Category: Media Watch

* “Call me a hopeless optimist, but I actually think we can get this done.”–President Barack Obama on chances that a stripped-down deficit-reduction compromise, which would prevent a tax increase for all but the richest taxpayers and extend aid for 2 million unemployed Americans, could still be reached by year’s end.

* “Nobody interacts with Hillary Clinton like she’s fading off into the sunset.”–State Department spokesman Philippe Reines.

* “He’s (Secretary of State nominee Sen. John Kerry) seen war. He knows it ain’t pretty, and very often it doesn’t work.”–Jonah Blank, South Asia specialist and former Kerry aide.

* “Depending on what happens, and where we go, all of us, we may obviously meet again.”–Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in his farewell address on the Senate floor.

* “Aircraft, ships, tanks bases, even those that have outlived their usefulness, have a natural political constituency. Readiness does not. What’s more, readiness is too often sacrificed in favor of a larger and less effective force. I am determined to avoid that outcome.”–Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

* “She was from gun culture, ‘Live free or die.’ That was truly her upbringing.”–A reference to Nancy Lanza, mother of mass killer Adam Lanza, by Russell Ford, a friend of Mrs. Lanza’s.

* “I don’t know anybody in the sporting or hunting arena that goes out with an assault rifle.”–U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a gun-rights Democrat from West Virginia.

* “We cannot tolerate this any longer. Congress has within its ability to bring up common sense gun regulation very quickly.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

* “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”–Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president and CEO.

* “You can’t make this (school) an armed camp for kids.”–New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

* “We would welcome that discussion, although I don’t know if that is the answer.”–Hillsborough school district spokesman Stephen Hagerty on state Rep. Mike Fasano’s suggestion to hire school resource officers for every Florida elementary school.

* “If assault rifles are evil things that ought not be in the hands of decent Americans, why do ‘shoot-to-kill’ video games feature those weapons? Why does Hollywood glamorize assault rifles in action-packed films of slaughter starring Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris and Jason Statham?”–Patrick J. Buchanan, Washington Post.

* “If we’re serious about curtailing future Columbines and Newtowns, everything–guns (institutional) commitment and culture–must be on the table. It’s not hard for President Obama to call out the NRA. But will he call out the ACLU? And will he call out his Hollywood friends?–Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post.

* “If you wanted to create a system that would make it easy for criminals and mentally ill people to get guns, I would design it based on Florida’s system.”–Arthur Hayhoe of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

* “Obviously, the (Florida) governor has almost two years to go until the election and anything is possible, but he faces a herculean task in changing public opinion to his favor.”–Quinnipiac University pollster Pete Brown.

* “Cargo is the future.”–William “Hoe” Brown, chairman of the Tampa Port Authority.

* “He embraced life so that it seems all the more shocking that his life has ended. There was so much good in him.”–Former Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio on the late Bill McBride.

* “We have been jumping for joy. You could hear kids screaming all throughout the school. It’s a great feeling.”–Robinson High School principal Johnny Bush reacting to news that his school received an A grade from the state Department of Education.

* “This project presents the perfect opportunity to own the hippest hotel in the most dynamic location in Tampa Bay.”–Punit Shah of Liberty Group, a joint-venture partner in converting the Mercantile Bank building at Ashley Drive and Kennedy Boulevard into an Aloft boutique hotel.

* “We can’t tolerate this anymore.”–President Barack Obama to mourners in Newtown, Conn.

* “It appears that many modern-day Republicans oppose the United Nations for the same reason their colleagues in post-World War I America opposed the League of Nations. They distrust the rest of the world, and they are afraid that the United States loses something when it participates in the international community of nations as an equal rather than as a global superpower.”–David Lee McMullen, visiting assistant professor of history at USF.

* “The worst error politicians can make is to spin themselves. It’s time for the GOP to face the hard truth, no matter how painful. The Republican brand is dying, many of our strategists are incompetent, and we still design campaigns to prevail in the America of 25 years ago.”–Mike Murphy, Time magazine.

* “I don’t know if we fall off the cliff, but I think we’re at least going to jump out of a tree.”–Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

* “It’s not going to be fatal to support legalizing illegal immigrants who came here when they were very young. But any bill that has a broader amnesty in it would end his presidential prospects.”–Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, on how immigration proposals would impact the presidential scenarios of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

* “We do not have a business brand.”–Enterprise Florida CEO Gray Swoope.

* “We had a really good election. Sixty-two of 67 counties performed very well. But it doesn’t take but one county to not quite meet the standards for Florida to get a reputation.”–Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner.

* “What I’m worried about is misbehavior, mismanagement.”–Gov. Rick Scott explaining why he wants Citizens Property Insurance to have its own inspector general.

* “We are not going forward with a (casino) petition drive effort and there have not been any petitions gathered.”–Brian Ballard, lobbyist for Malaysia-based Genting Group.

* “He is a champion of the testing mania, unchecked expansion of charter schools and voucher programs and has proven to advance the Jeb Bush education agenda that has drawn fire from teachers, parents and experts in the field.”–Florida Education Association president Andy Ford in deploring the appointment of Tony Bennett as Florida’s education commissioner.

* “What I would tell my friends on the other side of the aisle is when it comes to Charlie Crist, be careful what you ask for–you may get it.”–Republican state Sen. Tom Lee.

* “People want to do business with people they know.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn, upon returning from the trade mission to Colombia.

* “Women are better at wrapping gifts. I was thinking about why that is. Look at them. They wear bows and ribbons. They ARE presents. Meanwhile, men wear baseball caps and oversized team jackets. That’s the fashion equivalent of a gift bag.”–Comedian Jimmie Kimmel.

* Anyone else tired of the numbing use of “fiscal cliff?” That was, by the way, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s coinage. Anyone else wish that part of a Fed chairman’s charge is to never–especially when testifying before Congress–hand deliver a made-for-media-and-market-overkill metaphor. The hucksters and analysts on CNBC even have a Fiscal Cliff Countdown, showing Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds as if it were the Mayan apocalypse and doom instead of Washington gridlock and sequestration.

* The New York Post has been running ads in the Tampa Tribune. The current one features a reproduction of a recent front page showing Paula Broadwell next to the quintessential tab headline: “Love Bytes.” Could have been worse. Mercifully, the Post didn’t replicate the obscenity that was their front page the day they showed the man on the subway tracks above the “Doomed” headline. Abominable that they ran it; loathsome that there’s a market for such a ghastly photo; disgusting that they’re still in business–and advertising it down here.

* Speaking of that tragic subway-tracks death, many news outlets, including AOL, carried the follow-up headline: “Homeless Man Arrested In Subway Death.” Why not your basic “Suspect Arrested… ” headline? Is “Homeless” somehow pertinent? Implicitly exculpatory?

* Tickets are now on sale for Mike Tyson: “Undisputed Truth,” the live-on-stage performance that is coming to Ruth Eckerd Hall in April. It’s directed by Spike Lee.

One question: Why?

* I know I must be in the minority, because “Skyfall” is a box office hit. But the longer the James Bond series goes, the more I miss Sean Connery. There’s a difference between brand and cliché–although Roger Moore, I’ll concede, certainly looked the debonair, leading-man part. Daniel Craig, however, doesn’t. And more special effects and gimmicks doesn’t compensate. It just makes the latest Bond iteration more like every other action movie today. Arguably, we have more than enough.

* “Of the roughly 350,000 people licensed to be self-employed under the new (Cuban) laws by end of 2011, 67 percent had no prior job affiliation listed–which most likely means they were running underground businesses that then became legitimate.”–Damien Cave, New York Times.

* “Among younger Cuban-American voters, the split between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney wasn’t even close–Mr. Obama won handily. Clearly, the demographic handwriting is on the wall, not only for the brand of hard-line conservative thinking that has often kept a stranglehold on local pols, but also for the 50-year-old United States economic embargo against Cuba, enduring only out of the perceived presidential kingmaker role held by Miami’s Cubans.”–Brett Sokol, arts editor for Ocean Drive magazine.

* “The worst error politicians can make is to spin themselves. It’s time for the GOP to face the hard truth, no matter how painful. The Republican brand is dying, many of our strategists are incompetent, and we still design campaigns to prevail in the America of 25 years ago.”–Mike Murphy, Time magazine.

* “Polls show that large majorities of Americans are inclined to blame Republicans if the country goes off the ‘fiscal cliff.’ The business community, which needs a deal to boost confidence, will turn against them. The national security types and the defense contractors, who hate the prospects of sequestration, will turn against them. Moreover, a budget stalemate on these terms will confirm every bad Republican stereotype.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “If this benefit goes away, who’s going to pick up the slack?”–Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, referring to special tax deductions that encourage Americans to make charitable contributions.

* “SoPo.”–Post-Superstorm Sandy reference to “South of Power” coined by residents of Lower Manhattan.

* “If you laugh, think and cry, that’s a full day.”–The late Jim Valvano.

* “Abraham Lincoln only served one term in Congress, too.”–Defeated U.S. Rep. Allen West.

* “The question is how do we take what is the Obama coalition and translate that to a Democratic coalition that outlasts Obama.”–Outgoing Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith.

* “We had a really good election. Sixty-two of 67 counties performed very well. But it doesn’t take but one county to not quite meet the standards for Florida to get a reputation.”–Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner.

* “Absentee ballots are processed and verified using different standards than regular ballots, and as such are routinely rejected at a higher rate.”–University of Florida political scientist Daniel Smith.

* “We are not going forward with a (casino) petition drive effort and there have not been any petitions gathered.”–Brian Ballard, lobbyist for Malaysia-based Genting Group.

* “What I would tell my friends on the other side of the aisle is when it comes to Charlie Crist, be careful what you ask for–you may get it.”–Republican state Sen. Tom Lee.

* “It’s not a marathon. It’s a sprint.”–New USF football coach Willie Taggart on expectations of early success.

Like a lot of you, I’m sure, I get this visceral feeling reading about certain crimes. Utterly cold-blooded, unconscionably senseless murder qualifies. Especially when you factor in back stories about the alleged assailant and the victim.

The recent arrest of 16-year-old Larry Donnell Brown in the murder of private security officer Michael Valentin, 38, was the most recent Exhibit A. Police had charged Brown 36 times in six years. He was even arrested for an ATM stick-up after the deadly shooting.

Valentin was a husband and father of two.

Both Brown and Valentin came from hard-scrabble backgrounds. Brown was raised by a teen mother in Tampa; Valentin grew up in a gang-infested project in Brooklyn. Brown produced a rap sheet that already included 12 felony convictions. Valentin pursued a career protecting society from criminals such as Brown. Life, as we’re too often reminded, can be unfathomably unfair.

But then there was this. The (Local) front-page headline of last Saturday’s Tampa Bay Times read: “For Two Families, A Day Of Reflection.” I had to re-read that.

In a shamefully lame attempt to featurize this variation on an all-too-familiar, crime-story theme, the Times was, in effect, equating the families–that of the accused murderer and that of the confirmed victim. Both dealing with issues, as it were. Both asking questions, so to speak, about the tragic slaying of a father of two who wanted to help people and the arrest of a suspect who is a proven predator.

But then, perhaps, the Times was influenced by the Tampa Tribune’s story from the previous day. The (Metro) page-one piece carried the headline: “Guard Slaying Suspect’s Mom Defends Son.”

It doesn’t get any worse than the senseless murder of a loved one raising a family and trying to help society. And then it just did. Outrageous to add insult to iniquity.

*”We won’t be demanding what you should do or shouldn’t do. We want to participate. We want to contribute. We want to be part of this.”–Recently inaugurated Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto indicating he hopes to help President Obama pass a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. immigration policy.

* “What is the single biggest problem with the tax code? It’s not the complexity, bad as that is. The biggest problem is that it rewards consumption and punishes savings and investment. … Most economists vastly prefer consumption taxes to income taxes. … We have to have a consumption tax if we want to both grow the economy and reduce debt.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “Come on, that’s such a canard, you know that. “The Greatest Generation? That was the biggest publishing hoax of all. It’s to sell books.”–Oliver Stone.

* “SoPo.”–The ironic, self-deprecating, post-Sandy reference to “South of Power” coined by residents of Lower Manhattan

* “If you laugh, think and cry (every day), that’s a full day.”–The late Jim Valvano.

* “We all know this law would never have gotten through Congress if it had been sold as a new $4 billion tax on the American people.”–Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi on the federal health care law.

* “The Affordable Care Act is going to mean as much to Florida as any place in the country. If we try to support the retiree community of America off our dime, Florida would be a completely different state fiscally and many other ways.”–Former Florida Governor and Senator Bob Graham.

* “The question is how do we take what is the Obama coalition and translate that to a Democratic coalition that outlasts Obama”–Outgoing Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith.

* “It’s clear to us, especially when we look around at some other situations, that we have to end up in the perfect spot. We need to be pitch perfect.”–Tampa Bay Rays’ owner Stu Sternberg on new stadium scenarios.

* “Now is our time. This is our opportunity. Let’s go get it done.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn on the implications of the recently released draft of the InVision Tampa City Center Plan.

* “I don’t like, want or need to resort to exceptional measures, but I will if I see that my people, nation and the revolution of Egypt are in danger.”–Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.

* “If Israel were to reverse settlement growth, this could serve to buttress Palestinian moderates, who are in a position to negotiate with Israel. If the West Bank were to gain real freedom, the Palestinians of Gaza might turn away from Hamas. All of this is unlikely… but this plan represents the only alternative to continued military strikes on Gaza by Israel.”–Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg View.

* “Many in the United States, not just inside the Obama administration, seem to think American policy needs to be “rebalanced.” The strategic importance of the Middle East is declining, they argue, as the United States grows independent of the region’s oil supply.”–Robert Kagan, author of The World America Made.

* “We want Greece to remain in Europe.”–German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

* “Mexico, in spite of a long season of security and violence stories, is attracting investment. Why? Because people putting money in a country read beyond the headlines. They know that other emerging markets face similar challenges.”–Antonio Garza, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.

* “What is missing across Europe, the United States and China is a global agreement on a proper carbon price. More than any other measure, a tax on carbon consumption is what’s needed to slow the warming of the planet.”–Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford University.

* “The generals who won World War II were the kind of men who, as it was said at the time, chewed nails for breakfast, spit tacks at lunch and picked their teeth with their pistol barrels. General Petraeus probably flosses.”–Novelist Lucian K. Truscott IV.

* “Globalization creates winners and losers. But the winners can compensate the losers and still be ahead.”–Robert Reich, political economist at the University of California Berkeley and former Clinton Administration labor secretary.

* “It was a very sobering night for those of us who supported Gov. Romney. We need to really rethink things from the ground up.”–Newt Gingrich, who was recently in Tampa for a book signing.

* “There are sore losers in every election. But the quality of the carping is different this time. The sense that a “traditional” America is being supplanted by something foreign–an amalgam of Greece and Kenya, perhaps–seems to have only intensified since the election.”–Joe Klein, Time magazine.

* “Most people on public assistance don’t have a character flaw. They just have a tough life.”–Lindsey Graham, GOP Senator from South Carolina.

* “The numbers tell us we should question the state’s increasing emphasis on charter schools because as a group they underperform traditional public schools.”–Stanley D. Smith, UCF finance professor.

* “I think that the Republicans and the Democrats will be better off with candidates that have appeal across the political spectrum.”–UT political scientist Scott Paine on the 2014 county commission race for the (countywide) District 7 seat of the exiting Mark Sharpe.

* “We are a great market with attendance problems. I don’t think time is on our side.”–Chuck Sykes, co-chair of the Baseball Stadium Financing Caucus.

* “So my best advice to Israelis is: Focus on your election–on Jan. 22–not ours. I find it very sad that in a country with so much human talent, the Israeli center and left still can’t agree on a national figure who could run against Netanyahu and his thuggish partner, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.”–Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times.

* “When Republicans claim that this was a status quo election, they point to their continued hold on the House. … True enough, but that’s not because Americans didn’t vote to undo them. It’s because Republicans have so gerrymandered congressional districts in states where they controlled redistricting the past two years that they were able to elude a popular vote that went the Democrats’ way.”–Harold Meyerson, Washington Post.

* “Republicans have the same problem as the Beach Boys. Their fans are dying.”–Comedian Bill Maher.

* “Team Romney has every reason to be shellshocked. Its candidate, after all, resoundingly won the election of the country he was wooing. Mitt Romney is the president of white male America.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “My trip to Iowa has nothing to do with 2016.” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

* “We (Republican Party) need to reach out aggressively to non-white voters, and Marco Rubio will be a key voice.”–Rubio’s pollster Whit Ayres.

* “Given America’s demographic direction, the overwhelming loss of Hispanic votes gradually will complicate the Republican political task to the point of impossibility. Unless this problem is solved, the GOP will remain on a long, downward slope toward irrelevance.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.

* My plea is to protect public investment. Infrastructure, job training and basic scientific research are the country’s seed corn–the spending that allows us to be more productive and prosperous in the future.”–Christina D. Romer, economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and former chairwoman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

* “President Obama should pause before choosing a successor to CIA Director David H. Petraeus and rethink the role of the nation’s primary intelligence agency. Its main focus for the past decade has been fighting terrorists and insurgents.”–Walter Pincus, Washington Post.

* “The Reagan administration was generally skeptical about costly environmental rules, but with respect to protection of the ozone layer, Reagan was an environmental hero. Under his leadership, the United States became the prime mover behind the Montreal Protocol, which required the phasing out of ozone-depleting chemicals.”–Prof. Cass Sunstein, Harvard Law School.

* Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”–NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant.

* “The next move obviously is to have Fidel Castro throw out the first pitch next year.”–Miami radio talk-show host Jeff DeForest on what to expect from the Miami Marlins after their  blockbuster, fire-sale trade of prominent players with big salaries.

* “The good thing is Tampa is a very different place than it was when I got here. It is far more embracing, far more diverse and far more open because of the influx of many new people.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

What’s with the political yard signs still out there? A week after the election, these vestiges of political support are now needless clutter and should have gone the way of robo calls, snail-mail fliers and TV ads.

And if they’re for Obama, it’s now more than celebratory. It’s gloating. If they’re for Ronmey, it’s more than shock. It’s defiance. But some things continue to defy explanation, such as still leaving up that Terry Kemple sign.

Rarely does this column deviate into the movie-review niche. “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist” were notable exceptions. Now add “Argo,” starring–and directed by–Ben Affleck. It’s very well scripted, suspenseful, historical and eerily faithful to that still-haunting, Iranian hostage-taking time–even if there was poetic license invoked in that climatic final, frantic scene. Highly recommend.