Miklb's Mindless Ramblings

I was checking my recent referers, and saw that I had several referals from Seminole Heights Blog, and the discussion of the bay area being “blog capital of Florida”. I rarely discuss Tampa issues, and funny enough, I just came across an article at tbo.com discussing Tampa officials wanting to ease laws regarding gifts of tickets. When I read the article, I almost wrote about it then. But after reading the discussion, I feel I must touch on it.

The article discusses the desire of Iorio and city council members wanting to be allowed to accept tickets that cost more than the $100 that they are currently allowed to accept. And my question is this, what events are you wanting to go to that cost more than $100? The article discusses “community events”, but I’m not aware of these events. If they are fundraisers rather than community events, I would question who is raising the funds, and why exactly do they need the mayor or a city council person there? Iorio discusses a USF game recently. Last time I checked, tickets were less than $100 to the game. Likewise in Dingfelder’s Bucs game issues. Tickets can cost much less than $100. Now, in my humble opinion, if these elected officials want to hang out in a luxury box, and eat a catered meal, drink top-shelf cocktails while watching a football game rather than sit in the seats with those who elected them, then they should pay for the difference out of their pocket. Likewise, if it’s a fundraiser, be it children’s causes or Gasparilla, I’m uncomfortable with event planners being able to bring in the mayor for free, which may be a “selling point” to those wealthy enough to attend. Smells fishy all ready.

In case you missed it, Katrina Vanden Hueval and Ann Coulter were part of Larry King’s panel discussing the DeLay indictment. However, the difference is those two were in the studio with King, whereas the others where off-studio cameras. As usual, Coulter had to try and get the last word, wouldn’t answer King’s questions (I’ll give it to the old softy, he sorta tried to ask the hard questions), and basically came across as her lunatic self. Vanden Hueval surprised me when she even joined the mantra of “culture of corruption”. Ultimately, it was a matter of two diametrically opposed political commentators, and nothing new was added. But at times, it looked like there could be a cat fight.

As some who’ve read here before, you know I’ve looked forward to this day for some time. The only thing I look forward to more now is the day Tom DeLay is found guilty of at least some of his crimes against this country. To me, he’s committed treason. He’s cheated and lied to the American people, and circumvented the law, which thereby prevented the people of Texas from rightly electing their officials. But this is all fairly main stream news. What I’ve found more interesting is the mantra the democratic party line is using in the recent criminal charges/investigations…”culture of corruption”. When election time rolls around in ‘06, expect that phrase to be played out over and over. I think that will be the real “platform” for unseating the Republicans. I think it can be used in just about every situation from the appointment of Brown to FEMA to the gerrymandering issues in Texas.

Washington Post While the nation’s eyes have been focused on Rita, and Houston’s failure to properly coordinate evacuation traffic, another storm was brewing in Republican politics. Much in the manner that Martha Stewart was originally charged with insider trading, or something similar, Senator Bill Frist-R of Tennessee is being investigated by the Security Exchange Commission regarding sales of stock this past summer.
Well it appears that Mr Frist owned a fair amount of stock in a company originally founded by his father, and over the summer, Frist order the blind trust to sell the shares. Where the investigation comes in is the fact that soon after the sale by Frist, poor earnings reports were issued, and the price of the stock dropped significantly from the high it was when Frist sold. There’s no indication that Frist’s family is completely divorced from the business, and there’s no indication that Frist didn’t know those in positions of power with the company.
It is quite hard for me to believe that Frist simply was the recipient of good luck, and that it was purely a coincidence. For someone who’s been discussed as a potential Presidential nominee, and currently the Senate majority leader, even the hint of misappropriateness will linger, and a discovery of wrong doing will not only ruin his political career, it will go a long way of painting the current Republican party as one of double standards and, as Dean said “made their culture of corruption the norm”.

Well, in a round about way. John Stewart and his show The Daily Show won an Emmy Last night for some kind of comedy show. I didn’t watch the awards, rarely have. I was busy with my own comedy of errors, but that’s another story. But in some fashion, if he didn’t do it last night, Stewart has to share that award with the Bush administration. Know that Stewart is an equal opportunity critic, and his jokes are only pointed towards those who blow it, not one party or another.
But my real question is this - Does this award create an even greater undercurrent of anti-administration disdain, or does painting The Daily Show as pure comedy, and not satire, minimize the sad truth that is at the core of most of Stewart’s show?