable feast of Bible-thumping, self-righteous hectoring and faux Puritanical preening. This will be Kemple's third bid to get on the School Board. Now you would think if you had run twice before and the voters had previously suggested they would rather shove shards of broken glass up their eyes than allow you to serve in public office.

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Bill Maher on Cuba

Help, end the war on the Cuban people, they are being held hostage by a small minority in South Florida.

Tampa, Hillsborough County To Sue BP

Days before the third anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, attorneys for Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa are moving to sue oil giant BP over tens of millions of dollars in lost tax revenues. Hillsborough County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to file suit over the county's claim that it suffered nearly $43 million in losses — from hotel, gas, sales and other tax and fee receipts — as a result of the spill.

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Alan Grayson Petition For No Cuts to Entitlements

Sign Petition here

Tampa Bay Homeless

Homeless Living In Tampa

Stogie Recommends

Another Earth
Is a 2011 American science fiction/drama film directed by Mike Cahill in his feature film debut. The film stars William Mapother and Brit Marling. It premiered at the 27th Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and is being distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

here

Remove DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard Jr.

Regulators who break the rules cannot be trusted with enforcing them. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection broke the rules protecting the state's wetlands to benefit a well-connected landowner, then punished the one employee who challenged her bosses on it and tried to do her job. Gov. Rick Scott should remove DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard Jr. and at least one of his deputy secretaries, because Floridians can no longer trust the agency to protect the environment and fairly enforce the rules.

here

Celebrate this Earth Day - Picnic For Earth

Obama: The Audacity Of Betrayal

You have to hand it to Barack Obama when it comes to having it both ways: He never stops serving the ruling class, yet the mainstream media, from right to left, continues to pretend that he’s some sort of reincarnation of Franklin D. Roosevelt, fully committed to the downtrodden and deeply hostile to the privileged and the rich.
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The New American Confederacy
The Betrayal of Generation Hope
Ralph Nader pans Obama call for higher minimum wage.
Howard Dean Threatens To Leave Democratic Party.
I listen to his campaign speeches now and the one he gave at his second inauguration and all i hear is noise.
I feel like i have been violated. Republicans hate him and now he has lost his base. Nust be lonely at the top.

St. Pete Activists Blast Corporations For Exploiting Tax Loopholes

Germany Knows What To Do
German authorities launched dawn raids on the homes of over 200 suspected tax cheats Tuesday, acting on information gleaned from a CD containing the confidential account details of thousands of Swiss bank clients. The top tax officials in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate said he expected to net some 500 million euros ($654 million) from the data, which German investigators bought for 4 million euros ($5.2 million) after deeming it 'authentic and of excellent quality.' 'This amount is testament to the high criminal energy used to hide capital gains,' Carsten Kuehl, the state's finance minister, said in a statement.
here

2013 Earth Day Tampa Bay

info

Howard Dean Threatens To Leave Democratic Party

If Obama Doesn’t Cut Pentagon Budget

here

I stand with Howard Dean in his disgust of the Democratic Party. I would join him but i have been independant (NPA) since i started voting back in 1976.

La Casa Sierra

What Stogie Had For Lunch
Picadillo
With Black Beans and Rice, Platanos and a drink.
$6.35 at La Casa Sierra, corner of Main St. and Howard Ave in Tampa

The World Isn't As Bad As You Think It Is

After hearing about the tragedy in Boston yesterday and the things that happen to innocent people  everyday all over the world (Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Nort Korea) to name a few it is heartwarming to read something like this in my morning paper.

"The support from the community is beyond anything I could have imagined, When they told me people were interested in our story and what was happening, I was like, 'Why? We're nobody. We're not famous, we're just people.' I guess people just really care about other people. It kind of shows the world really isn't as bad as you think it is.

Mrs. Nugent on the support from the community for her daughter Ireland.

here
To help them click here

Tampa – Domestic Partner Registry Vigil

Tuesday, April 16, 2013 from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Joe Chillura Courthouse Square
701 E. Kennedy Blvd.
info

Free HARTLine Rides For Friends On Earth Day

Go HART

Tampa Bay Homeless

Meet Charlie B
He is from Nashville. He is a vet and was shot while in Kuwait.

The Stogie Rates HART Drivers

A - Exceptional     B - Good     C - Average     D - Poor    F - Find another job

#2290 - A
#1965 - C
# 2119 - A
# 1967 - B
# 3128 - B
# 3692 - A
#32388 - A

It's Miller Time

Hillsborough Commissioner Les Miller’s Redistricting Plan 
could result in the county’s first Latino representative. The plan will call for substituting one at-large commission seat, which is voted on by everyone in the county, with a new single-member district, which would be chosen only by residents of a specific area. That new district would be designed so that a Hispanic could run in it and win.

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“The key to provide for equitable representation is to move away from county-wide districts and have seven single-member districts, where each neighborhood is represented by a commissioner, rather than these million-dollar races that put in so much special interest money that it really becomes prohibitive for someone from a socio-economic area to be able to win countywide,” says Chris Cano, vice chair for the Hillsborough County Democratic Hispanic Caucus and treasurer for the Hillsborough Hispanic Coalition.
Great Job Mr. Miller

Marco Rubio In New Ad

Gwen Graham Running For Congress In Florida

The daughter of Florida treasure Bob Graham
Bob Graham was a wildly popular Florida governor from 1979- 1987 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 2005. Previously he had been a state rep and a state senator-- and he never lost an election in his life. He was an environmental champion in a state where real estate developers had ruled the roost. In his last Senate campaign he kicked Republican Charlie Crist's ass 63-37%. Socially liberal and one of the few Senate Democrats to oppose Bush's war against Iraq.
more, Visit her website here

Stacy White: A Self-Described Conservative Christian

Currently A Hillsborough County School Board member  with plans to run for the Hillsborough County Commission.  He is a strong supporter of local bigots Terry Kemple, David Caton  and former Republican state Sen. Ronda Storms. He spoke at the 9/11 anniversary protest in downtown Tampa which also included Terry Kemple, He has also said he would have voted against a domestic partner registry to give unmarried couples, gay or straight, certain rights when it comes to their partners. Sue Carlton of the Tampa Bay Times has called him "A dimpled David Caton, he of the extreme causes, a less stormy Ronda Storms." One other Republican "Rick Cochran, a senior detective for the Tampa Police Department" is also running for this District 4 seat. He is also a self-described conservative Christian who was part of a Sept. 11 protest against allowing Council on American-Islamic Relations speakers in schools, headed up by activist Terry Kemple. Have Democrats ceded this eastern Hillsborough district?

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JAY Z "Open Letter