Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

It’s official, Steve Stanton has been fired. Once again, the Largo City Commissioners have taken it upon themselves to expose their naked intolerance and shameful hatred of anything different than their own wholesome, wonderbread selves. These myopic, ignorant and shameful people are embarrassing their city and their state with this awful pageant of loathing.

Here are a couple of quotes of the bigots who voted against Steve Stanton from the St. Pete Times:

“I will tell you it is not about transgenderism,” said Commissioner Gay Gentry. “It is about making sure that the 1,000 people who work in the city, work in such a way that they can give superior services for the 75,000 people who live in this city. I tried to vote the right way for the right reasons.”

Commissioner Andy Guyette said honesty, integrity and trust were the foundations of their relationship with him and that “without trust, there is no longer a foundation to any relationship.”

All I really get from these smarmy, repugnant pols is that they can’t trust transgendered people and after being as blatantly bigoted as they were, they don’t even have the courage or the honesty to admit the real reasons they fired Steve Stanton.

They fired Steve Stanton because he’s different, because he scares them, because they are ignorant assholes who hate everything that doesn’t fit into their hypocritical and inflexible belief systems.

Cross posted @ The Delightful Yank

So, by now, I’m sure most everyone in this corner of the Tampa Internets (and those that read page 2 of tbt* this morning!) is aware of the raft of blogger meetups at the end of February/beginning of March. Obviously a good time will be had by all, bloviating ad nauseam about our topics of choice, pet peeves and how we don’t get any respect.

Even though Jim says tomorrow’s is an “unmeeting,” I think it would be a constructive exercise if we were armed with a couple of discussion topics beforehand. I’m talking more about process/meta rather than content and substance. Like, what kind of ethics should we adhere to? Are we doing a good job of holding people accountable? Do the major media outlets in the area get it? How can we better educate them? Why do blogs matter, etc.

These may seem dry, but I think it’s critical that these issues, and issues like these, are addressed as fully as possible. As well as being a phenomenal tool to publish on the cheap, blogging affords us great latitudes in free speech. We have a very lively blogosphere here in Tampa Bay, and advancing a non-political blogger agenda will benefit us all and be critical to our long term success. We need to get our information out there: who we are, what we do, why we do it and how we do it.

So, my question to you, what should bloggers be talking about?

Cross Posted @ The Delightful Yank

It looks like Senator Diane Feinstein is requesting that a pair of federal agencies, the General Accounting Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, examine the voting machines in Florida District 13. It is as yet unknown whether both the hardware and software will be under scrutiny. Theres more from the St. Pete Times:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, is asking the General Accountability Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct “top to bottom investigation” of the machines in Sarasota County.

Feinstein’s remarks came during a Senate Rules Committee hearing on electronic election reform that largely focused on the race between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings.

“Now, there are those who say it’s impossible to adopt meaningful security and verifiability requirements for the 2008 election,” she said. “But one only has to look at what happened in Sarasota to see how dangerous it might be to wait.”

Buchanan was sworn in to office last month but Jennings continues to dispute her slim loss both in the Florida courts and in Congress.

While this development is somewhat reassuring for advocates of transparency in elections, Florida law still protects the voting machine vendors from opening up their machines because of supposed “trade secrets”. I guess trade secrets is a melange of crappy software and unsecured hardware. I’m glad that Crist is moving towards verifiable paper trails and the elimination of unreliable touch screen voting, but is he really serious about ensuring fair elections? Where does he stand on FL-13? These measures will benefit voters in the long term, but are we just expected to let bygones be bygones?

Apparently, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker was not initially aware of the Police solution to the homeless problem in the city.  In his own words from the St. Pete Times:

“I did not know that the operation had occurred until it occurred,” Baker said Monday. “I was aware that the fire marshal had identified a very grave concern. I did not know the specifics to the solution.”

Hmmm. Okay. I’ll buy that for now.  More from the St. Pete Times:

The decision to raid the camps and cut tents was made during a meeting Friday of top city officials. Police Chief Chuck Harmon, Deputy Mayor David Metz, Maj. Melanie Bevan of the Police Department, Lt. Rick Feinberg of the Fire Department and several others gathered to discuss how to deal with the fire hazards they had seen at the homeless camps.

Right. So a good chunk of top city officials made the decision, and Mr. Baker still remained unaware. Still more from the Times:

Harmon said the officials didn’t want to arrest anyone or create a major confrontation. Then Bevan suggested just cutting the tents if someone protested by refusing to leave, and others agreed, Harmon said.

But Harmon said no one in the group talked about the fact that they were seizing or destroying private property. (emphasis mine)

So, not only are we left with the distinct impression that St. Petersburg city officials might be walking the fine line between incompetence and stupidity, but it is clearly pointed out to us that not a single one of them even considered private property issues.  And by issues, I mean rights. You know, those pesky things that get in the way of government, private industry and folks who are “forced” to buy something off a homeless person at an exorbitant rate. 

It is truly sad when people are treated as second class citizens simply because life was less than kind to them.  What does it say about our society that we can go ahead and cut down the tents of the homeless, but we’re incapable of stopping at red lights?  That you can be accused of being a sandbagger for providing the police with information about an accident?  Are we that concerned with ourselves that we are blinded to the plight of others? And Rick Baker. What does he think about police and fire officials recent actions regarding the homeless? From the St. Pete Times, again:

I’m not going to talk about that.

I for one will be interested to see the consequences of these actions, if there ever are any. If this doesn’t shake the confidence of local residents, I don’t know what will. An SUV tax? Just plain awful.

As a native Virginian, and Progressive Southerner, I was embarassed to read the following in the Tampa Tribune:

A Hillsborough County proclamation honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee has angered some black leaders. “That’s a slap in the face to every African-American, Hispanic, and every minority in the county,” said Curtis Stokes, president of the Hillsborough chapter of the NAACP. The proclamation, marking today’s 200th anniversary of Lee’s birth in Virginia, also has county commissioners rethinking how they bestow such honorariums. Commission Chairman Jim Norman read the “Year of Lee” proclamation Thursday as members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy stood in front of the commission dais.

When I tell people in Florida that many in Virginia forgo celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in order to celebrate Lee-Jackson Day they usually chuckle and make some comment about it being ridiculous or backwater. Welcome to Hillsborough County, Florida. Sad. Despite, I’m sure, many Southerners who regard Robert E. Lee as a hero, we must face the facts. Robert E. Lee did no service to this great nation. He was a traitor, no better than Benedict Arnold. Leave it to the 20th Century Republican President who pardoned Nixon to pardon Lee.

Cross Posted @ The Delightful Yank

On the heels of a pre-ten outlaw, comes another. 

A Hillsborough County deputy arrested a 7 year old on Wednesday for throwing a backpack at another kid’s head. Apparently the mother of the “victim” insisted that the deputies press charges, despite the lack of any injury, etc.  The deputy also claims that the mother of the aggressor consented to her sons arrest.  From the St. Pete Times:

Deputy Gary Craig was sent to check out the complaint. He contacted Bob Petschow, deputy chief of intake for the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office. Petschow told the deputy that there are many problems with charging a 7-year-old and advised him against arresting the child, said Bondi, the assistant state attorney.

“The deputy did anyway,” Bondi said. “We explained to the deputy the competency issues with even attempting to charge a 7-year-old.”

But Carter said the deputy’s account is slightly different from what the State Attorney’s Office says. According to Carter, the deputy talked to the 7-year-old’s mother, who consented to her son’s arrest.

“The mother said, ‘Take him,’ ” Carter said.

There are almost too many problems in this scenario to delve into.  Police incompetence, parental incompetence, the lack of media outrage, etc.  This ain’t normal folks.  If your kid throws a backpack at my kids head a) I hope he at least deserved it, b) if he didn’t, I hope he defends himself and kicks your kids ass. C’mon, these were 7 and 11 year olds. What next, dog jail for doggies who poop on the sidewalk?  This is ludicrous.

The Associated Press tells us about the 9-year-old who was arrested:

NORTH PORT - A 9-year-old North Port boy is accused of threatening three girls on a school bus with scissors… The boy was arrested… and charged with possession of a weapon on school property and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

… the boy thought the girls were talking about him, but it’s not clear if the boy only made verbal threats or if he had any physical contact with the girls…  The boy was suspended from school pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.

You’ve got to be kidding me.  Is this what we’ve come to? When stuff like that went down at my school we were suspended, or given detention.  But arrested? Three counts of aggravated assault?  He’s nine! The kid has no idea what that even means.  Not to defend him, but girls can be mean at that age. 

I’m glad it took the police to calm the situation down.  The bus driver took the blade away from the boy before any harm could be done, but had the driver or a teacher physically intervened, as they should have in the real world, they would probably have been sued.  But this ain’t the real world anymore. 

Our tax dollars are hard at work arresting 9 year olds for scissors. 

I’ve had it with the red light problem.  I see at least 5 people a day running red lights.  I see zero people pulled over.  Hellooooo? What’s going on?  Are traffic laws optional in Tampa? 

On Tuesday morning, I was driving back to my office in Tampa from a business meeting in St. Pete.  All was well, the sun was out and I was listening to some sweet tunes.  Innocently, I pulled up behind a mid-90’s model Chevy Trailblazer, stopped on a red at the intersection of Himes and Columbus. Eventually, the light turned green.  Suspecting nothing, the Chevy began to pull through the intersection.  Just as I nosed in behind the SUV, BAM!  A Ford Explorer came barrelling through the red light on Columbus and smacked the tail end of the Chevy.  Luckily, I managed to swerve and miss the wreck by about a foot, but my tires were shot as were my nerves. 

Being a model citizen (wink, wink), I pulled my car into a vacant lot nearby and waited for the cops.  Another witness and myself proceeded to tell the police about what we witnessed, corroborating the victims story.  Then the offender came out screaming.  “Did you see that?,” she spewed venomously.  “She ran a red light, she’s crazy!”  I told her that I had in fact seen her run the red light, not the other woman, but that the cops would have to decide.  She proceeded to plead with the other witness, the police and some innocent bystanders.

Needless to say, this example is illustrative of the problem we are having here in Tampa.  Not only is there a lack of basic traffic enforcement until after a wreck has occurred, but as Tampans, we are apparently convinced that the problem is everyone else and of no concern to us. 

So if you’re reading this, Green means go, Yellow means slow down with the intention of stopping and Red means STOP, dammit, STOP!!!!