A lot of catching up to do around here, so I’m just gonna post this super-long link-filled extravaganza, glossing over details, ignoring important points, completely missing many newsworthy events, and adding absolutely nothing of value to the conversation. In other words, pretty much business as usual, but with just one big post. Enjoy.

We care.

Despite Secretary of State Colin Powell’s insistence that the U.S. is not a “stingy” nation-a charge leveled Monday by a frustrated U.N. relief coordinator, then taken back Tuesday-American contributions to the tsunami recovery effort seem modest by any standard. Relief workers need to get help to 10 nations, where more than a million people are believed to be homeless, where whole villages were swallowed by the earthquake-induced tidal wave last weekend, and where the death toll has crossed 50,000 and is still climbing.

So far, the U.S. is sending $4 million to the International Red Cross and perhaps $40 million in other aid funds, along with a handful of planes, some bearing supplies and some to be used for patrols. The Japanese are sending $30 million for starters, and the EU $40 million.

Miffed at the U.N. official’s comment, Trent Duffy, White House deputy press secretary, said, the U.S. is “the largest contributor to international relief and aid efforts, not only through the government but through charitable organizations.” He added, “The American people are very giving.”

The money being put up by the U.S. is nothing when compared to what’s going on in the corridors of Wall Street, where year-end bonuses for the securities industry are the big story in New York. Readers of The New York Times were greeted Tuesday morning with above-the-fold images of destruction in Asia and below-the-fold accountings of personal riches.

The money’s also a little less than W will spend on his upcoming coronation, but I digress. Also in the NY Times that day: Family farmers in Central America - just Really.

We were surprised to see on ABC’s Good Morning America a segment about the children who have been victims of the tsunami. Total casualties are (currently) estimated to be 60,000. One third are children, or 20,000. The ABC report began with the usual talking head.

It was followed by four stories about affected children. Excepting a quick pan shot of native kids amongst general destruction, they were all white Europeans.

Well, white European tourists can be victims too! And besides, we’re sending lots of money, right?

That brings to a whopping 10 cents per capita, our contribution to alleviating one of the great human tragedies of all time. How inspiring. I just wrote a check to Doctors Without Borders (How to donate) for 1000 times that amount, so I guess that makes me Albert Fucking Schweitzer. Yet I somehow still feel strangely unvirtuous.

Speaking of virtuous, Saint Theresa LaPore’s retirement is about to get a littel more cushy, thanks to a little job swapping in Palm Beach.

Outgoing Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore is mulling a $2,500-a-month clerical job in State Attorney Barry Krischer’s office so she can qualify for a 30-year pension.

LePore said she’s also considering two other government posts at similar pay but wouldn’t name them. She said she’ll decide on a job next week.

LePore leaves the $121,490 supervisor’s position next week after losing an Aug. 31 reelection bid. She needs to work about three or four more months to qualify for optimum pension benefits.

LaPore has been sucking the government teat for almost as long as this innocent man has been on Florida’s death row.

Now DNA evidence offers Zeigler the hope of a very different future Christmas. DNA evidence has played a significant role in 14 of the 117 exonerations from U.S. Death Rows. Such evidence is vital, especially in Florida, which — according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. — has had 21 people found innocent on its Death Row, more than any other state.

Prosecutors are refusing to back down, even in the face of irrefutable evidence of Zeigler’s innocence. Who knows, maybe they just want his pension benefits to increase.

Another group looking for increased benefits are the striking Florida Crystal sugar workers, who are fighting newish owners who really really really have to cut costs if they’re gonna be able to afford those new Ferrari’s that are all the rage this year.

Standing among hundreds of picketers outside Florida Crystals Corp.’s Okeelanta plant Tuesday morning, Debra Jones didn’t know when she’d go back to her job of 23 years at the sugar mill.

Jones and about 700 of her co-workers walked off their jobs Monday to protest the Palm Beach County sugar grower’s plans to outsource jobs and cut benefits.

Striking Okeelanta mill workers argue with a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy Tuesday who had asked them to leave the median of U.S. 27. Protesters ran to the median after a truck driver was pulled over for honking his horn in support of the strikers.

“When we left, we knew we may not go back,” said Jones, a 50-year-old single mother from Clewiston. “But we can’t live with what they have to offer.”

And that’s all I have to offer for now. Oh, except for this. (via Suburban Guerrilla)

Support your local Magnet Monger!

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Florida Politics has lots on privatization, a scheme that Jeb! continues to shove down our throats despite mounting evidence that it is rife with corruption and cronyism and that it results in none of the gains in efficiency which supporters consistently promise.

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I’ve scanned a few of the articles regarding Reggie White’s death. Funny, but most of them seem to leave out a few key details of his life.

Here’s a highlight from one of his speeches that illustrates what I’m getting at.

When you look at the black race, black people are very gifted in what we call worship and celebration. A lot of us like to dance, and if you go to black churches, you see people jumping up and down, because they really get into it.

White people were blessed with the gift of structure and organization. You guys do a good job of building businesses and things of that nature and you know how to tap into money pretty much better than a lot of people do around the world.

Hispanics are gifted in family structure. You can see a Hispanic person and they can put 20 or 30 people in one home. They were gifted in the family structure.

When you look at the Asians, the Asian is very gifted in creation, creativity and inventions. If you go to Japan or any Asian country, they can turn a television into a watch. They’re very creative. And you look at the Indians, they have been very gifted in the spirituality.
……

But the Bible strictly speaks against it, and because the Bible speaks against it, we allow rampant sin including homosexuality and lying, and to me lying is just as bad as homosexuality, we’ve allowed this sin to run rampant in our nation, and because it has run rampant in our nation, our nation is in the condition it is today.

Sometimes when people talk about this sin they’ve been accused of being racist. I’m offended that homosexuals will say that homosexuals deserve rights. Any man in America deserves rights, but homosexuals are trying to compare their plight with the plight of black men or black people.

In the process of history, homosexuals have never been castrated, millions of them never died. Homosexuality is a decision. It’s not a race. And when you look at it, people from all different ethnic backgrounds are living this lifestyle, but people from all different ethnic backgrounds are also liars and cheaters and malicious and backstabbers.

We’re in sin, and because this nation is in sin, God will judge it if we don’t get it right.

Oh, wait… he was a professional athlete. Professional athletes are different from the rest of us and should therefore be held to a much lower standard, even if they are malicious backstabbers, or wife beaters, or rapists, or…

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Steve Gilliard

These people thrive on victimization and isolation, as if Americans are being attacked for having faith. Oh, there goes the poor Christian. No, there goes the annoying asshole. These people want to oppress others, not talk about faith and service and compassion.

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Florida’s Polk County, just north and east of the immediate Tampa Bay area, seems to be home to a group of Baptist scofflaws who surreptitiously erected a nativity scene on public property despite having had their request to do so specifically denied by the Polk County commission.

According to Interstate4Jamming, at least 2 commissioners were aware of the plans to erect the illegal Christian display in public land and looked the other way, but now, the commission has voted and is allowing the scene to stay.

There’s one catch, though: if the nativity scene stays, the public area must be opened up to other displays by anyone who asks permission. Thus, a sign reading “Festivus for the rest of us,” referring to a made up holiday from the Seinfeld TV show, might be allowed to stay (if someone claims it and askes proper permission to keep it up), and a sign that promotes the ancient prophet Zoroaster must also be allowed to remain.

That’s the way it is: if one religion is allowed to proselytize, then all messages must be allowed. Funny thing, but the same principal will apply to Florida’s new pre-K program, which many critics have likened to a huge religious welfare trough.

Legislators crafted the pre-K rules with religious schools and day care centers in mind, and most people assume that the field will be dominated by Christian players, but, technically, any religious organization can open a school and demand money from the state.

I look forward to the controversies that will surround the state sponsored pre-K Santaria sacrifices and the Rastafarian programs, as legislators scramble for ways to discriminate against non-mainstream groups.

The decision by the Polk County commission might have been challenged were it not for the timing: due to the holidays, it’s not possible to get a court date and trial this week, so the creche would have stayed up for a while regardless. The arrogance of pushy Baptists never fails to piss me off, but this result is actually better than I had expected from a county like Polk.

More here

As a church group erected a nativity scene in the dark of night on Polk County public property, officials warned it might open the door to other religious, and not-so-religious, displays.

The warning was on the mark.

After the nativity scene appeared, displays honoring Zorastrianism and the fake holiday Festivus, featured on an episode of the TV show Seinfeld, also popped up.

The Polk County Commission voted 4-1 Wednesday morning to permit the nativity scene to remain on the grounds of the Neil Combee County Administration Building, across the street from the courthouse, but also made that area a “public forum” open to any type of display, County Attorney Joseph G. Jarret said.

The commission agreed that unless someone claimed a particular display and submitted a written request asking that it remain part of the forum, it would be removed Wednesday evening, Jarret said.

The handmade nativity scene, figures of Joseph and Mary in a simple lean-to with a baby Jesus lying between them in a manger, was erected after dark on Dec. 15 by Marvin Pittman, 66, a retired law enforcement officer, and his Bible study group from First Baptist Church of Bartow.

County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson had pushed for months to erect such a display, but failed to sway fellow commissioners.

And here.

…Commissioner Randy Wilkinson, who pushed previously for a religious display, and on Wednesday said, “What these folks are trying to do is turn us back to the values that made us great.'’

Values that made us great.

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Especially those of you employed by TECO Peoples Gas, my local gas utility, and whose name is Brandi, and whose operator number is 3154.

I apologize. I was under the mistaken impression that your job was to field customer complaints, to be the human voice that I, a fellow human, could physically speak to while politely explaining the serious ass reamings that your faceless corporate employer had repeatedly performed upon my person.

Because of this mistaken impression, I thought that I could call you up and speak with you politely about the company’s shortfalls without you taking anything too personally. I even went so far as to assume that you would allow me to finish a complete sentence without interrupting me and becoming argumentative. Well, you know what happens when I assume!

It was silly of me to take offense when your suggested remedy for the incompetence of your own employees (oh, I’m sorry - there I go again, conflating you, an employee, and your employer. I keep thinking that just because you represent your company that I can use pronouns. You repeatedly corrected me earlier on the phone, so I should know much better by now.)

Uh, where were we… You The company suggested that I could solve my billing problem by reading my gas meter myself and reporting back to you the company every month. See, a meter reader employed by the company for which you work seems either unable or unwilling to do his or her job, despite the fact that there are absolutely no obstacles to my back yard and, funny thing, the exact same employee whose job it is to read my gas meter is successful every month in reading my electric meter, but claims that the gate is locked on the gas meter form.

So, I unfairly found it utterly ridiculous that you the company would suggest that I do your the company’s job without offering to pay me whatever rate is given to the incompetent and or lazy shit who can’t find my gas meter despite the fact that it is but a couple of feet away from my electric meter.

And I should not have verbalized this thought, since, obviously, although I seemed to be conversing directly with you, another human being, I was actually speaking with the company, and as soon as the company’s words escaped your the company’s mouth, you were the company was no longer responsible for them.

Thankfully, you were the company was quick to correct me, even going so far as to helpfully tell me that if I wanted my billing problem to be solved that this would be the best way, since that person who is also employed by the company which employs you and whose responsibilities include the monthly reading of my electric and gas meters probably wouldn’t be changing his or her habits any time soon. In fact, you the company mentioned that there was not much you the company could do beyond suggesting that I do readings myself.

So, I’m very sorry that my stupidity and assumptions caused you the company to start an argument with me and that I forced you the company to abruptly hang up on me despite your the company’s promises to transfer me to a representative with sufficient training to handle a person of my limited understanding.

And I apologize profusely for being a bad customer and calling in the first place when you the company repeatedly over billed me and then went so far as to charge me late fees for gas that I still have not used. And I’m extremely sorry that you the company had to leave me on hold for 25 minutes while you the company consulted with your the company supervisor. This must have seemed like a very long time to you the company.

But that’s all water under the company bridge now, so I hope that you the company will forgive my transgressions and continue to allow me to be a consumer of the overpriced energy products which the company generously provides.

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A Freeway Blogger has struck BlogWood International Headquarters. This is the second time this year that some unknown persons have taken advantage of the highly visible BlogWood campus.

This time, the Executive Residence Building was struck, and a large sign in the memory of a fallen American soldier was placed high up on the balcony fronting Tampa St.

With at least 1319 dead American troops. That’s over 1300 American lives, and counting, thrown away in a stupid, baseless, unwinnable war.

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The City of Tampa met with developers yesterday to plot ways to allow the builders to get around rules that require new and improved roads to accompany developments that increase traffic loads. The public was not invited, because as soon as citizens get involved in these kinds of decisions, developers are often forced to do the right thing, and that can really eat into profits.

Developers want to put the brakes on city rules proposed to ease traffic that new homes and businesses bring.

Concerns about the proposal prompted the city this month to delay closing a loophole that allows some developers to dodge expensive road work.

Limiting the potential cost and the public’s involvement in picking road improvement projects were among issues raised at a meeting Monday between city officials and more than 15 of Tampa’s top development lawyers.

One of the lawyers’ requests was that developers’ appeals of road work requirements be made to a city staff member or hired mediator, not at a public meeting before the Tampa City Council.

Yeah, we don’t want the public involved in decisions that directly impact our quality of life. That would just be silly.

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The Tampa Police Department was out in force yesterday, performing one of their feel-good crime sweeps in Tampa Heights, which just happens to be the location of BlogWood international headquarters, just North of downtown Tampa.

A feel-good crime sweep is one in which the police contact the press then enter a depressed neighborhood and arrest residents on outstanding drug and prostitution warrants. Residents feel good because they (mistakenly) think that something meaningful is being done.

Police feel good because they are praised by hoodwinked residents and the gullible press. The press feels good because they have a nice, easy feel-good anti-crime story to run with. The arrested don’t feel too bad, because they’re back on the streets a few hours after being processed.

I’ve got plenty to say about the wasted resources and efforts involved in these worthless shows for the cameras, and I’d love to get into the fact that the police never ever sweep through rich white areas and make arrests for powder cocaine and prescription drug usage and sales, which tend to happen indoors and behind the walls of gated communities, but there’s something else I need to touch on instead.

It seems that during the extended on-site press conference police operation, a couple of teenagers in a stolen car happened upon the scene, and, like a group of street level drug peddlers angling for a sale, TPD immediately lurched into action.

See, in Tampa, police have a policy which explicitly allows them to give chase when young, inexperienced drivers are found to be in possession of a stolen vehicle. This policy often results in massive property damage and or loss of life, especially for innocent bystanders, but that’s a small price to pay for the protection of our SUVs.

So, the Police quickly jumped into their vehicles and gave chase, careening around small animals and neighborhood kids on Christmas break as they sped through the projects of Robles Park and headed toward downtown.

Then, having reached the downtown area and fearing a bad ending to their aggressive pursuit of a couple of joy riding teens, the police called off their chase.

It seems that it’s okay for the cops to engage in a high speed pursuit through the residential streets of an area inhabited by the poor and powerless, an area that teems with children and other pedestrians, but once the action reaches a part of town where a wealthier class of folks might be congregating, suddenly TPD is all about caution and public safety.

This is not an isolated event. TPD policy is to chase children in stolen cars until they crash or until they reach an area of town in which the wrong kind of people might get hurt. There is absolutely no good reason to maintain this antiquated and overly aggressive policy. (There are plenty of arguments in favor of chasing non-violent property crime suspects through densely populated areas, just no good arguments.)

Contact Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and ask her to stop our cops from playing Grand Theft Auto on our residential streets. She has the power to single handedly put a stop to this overly aggressive deadly police policy.

Mayor Pam Iorio
City of Tampa, Mayor’s Office
306 East Jackson Street
Tampa, FL 33602

Or send an online message here.

This was the fatal result of a Tampa Police chase in 2000. Despite massive property damage, injuries, and deaths over the years, TPD continues its aggressive chase policy today.

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Catch-22

* “‘Catch-22…says you’ve always got to do what your commanding officer tells you to.

“‘But Twenty-seventh Air Force says I can go home with forty missions.’

“‘But they don’t say you have to go home. And regulations do say you have to obey every order. That’s the catch. Even if the colonel were disobeying a Twenty-seventh Air Force order by making you fly more missions, you’d still have to fly them, or you’d be guilty of disobeying an order of his. And then the Twenty-seventh Air Force Headquarters would really jump on you.’”

Catch-22

“that’s the way things go when you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority.”

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