United Nations Honors Che Guevara

The U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced earlier this week that it would include Guevara’s “life and works” in its 2013 “Memory of the World Register,” which codifies historical material that has a “world significance and outstanding universal value.”....more
Of couse the announcement sparked an outcry from Cuban-American members of Congress. “UNESCO continued its longstanding tradition of making a mockery of its own institution when it opted to venerate and memorialize the life of a blood thirsty, murderous sadist,” Rep. Ros-Lehtinen
Please note, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen was a strong supporter of President George W. Bush and his war in Iraq, where 4,488 Americans and over a million Iraqis died. 

Call Scott

Florida Looking For Candidate

Florida liberals are looking for a good candidate for governor in 2014. Someone who is pro-choice, for the legalization of marijuana and gay marriage. Someone who will take care of our beaches, springs and wetlands. Someone who is against offshore drilling off our coast. Someone who will take the feds money for high speed rail, health care for all and anything eles they want to give us money for. Someone who is pro education and tolerant. Someone who will make our state so desirable that corporations will want to pay us to relocate and do business  here.

Darden Rice Is Running Away With The Race

At least in the primary. According to a survey conducted by St. Pete Polls and commissioned by this blog, Rice has a wide lead over her next closest rival, Dr. McKalip. Among likely voters, Rice receives 32% support, McKalip is at 17%, Carolyn Fries is at 11% and Richard Eldridge is at 4%. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they were undecided.....St. Petersblog,
at pushing rope.
She will be in Tampa tonight for a meet and greet. info

Florida To Begin Voter Purge

Jacksonville To Sanford Walk For Dignity

Florida'ssummer afternoon rain couldn’t stop more than 25 activists from meeting in downtown Jacksonville’s Hemming Plaza, July 22, to begin a five-day walk to Sanford, Florida. Activists took the first steps in the “Walk for Dignity – Enough is Enough” event, demanding justice for Trayvon Martin and the resignation of State Attorney Angela Corey, who prosecuted the George Zimmerman case.
Called by the Southern Movement Assembly, a network of activist groups around the South that met in Jacksonville last April, the walk will end with a large rally in Sanford.......more

Tampa Demands Justice For Javon Neal

Community members gathered in front of a police substation July 22, the one-year anniversary of Javon Neal's murder by Tampa police. Neal, a 16-year-old African American student, was shot more than 19 times byTPD.....more

The Grand OLD Party of Florida

The The Republican Party of Florida is greeting President Barack Obama to Jacksonville with a full page ad in the Florida Times-Union.....more

Will Weatherford's Countdown Clock

www.willweatherford.info

Telemundo's Diaz-Balart Confronts Steve King

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert."          Steve King
The Grand OLD Party reaching out to hispanics.

The Boycott

More acts are joining Stevie Wonder in boycotting Florida: Rod Stewart, Madonna, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Jay Z, Kanye West, Trey Songz, Young Jeezy, Wale, R. Kelly, Rihanna and Alicia Keys. Bruce Springsteen dedicated a song to "justice for Trayvon Martin" during a concert in Limerick, Ireland, while Jay Z and Beyonce met with Martin's parents during a rally in New York City.......more In the 80's my family and i did not eat tuna for years until it was dolphin safe. In 1990, the three largest tuna companies in the world - StarKist, Bumblebee, and Chicken of the Sea - agreed to stop purchasing, processing, and selling tuna caught by intentional chasing and netting of dolphins.....here.

To this day i will not buy Star Kist brand tuna for the comments they made about the reason they were going dolphin safe. Not becouse they were good environmentalist or were trying to save the dolphins but becouse the boycott must of been working and their sales were down. Also see the boycott of Budweiser in Chicago which stated people drinking Old Style beer. Or more recently Papa Johns Pizza falling out with liberals. (Notice the large amount of Papa Johns comercials on MSNBC.) I will never buy their pizza again and it use to be one of my favorites. Stay local and try CDB'S, they make the best pizza in town. This could have a damaging lasting effect. Boycotts linger for along time, even when it's over. I guess somethings you never forget.

Feds Sue Florida For 'Warehousing' Disabled Kids

It seems our republican led state has relentlessly cut services for families struggling to care for a severely disabled child at home. Three years ago, state lawmakers simply cut $6 million from a program that pays for private-duty nursing care for Floridians who wish to remain outside institutions. One program that is designed to allow parents to care for disabled children at home or in community settings now has a wait list with about 22,000 names. The Feds found the state funding and managing its community programs so poorly that hundreds of children have been forced to live, and sometimes grow up, in institutions for the elderly. A total of five children have died in Florida nursing homes during the last half of 2010 — and 130 have died since January 2006, according to state records.The DOJ is asking a federal judge to declare the state's program for disabled children in violation of federal law and to force the state to cease warehousing children in institutions.......more

AHCA Secretary Liz Dudek said. "Florida has made many improvements in its already strong program of caring for medically complex children and helping their families cope with their everyday challenges." But a Miami civil rights lawyer who has also sued the state over the institutionalization of children called Dudek's actions mere "window dressing."

Tampa Bay Homeless

Meet Tera, she is from Virginia.

People United For Medical Marijuana

Met these guys at the Marion Transit Center in Tampa. They are collecting signatures to place Medical Marijuana on the 2014 ballot. I signed. You can here.

It's nice to see young people getting  involved in politics, our future looks bright.

The Tea Cup Of Ybor City

Meet Tea Cup, he is long time activist Carrie West's husband. Told me Mr. West has no plans on running for political office but don't count him out. Say hello At Hamburger Mary's in Ybor City
Visit him here

Got Sinkholes?

The Southwest Florida Water Management District, the agency commonly known as Swiftmud granted the world's largest phosphate mining company a permit to pump up to 70 million gallons of water a day out of the ground for the next 20 years.The water from more than 250 wells in Hillsborough, Manatee, Polk, Hardee and De Soto counties, an area that since 1992 has been under tight restrictions for any new residential and commercial water use. The water is being used by the phosphate giant known as Mosaic to dilute polluted waste so it can be dumped into creeks without violating state regulations.......more

Tampa Bay Homeless

Meet George, he is from Michigan.

Schnitt Asks Listeners to Flood DOJ Website

He blasted the public email account set up by the Justice Department to collect “tips about George Zimmerman that could lead to federal charges against him. He also encouraged listeners to submit fake Zimmerman racist reports on Twitter to mock the DOJ's absurd charade and wants the Justice Department to set up a tip line to get to the bottom of who is responsible for the “illegal profiling of conservatives at the IRS. He said a preposterous witch-hunt calls for an equally preposterous response......more

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