Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Why I gave up on NPR

Not very many of those people in the rural red states listen or more importantly contribute to their local NPR station.


St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

I finally did it. I have pulled the plug on National Public Radio. More accurately, all the radios in my home are no longer tuned to an NPR station, and I have dumped the local NPR TV affiliate.

I stuck with NPR through the presidential election as the "fair and balanced" approach gradually disintegrated into a left-leaning  denial of all this country is about.

I suspect that it is true that not very many of those people in the rural red states listen or more importantly contribute to their local NPR station.

See from the media research center: NPR Admits a Liberal Bias.

The highly educated liberal elites who managed public media were appalled at the possibility of a person like Trump even running for president, and as he won the primary after primary, their level of frustration and consternation fomented into what became an attack on the right and the mainstream of our society.

As all of this unfolded on NPR, their local affiliates who are mostly college and university supported radio stations and who rarely raise their head up long enough to get a real view of what's going on accepted the barrage of left wing reporting and generally followed suit.

One of the things rarely heard on local public radio is the students from the colleges that own and operate these media outlets. They have simply become the media outlet of the educational and political elites.

After the election was over, I thought there was a small chance that NPR the powers at be would be less biased but watching Gwen Iffil, God rest her soul, and Judy Woodruff wince every time they had to say something positive about the Trump administration has just become too much for me.

A parade of anti Republican, anti Trump, anti change guests, hosts, commentators and panel members have all but converted NPR in to a media arm of the democratic party. It has been hard for them to accept that they lost the election.

Granted NPR and the Corporation for Public Broad Casting has always had a liberal bent but given that the fact, that NPR and many of its local affiliates are publicly supported it just seems odd that their coverage of this election and  politics in general would become so openly biased.

I made very small contribution to the local NPR affiliate WEDU in the past but no more. Those of you who dutifully stroke a check or have a recurring payment to an NPR affiliate might want to take a minute or two and actually listen to the product you are supporting you may be surprised.

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Sunday, November 27, 2016

John Morgan, "I may want to be your Governor"

The draft Morgan effort caught the usually unflappable Morgan a bit off guard, but he is certainly not writing off the thought.


St. Petersburg Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author:
In Search of Robin
 Disclosure: We used the Morgan and Morgan law firm in an auto accident insurance settlement a few years ago.
Attorney John Morgan, the guy who smiles at you from all those billboards and comes into your living room with folksy advice and rock hard legal services may want to be your next governor.
The draft Morgan effort caught the usually unflappable Morgan a bit off guard, but he is certainly not writing off the thought.
"Since Monday, the outpouring of encouragement to run for governor has been overwhelming and unexpected," wrote Morgan, who has never held elective office. "It is either extremely flattering that so many people put such faith in me, or sad that people have so little faith in the typical politicians of both parties who are expected to seek the office."
But, he added, "Before I go down this road any further I need a lot of time to think about it. There are obvious drawbacks and hurdles," John Morgan.

Reaction was swift and more or less predictable. See: Tampa Bay Times, Adam Smith, Add Morgan to list of potential governors
 You can see John Morgan's Bio at For the People.
In an initial social media and web site posting forthegovenor.com  requesting support and funds, quickly garnered 2000 responses, one of them mine.
There will be all the obvious comparisons to Trump outsider, rich, successful probably fewer comparisons to Rick Scott, who lead the outsider effort in Florida.
The interest in Morgan continues a trend toward less emphasis on the political class, which has been in charge of government for far too many decades.
Just the thought of someone with Morgan's reputation of fighting for the little guy, and name recognition throws shivers into the Democratic establishment. Who would consider a run against Morgan in the democratic primary?
 Bob Buckhorn?     Seriously?
Same on the Republican side. Who would the Republicans want to put up against Morgan?
Even better question what Republican would want to risk their career running against Morgan?
Don't look for a decision soon there is great value in letting this effort percolate through the Republican and Democratic establishment.
For now, Morgan is "thinking" about it, and you can follow the fun on Twitter at https://twitter.com/forthegovernor.
Morgan and his firm were once My Lawyer, and I have no qualms about him being My Governor.
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Disclosures: Previous client of Morgan and Morgan

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Local Busybody Leytham Wants A Sales Tax Hike Boondoggle on 2018 Ballot

Tampa, Fl
Posted by: Sharon Calvert

What was front and center during this election? Cronyism, corruption, rejection of political insiders and a huge lack of trust in our government and the media. Hmmmm,,,,Sound familiar close to home? Like the crony, corrupted Go Hillsborough campaign?

While the American electorate clearly stated they were sick and tired of the crony, corrupt political status quo, the Tampa Bay Times appears tone deaf. They recently published this article Backers of Hillsborough's failed transportation referendum see missed opportunity on Election Day
Backers of the referendum now lament what they see as a missed opportunity to capitalize on an electorate they believe would have viewed the referendum favorably.
Before it failed, proponents said internal polls showed support as high as 65 percent. And it had backing from business groups like the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. 
"When I saw Hillsborough County vote for Hillary Clinton, when I saw Hillsborough County elect a new Democratic state attorney, when I saw those types of votes, I truly believed that if it was on the ballot we would've passed it," County Commissioner Les Miller said.
Well…..the Times did have to backtrack a bit on their narrative
It's entirely possible Hillsborough's proposal, dubbed Go Hillsborough, would not have survived a negative campaign and grassroots opposition from anti-tax and anti-rail factions, just as they helped defeat a 2010 referendum and a similar 2014 ballot initiative in Pinellas County. It faced headwinds, too, from some traditionally liberal groups who felt the proposal lacked a substantive transit investment.
Of course, the Times refused to name the grassroots opposition who led efforts to defeat the 2010 and 2014 sales tax hike boondoggles - NoTaxForTracks. The Times refused to speak with those who have been consistently publicly fighting for fiscal responsibility and opposed putting the sales tax hike on the 2016 ballot.

The Times tries to create a false narrative that equates the schizophrenic voting in Hillsborough County as a missed opportunity that local voters would vote for a sales tax hike…

Really? 

Who pushed this narrative with the Times? The backers of the proposed sales tax hike referendum? Those backers included deep pocketed special interests, the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Commissioners Les Miller and Ken Hagan, Mayor Buckhorn, the Times editorial board and the cozy confidante of them all Beth Leytham.
As demonstrated by Tuesday's election, Hillsborough is inching from purple to blue in ways that should embolden leaders to push for it sooner rather than later, said Beth Leytham, the public relations consultant who worked on Go Hillsborough. 
"You can't go back, but I do believe it would've passed," Leytham said, "And what we just saw gives you a really good reason to look at 2018 instead of 2020."
Can't make this stuff up. The very person who led the failed, crony and corrupted Go Hillsborough campaign thinks a sales tax hike would have passed this election. There is no evidence to support such hypothetical as even deep Blue Broward County rejected a tax hike. 

Let's break this down.

The Times continues to ignore that trust, especially regarding our county budget and where the county spends our existing revenues, continues to be a big issue in Hillsborough County. 

Instead of pushing false narratives from a politically well connected PR person, the Times should be interrogating our county budget. The Times continues to refuse to ask our county commissioners tough questions about our budget or hold them accountable. They would better serve their readers if they stopped regurgitating talking points from an unelected bureaucrat, County Administrator Mike Merrill.

The Times once again goes to the losers to start creating a new narrative while intentionally avoiding the winners who can shatter that narrative. Remember Leytham was told during the Go Hillsborough campaign to mute NoTaxForTracks….(The reality today is "they" can't.)

The public is well aware of the politically well connected Leytham's very cozy relationship with the Times, Commissioner Hagan and Mayor Buckhorn, all who support a sales tax hike. Leytham serves as an information traffic cop between the media and numerous political elites and special interests. 

So hold onto your wallets because Leytham, our highly paid local busybody Gladys Kravitz, wants to put another sales tax hike boondoggle on the 2018 ballot. 
Since busybody Leytham has been on the losing side of every sales tax hike initiative in Tampa Bay, why does her opinion matter?

Perhaps busybody Leytham wants to jump start a PR campaign for 2018 now so the Times, who wants a sales tax hike, obliges with this article.

Maybe busybody Leytham, who was paid hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars leading the failed crony Go Hillsborough campaign, is looking for another lucrative PR contract another campaign could land her.

But….Busybody Leytham is the epitome of the crony political insider this election clearly rejected. 

And the Times appears to not get it.

Cross Posted with permission from: Eye On Tampa Bay

This post is contributed by EYE ON TAMPA BAY. The views expressed in this post are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher of Bay Post Internet.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Thanksgiving 2016

It has been a difficult year for all of us as we watch our nation go through a series of transformations.


St. Petersburg Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author:
In Search of Robin
We watch, some in joy, some in fear, as all we believe in seems to be fading away.
No matter where you find yourself this Thanksgiving, at home with family, in a Starbucks, alone in an apartment, far away serving your country or in the arms of a loved one take comfort in these words from Abraham Lincoln:
It is the duty of nations as well as of people to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863
We may not always agree, but know this I will always love you.
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Sunday, November 20, 2016

The Kriseman Sewage Plan


Kriseman finds himself between a sewage plant and a wet spot with no easy solution.


St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

It seems to be tough to get a straight answer on the sewage-treatment  problems in St. Petersburg. 

With State officials, the EPA, local and state representatives trying to get to the bottom of the problem see: Mark Peunte Tampa Bay Times,  Pinellas lawmakers question St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman on sewer repairs

Kriseman continues to duck and weave on the sewage problem and the solutions. His current “plans” of $45 million in emergency repairs and a five year $304 million effort to “fix” the systems are short on facts.

The way things look, Kriseman may well be a one-term  Mayor leaving him only two or three at best budget cycles to get any plan in place.

At this point, there is no clear indication of where the $45 million for next year will come from and no proposed source for the $304 million five year plan. An increase in water and sewer rates could provide revenue to guarantee bonds, but those rate increases will be extremely unpopular among the voters.

Kriseman finds himself between a sewage plant and a wet spot with no easy solution.

Really, disconcerting is how poorly the Mayor is handling the problem.

Kriseman and his dream team have not proven to be good strategic thinkers. They seem to specialize in “quick fixes” while long range strategies allude them.

The growing enmity between the Mayor and Gulfport along with county and state officials does not bode well for St. Petersburg.

To me, the plan looks like this:

  • Kriseman and his team will struggle to find funding for this year’s $45 million stop gap.
  • A lot of it will be wasted on consultants and maybe a false start or two.
  • If weather patterns continue as they have, Tampa Bay and Gulfport are in for another bad year.
  • The $304 million-dollar five-year plan will go basically unfunded trapped in a controversy over increased water and sewer fees.
  • Kriseman will go to all lengths to keep the Albert Whitted wastewater plant closed for reasons that have not yet become completely clear.

Essentially Kriseman has no plan to solve the current problem. His approach is to throw money that doesn’t exist at a very real problem while expecting those who got the City into this mess to get it out.

City council is struggling to get to the bottom of the problem and get short-term and longer-range  plans in place. So far, not much luck.

Comments and concerns form County and State officials are drumbeats that should not be ignored along with the fact that the Mayor and several of his City Council members may well find themselves up to their waists in sewage problems while trying to run a re-election campaign. 

E-mail Doc at mail to: dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook. 

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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Trump and the sports protesters

The thin line between free speech and common sense has gotten much brighter since the presidential election.


St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

I do not really want to write about all that is going on in our country right now, there are many very insightful and talented people commenting and reporting on the reaction to the election of Donald Trump and reactions of people like the Buc's Mike Evans.

So I thought I would accumulate a number of local and regional comments for your consideration and make a few comments.

From the Tampa Bay Times:



saintpetersblog:


The thin line between free speech and common sense has gotten much brighter since the presidential election.

Sports figures, actors, media stars all need to consider what the impact of their actions will be.

Those in the rush for viewers, ratings, readers, clicks and the ad dollar need to rethink their goals and their responsibility to the public. These protest feed on publicity.

I do not really care if Mike Evans stands up or not for the National Anthem because in one act he has forever stated his view of the very country, society, culture and people who allowed him to exhibit what every prowess he may have and make a lot of money doing it.

He can apologize all he wants along with the other sports and entertainment stars for their disrespect of this country, its flag, its veterans and ultimately its people.

For me Evan's actions defines forever his legacy in my mind for his ungrateful, small-minded view of the freedom that allows him the right to free speech while denying others their right to express their views at the ballot box.

I am sure Mr. Evans will go on to catch many footballs, get a lot of praise for his game contributions, but for me he always just be one of the sports jerks who disrespected his country.

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Sunday, November 13, 2016

The Aftermath of the Presidential election

So, Hillary, where are you?

St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

Protests following a presidential election are nothing new but those following this election are reflecting the presidential campaign.

Probably most disdaining to me is that Hillary Clinton, the self-appointed savior of all, has not publicly stepped up to quell her supporters and bring some sanity to the protests.

Perhaps Hillary is a poorer looser than she led us to believe.


Our state PATCH Editor Sherri Lonon has some interesting thoughts in her commentary/post:  Donald Trump Presidency is What We Make of It: Commentary.

The problem I see with these protests as everyone from Black Lives Matters to the feminist movement piles on are they stand to do a great deal of damage to their own cause.

These protests are not going without note especially as the mainstream media fans the fire in what appears to be a get back at Trump for winning effort.

Everyone knows that nothing drives protests and the violence that accompanies them more than over-the-top aggressive reporting by the national media.

All the protesters have a right to make their case. Some of their leaders, however, should quickly look back to the campaign and learn from the way Trump and his campaign reacted to detractors.

Those leading the protesters in the street may want to consider how they plan to move their objectives forward in a Trump administration when that administration's view of them is what the national media is currently portraying.

The real question now is who is doing the bullying?

Trump has never reacted favorably to being threatened or pushed around and those who voted for him are not likely to respond favorably either.

So, Hillary, where are you?

If you really loved and cherished these people currently protesting, looting, destroying private and public property you should step up and provide some leadership to "your" people.

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Disclosures: None

Friday, November 11, 2016

The really biggest loser in the Presidential Election


No, it was not Hillary Clinton, the Democrats, women, African Americans or Hispanics.


St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

To say Tuesday's election came as a shock to the media, political pundits, the news networks and most people in the political "know" is a wild understatement.

Once the media discovered that Trump had figured them out and was using the media to beat the political establishment at their own game, they became indignant. They openly complained about Trump "driving the news cycle" but could not bring themselves to drop their coverage.

While complaining about the Trump tactics, they became unwitting accomplices incapable of managing their business to their own stated journalistic ethics, which, by the way, they finally threw out the window.

Then came the debates as one network after the other put forth their star-power news readers to capture the pelt of Trump and hang it on the news room wall.

Each moderator went down in flames often getting more criticism than the candidates did for their debate performance.

The noticeable exception was Chris Wallace from Fox news, who most people felt did a good job.

In the next presidential debate, the Committee on Presidential Debates should consider rejecting the idea of "News Star-power moderators" and instead recruit significantly skilled academics to moderate the presidential debates. People whose careers are not enhanced by making one candidate look bad or another look good.

Chief among the media despots was taxpayer supported NPR National Public Radio and their highly motivated radio and TV affiliates who were so far left leaning and anti Trump it was at times more comedy than reporting. They tore up their "fair and balanced" mantra in a stream of self-righteousness that tarred the anti Clinton forces with every conceivable brush.

Nothing was more comical than watching NPR News anchors anguish every time they had to deliver a Trump story, especially if was positive.

Next time the solicitation for donations letter for your local NPR affiliate shows up in the mail, you might want to consider sending the money to the SPCA where it can do some real good.

The point simply is the media stopped reporting the news and tired to become our collective moral conscience and project on us the views of their star power moderators, pundits, political writers, commentators and news "managers" without admitting they were doing it.

There is an old adage "Don't try to save them from themselves, they don't appreciate it."

We didn't, we elected Trump.

I am not sure, which is worse, misogyny or moralism, but the voters appear to have ignored the withering stream of media diatribe designed to pull Trump into the gutter and defeat him.

The sad result of this over extension of the role of the media, print, broadcast and cable is serious damage to the credibility of the news media to perform their basic role in our society of informing the public.

Managing the public's opinion goes on the editorial page or designated as "opinion" or "commentary" but in this election cycle, it was in almost every story.

This drop in credibility of the media is sure to only worsen the fate of print media in this country, cause all Americans to view the broadcast and cable news networks with skepticism.

The real looser in this election was the Fourth Estate that we used to trust for our window into all things political.

As a society we can longer continue to impute to those who say they are "fair and balanced" that there is even a modicum of truth to that statement.

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Disclosures: None

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Keeping St. Pete City Council in the Dark

City Councils have always been manipulated by the administration.

St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

The elected body, City Council, is just now beginning to deal with the effects of a strong mayor who has politicized all most all aspects of the City Government.

The current problems between Mayor Kriseman and the City Council began almost immediately after his election. See my post Bay Post Internet Transparency - No So Much

Below is a Tweet from Steve Kornell.

Steve Kornell via Twitter:
Update on sewage issues and what is happening in our local government. Recently it was revealed that a previous study recommended keeping the Albert Whitted Plant open, but this was not shared with the St. Petersburg City Council. Emails also showed a cozy relationship between the consultants and our staff. So, as a common sense solution, I suggested adding boiler plate language into our consultants' contract stating that all consultant studies, drafts and technical memorandums are emailed to city council at the same time they are submitted to staff and administration. This involves adding some standard language to all our contracts and adding 9 people to an email distribution list. It's common sense oversight, while at the same time it does not bog down staff in overzealous requests for information. To my surprise, Mayor Kriseman and the City Administrator questioned this move. I was even more surprised by the fact that one of my City Council colleagues voted against this common sense provision that provides basic oversight before spending millions of your dollars on these consultants. I just though you should know - but don't take my word for it - view the video from the November 3rd City Council meeting. I believe every level of government should be as transparent as possible.

The issue here is the Kriseman administration does not want City Council to have any information that has not been filtered.

City Councils have always been manipulated by the administration. The objective is to give City Council just enough information to get them to approve what the administration wants.

The Kriseman team is refining this information management approach to an art.

There is something to be said for assuring the final consultant report sent to City council has met the requirements and specifications of the contract, but beyond that the final report should be provided to City Council from the consultant not the administration to ensure that the information gets to the publics' representatives.

It is unfortunate that the relationship between the City Council, and the Mayor's office has degenerated to this point but the simple fact is the City Council, and the public cannot trust the Mayor to be transparent or honest.

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Sunday, November 6, 2016

Kriseman on the Crap

St. Pete's Mayor has unveiled his plan to rescue the City from a near tidal wave of sewage flowing through the streets and into the Bay.


St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

This latest iteration of how to fix the City's massive wastewater and storm water problem treads a careful line between meeting the public need and preserving the valuable Albert Whitted property for future development. For more see: Charlie Frago, Tampa Bay Times Staff writer, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman unveils $45 million sewer fix, but reopening Albert Whitted plant isn't in the cards. And saintpetersblog, Ann Lindberg, Rick Kriseman unveils wastewater improvement plan

Kriseman's latest sewer epistle is a significant deviation from the recent past.

"That is a change of direction that I am grappling with right now," said council member Darden Rice.

Council member Ed Montanari said he was concerned that the city has decided not to reopen the plant.

Council member Steve Kornell pressed Tankersley over his assertion that the city would have still dumped or spilled millions of gallons of sewage even if Albert Whitted had remained open this whole time.

Council member Jim Kennedy said he was concerned that the city would be as vulnerable next summer as it was this past summer.

"It's possible," Tankersley replied." – Tampa Bay Times

Key in Kriseman's $15 million quick-fix plan is relining so-called "leaky" pipes that allow millions of gallons of water to flow to the plants in rain events.

When the City Water department and City Engineering are involved, there is no such thing as "quick." The word is simply not in their lexicon.

If the consultant that said about two-thirds of the City's sewage flow on a normal day is from incursion leaking is accurate, a really big question City Council should ask is during a rain event where will those millions of gallons of storm water that cannot "leak" into the sewer pipes go?

One would assume it would pile up in the streets causing a disaster of epic proportions.

The other facet of Kriseman's plan is to increase storage capacity by adding 45 million gallons at two of the City treatment plants. Given how long it has taken to build the tank at southwest this will be anything but a "quick" fix.

And of course the first step is to hire yet another consultant for $3.5 Million to develop a "master plan" due in 2019. I am sure all the usual consultants are already lining up to be part of the City's questionable CNA process.

All of this points out that Mayor Kriseman, and his dream team are not very good at governing. The million-dollar office of the Mayor is good at spinning, pointing fingers, and blaming but not very good when the chips are down or in this case when the level is up.

 "Mayor Poopy Pants," see Tampa Bay Times, Daniel Ruth: Drip, drip, drip goes St. Petersburg's sewer mess, has a serious long range problem on his hands, and he is not providing much leadership toward a solution.

I wonder how Mayor Poopy Pants will look on a campaign poster?

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Disclosures:

Friday, November 4, 2016

It is time to VOTE

If Trump manages to win it will be a sad day in media land.  

St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

As the election races to a close, you can probably find a poll that shows your candidate for any major office leading.

Just about everyone I have spoken with is ready for the whole election mess to be over.

The media and the Clinton campaign are in an all out panic over the FBI investigation of Hillary's e-mails along with Bill's questionable pardoning of an acquaintance.

It was a bit awkward to watch the media from NPR to CNN try do everything they could to ignore, downplay and spin the latest Clinton revelations.

I have never seen the media so openly biased as in this presidential election. 

If Trump manages to win it will be a sad day in media land.

At the State level, again, it depends what poll you watch; it looks like Florida's citizens are comfortable with the presidential wannabe Senator who rarely shows up for work.

Apparently, the citizenry feels it is better not have anyone there rather than someone who might show up and do something.

The FBI is investigating Murphy, those pesky rascals, for some campaign irregularities from his congressional run in 2012. No evidence Murphy was involved in the scheme by a wealthy Saudi family that supports him.

Rubio leads Murphy by 5.6 percentage points, just outside the margin of error, in the Real Clear Politics poll.

In my favorite race, Charlie Crist is hanging on to a small lead over David Jolly. As you can see from my disclosures below, I contributed to the Crist Campaign.

For an interesting look at this race check out Peter Schorsch's post in saintpetersblog,
Charlie Crist should pray for rain on Election Day, final poll of CD 13 shows

Charlie would do a good job in Congress, and he would be more focused on taking local issues to Congress in contrast to Jolly's impassioned desire to fix the political system.

I think Charlie will win going away, but he could use your vote.

What is important is that no matter whom you vote for GO VOTE.

 Almost all the critical races from the presidency right down to local mayors and city council members are too close to call so don't get lazy go out to the polls and vote.

Your vote can and will make a difference.

Be sure to vote on those ballot items, if you're not sure about them, the Tampa Bay Times has a ton of information on all of them.

Ignore the recommendations and vote your conscience.

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Disclosures:

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

The Inaugural Voyage of the Tampa Bay Ferry


The ferry simply picks you up at a dock and drops you off on the other dock across the bay. 


St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD

The Cross Bay Ferry not to be confused with the Tampa Bay Ferry and Water Taxi that operates out of John's Pass on Treasure Island, made its inaugural voyage across Tampa bay Tuesday with no regular members of the public just the political elite and their high-roller friends.


The Cross Bay Ferry is a joint effort with Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, The City of Tampa and the City of St. Petersburg all chipping in to fund the start up.

It is a great idea to look at this type of alternate transportation.

A pilot project of this nature can define many issues. Principal among them is the last mile issue, which always comes up in point to point public transit. That question simply is how do I get to and back from my actual destination?

Cab, bus, UBER, Lyft, walk, bicycle?

The ferry simply picks you up at a dock and drops you off on the other dock across the bay.

Now what?

Hopefully, this pilot project will give some insight into how that problem is solved.

The general thinking at the moment is initially the ferry will be a round trip tourist attraction that could possibly morph into a commuter option.

The round trip price is $20 per head and by the time, you add parking at your departure site and ground transportation at your arrival site the whole trip could get a bit expensive for daily commuters.

It is an interesting idea, probably a waste of taxpayer money, but the thought of Rick Kriseman doing a Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic) moment in the bow of the Ferry, while directing the captain to dodge the flotsam and jetsam his City dumped into the bay almost makes it a worthwhile investment.

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