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Opinion
Thursday, February 16, 2012
USF held hostage by legislative terrorism
Posted by Scott Farrell on Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 1:20 PM
Over the past decade Americans have been fixated on terrorism. It seems terrorism is around just about every corner, or, in the case of the TSA, hidden in every senior citizen's walker.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines terrorism as the unofficial or unauthorized use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims… Terrorism can take many forms, as the good folks at the University of South Florida discovered this week. You may have noticed that a certain Florida State Senator named J.D. Alexander is terrorizing USF. This week Senator Alexander did the political equivalent of threatening to detonate an economic atomic bomb that would possibly suck out nearly 60 percent of the entire USF budget if his personal demands were not met.
Oh sure… “technically,” Alexander’s not “terrorizing” USF, since his position as the Florida Senate Budget Chair allows him the ability to "officially" have a big say in the public financing of USF. Still, I think it’s safe to assume that President Judy Genshaft and Team USF feel somewhat threatened and intimidated by Senator Alexander, and would debate his apparent inclination to turn USF’s main campus into the college equivalent of Flint, Michigan.
So what are Alexander’s personal demands?
Simple. He wants a new, taxpayer-funded university in Lakeland that he can take credit for and potentially lead when his stint in the Florida Senate ends this year.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Of course Facebook's spying on you
Posted by Scott Harrell on Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 2:22 PM
If you pay attention to such things, then you know there’s lately a lot of talk about privacy and the Internet.
If you pay attention to such things, then you know there’s always a lot of talk about privacy and the Internet.
A lot of people don’t, you know — pay attention to such things. They’re only the least bit aware that all those pictures and comments and purchase orders they’re sending out into the digital ether are actually going somewhere, being stored somewhere, possibly being pored over by eagle-eyed programs much more astute and thorough than a human could ever be.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Donald Trump officially endorses Mitt Romney: Who gives a…
Posted by Rebecca Forman on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 3:56 PM
Originally I was going to blog about Showtime’s Shameless getting picked up for a third season (Team Gallagher, FTW — if you aren’t watching this show, you should remedy this STAT) but my phone has been blowing up in the last hour and I’ve therefore changed my mind.
Breaking? This is breaking news? Seriously, AP? Did you forget to tag this tweet with the sponsored label? Is there a new season of The Apprentice coming up that I don’t know about?
(Do a simple Google News search and you'll find nearly 1,400 articles about it.)
Monday, October 31, 2011
Debate over tax policy continues, income disparity grows
Posted by Ben Luongo on Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 12:28 PM
The Congressional Budget Office released its October report last week titled Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007. The report cites a growing, and startling, divide of income inequality between the top income earners and everyone else. Income for the top one percent grew by 275% while income for all other groups rose only 65% or lower. The report also notes that business income and capital gains grew faster than labor income. To the right is a graph from the report illustrating wage growth per income distribution.
The CBO releases this report as the tax policy debate in Washington grows more contentious. The two parties aggressively oppose each's plans as Democrats want to raise taxes on top income earners while Republicans want to lower taxes. Democrats reference the CBO's report to defend increasing the tax burden for the wealthy. Republicans, however, argue that targeting any income distribution hurts the economy and, furthermore, sensationalize the Democrat's plans as class warfare.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Will these folks go to jail after November 1?
Would Tampa's anti-panhandling law forbid roadside Statues of Liberty and carwash babes?
Posted by Chip Weiner on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:53 AM
Tampa City Council has scheduled its final vote on the Solicitation Ordinance, affectionately known as the panhandling law, for tomorrow, October 20, 2011. The measure passed its first round on October 6. If it passes as expected, the law takes effect November 1, 2011. The spirit of the law is aimed at public safety, especially for those operating motor vehicles. But there remains a question about who will really be regulated. Officially the ordinance is being drafted for reasons such as, “distracted drivers are more prone to accidents" and "persons engaging in distribution or solicitation is a practice which is unsafe for traffic flow and occupants of motorized vehicles located on public roads." It goes on to express concerns about "sudden traffic stopping or slow down, rapid lane changing, turns and other dangerous traffic movement."
With exceptions for purely passive communications (read protests) , the ordinance will prohibit the soliciting of business of any kind from public roadsides in the city of Tampa, due to the danger involved. It does not specifically ban things such as soliciting for car washes. However, concerns about change in traffic flow and any actions that go beyond "purely communicative aspect of oral advocacy" would seem to apply to these car-wash sign-wavers.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Democrats try to fix the economy, but Republicans get to frame the debate
Posted by Ben Luongo on Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 2:05 PM
The Labor department reported that job growth was stronger than expected as employers added 103,000 net new jobs in September. The news of added jobs comes amidst growing fears of an economy inching closer to a double dip recession. However, a rehiring of 45,000 striking Verizon workers accounted for nearly half of the added jobs. Furthermore, the number of jobs added barely kept up with population, maintaining an unemployment rate holding steadfast at 9.1%.
Members of Congress, in both parties, rushed to cite the jobs report in the debate over the American Jobs Act, a stimulus bill proposing a mixture of tax relief and infrastructure spending. House Speaker John Boehner said, "The American people are asking the question: 'where are the jobs?' The Democrats running Washington need to stop campaigning, start listening, and start working with Republicans to liberate our struggling economy and remove government barriers to private-sector job growth."
For weeks, the President has instructed Congress to pass his $447 billion jobs bill, but gridlock has frustrated real legislative action. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor refused to put the bill up for a vote and Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked a vote on the bill in the Senate.
According to the Labor Department's recent report, the economy needs to create several hundred thousand jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. There's little indication, however, that the recovery is building any real momentum. Many recessions are self-correcting and characterized as a V-shape, which symbolizes a steep drop in the economy followed later by a climbing recovery. The nature of our recovery, however, is L-shaped; the current recession is marked by steep drop and then flat-lines for an extended period of time. So, why do we have a dilatory congress during a persistent recession?
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Criticisms of the President's plan distract us from the real issue
Posted by Ben Luongo on Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 1:50 PM
Unveiling the second part of his $3 trillion deficit reduction plan on Monday, President Obama stressed, in no uncertain terms, that he would veto any bill that would call for cuts to Medicare without raising new revenue. According to the President, "I will not support any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans". The deficit plan called for $1.5 trillion in new taxes and immediately elicited criticism from Republicans who accused the President of engaging in class warfare.
America does have a history of class warfare, and it's a turbulent one.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Workers anxious about job security amidst dismal jobs report
Posted by Ben Luongo on Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 3:22 PM
Stocks plunged as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that no new jobs were created in August, holding the unemployment rate persistently at 9.1%. The latest BLS jobs report, the worst in almost a year, confirms fears of a stalling recovery. Also affecting the markets was the news of major banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan Chase, facing federal lawsuits concerning the securities sold duing the housing bubble. Friday's markets closed with the Dow down 253 points, 2.2%
The news of both tumbling markets and a grim employment outlook breaks just after Gallup reports on the rising fears of being laid off. Job insecurities are double what they were in 2008. What does this mean for our recovery?
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Ybor City's awesome. Want me to prove it?
Posted by Courtney Bishop on Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 3:39 PM
Ybor City is a bit of an acquired taste.
While some people prefer foie gras, others are partial to grilled cheese. That doesn't mean that fattened duck liver is inherently better than buttery, toasty, cheddary goodness - it just means that some people have a certain idea or standard of what a "quality experience" is. In a gastrointestinal sense or otherwise.
I'm not here to convince anyone that Ybor City is awesome. Okay, yes I am. I lied. (Sometimes I do that for attention because my parents never gave me enough as a child.) But it's not because Ybor owes anything to me. It's only because I think that people take advantage of a place that brings me — and many others — such joy.
I love those people who have only been to Ybor on a Friday or Saturday night, went out to the club with the intention of getting sloppy and sweaty, got into a fight because someone grabbed their boob that their shirt was struggling to keep under wraps in the first place, shoved 6,000 calories worth of pizza into their mouth, went home to sleep with the random and equally-sweaty person who grabbed their boob earlier, puked up Bacardi O and Sprite in the bushes next to their apartment on the way to the stairs, had sex with the sweaty person anyway — now with the added bonus of vomit-stench — possibly contracted some sort of communicable disease, woke up with the kind of headache that makes them promise themselves that they'll never drink again, and then have the audacity to say, "Ugh. Ybor's gross."
News flash: You're gross not the classiest.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Does the Dow's drop say anything about America's recent policy decisions?
Posted by Ben Luongo on Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 12:36 PM
Thursday presented itself as perfect storm of uncertainty as the Dow plunged 521 points amidst fears of an anemic global economy and the spread of Europe's debt contagion. This was the worst day for the Dow since the U.S. slid into recession in 2008. Overall, the three major indexes, the Dow, the Nasdaq, and the S&P 500, have fallen 10% in the last ten days. Many are going to correlate the Dow's drop to the recent deal made by Congress to raise the debt ceiling. However, it's unlikely that the markets took several days to respond to a sing deal. This is not to say that American politics wasn't part of the story. It was, but it played a limited role. More than anything, the markets responded to Italy's possible default. Italy entered emergency meetings with Eurozone officials discussing the prospects of a rescue plan. Both Italy and Spain are the newest chapter in Europe's debt crisis following the the perils of Greece and Ireland. These developments unfold as China attempts to slow its economy in order to combat its inflation rate. The consumer price index places China's inflation at a three year high which will raise food prices for items like fish and grain. This all paints a bleak picture of the global economy, which was reflected in the markets Thursday.
So what role does the U.S. play in the Dow's drop?
