Sarasota voters — bah, bah, bad sheep

Good grief. I think I heard on the news today that less than 7% of registered voters in the City of Sarasota bothered to vote in yesterday’s election. On the ballot were the issues of whether to have a strong mayor and which people the citizens of Sarasota want governing them and making laws and decisions that will undoubtedly affect every aspect of their lives.

Sarasota has a population of about 55,000, I think. About 12,600 people voted yesterday. That’s about 22% of the populace. That’s dismal, abysmal, just plain mal — which means “bad” in French! (more…)

Just a little augmentating of assets!

After today, guess I won’t have too much to say, write, or dredge up from the past about the Bush Administration, huh? Well, so, here’s my final comment on the subject (I think). In 2007 I wrote — not very well, really — a satirical wanna-be about Condi Rice’s kind of revolting double-speak when she quibbled with Chuck Hagel over whether 22,000 additional troops constituted an escalation … duh. Her response (you can catch it here in this transcript) was Bush-wackiness at its best, um, worst. So, I wrote a column making fun of poor Condi which went over like, um, two big lead balloons.

And, this, my friends (oh, dear, sounding a bit McCain-esque!) may be my last word on Bushworld.dum. (more…)

That slop-jawed, Birkenstock-wearing Reality Chick!

Back in the day (was it really less than a year ago?!) when I had my Reality Chick column appearing each week in print, I could be sure that whenever I invoked the words President Bush or my more favored name for him — Georgie-boy, I could be sure of getting lots and lots of not-so-fan mail. Here’s a column that summarized some of the responses from those salad days and allowed me my summary dismissal thereof. (more…)

G.W.’s swan song

With apologies to Don McLean (for abusing his fabulous, near-perfection lyrics to Everybody Loves Me Baby from American Pie collection).

Fortune had me well in hand, armies waited at my command
My gold was in a foreign land buried deep beneath the sand
The angels guided my ev’ry prayer, my enemies I wanted sick or dead
But the so-called victories I led, only left America in the red. (more…)

A little local color … in a Wonder-bread town

This column originally published in 2006.
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I keep getting asked to write less about national issues and more about local goings-on. Local “color” it’s called – stories that show the colorful characters, places and events of an area.

Believe me; I’ve been trying. Trekking it out to obscure cafés and trying to find a coffeehouse that isn’t Starbucks.

But Sarasota can be a pretty white-bread town, and the only thing I’ve discovered lately is that I’m not sure I’m white enough for it. (more…)

Bully Nation — hopefully less so after January 20

Exactly a year ago, I wrote the following column — about how our country had devolved, somehow, over the generations, but most noticeably with the Bush administrations, into one full of outrageous bullies — on a next-door-neighbor level to a global level. I’d like to think that era is coming to an end. (more…)

The Americans we once were … and will be again

In May 2007, my disillusionment with George Bush, with the wars, with the apathy of my country, and probably with myself, reached an all-time high. I wrote a couple of columns back to back — i.e., yesterday’s blog posting What Kind of American Are You? — that called Americans out on the carpet for their inertia in regard to the war called and the reaction was, well, pretty strong. The following column was my response to the many emails and letters I received. (more…)

What kind of American are you?

This column first appeared in 2007. I hope Obama lives up to his campaign speechifying and we, as a nation, can collectively answer this question with integrity and real compassion for soldiers still fighting the fight. (more…)

Sarasota … definitely not a Spike Lee Joint

A year ago … just about this time … I attended a press conference to interview the filmmaker Spike Lee and also attended his talk that night at the Van Wezel … here’s my story and I think it’s still relevant. (more…)

Presidential PDA … in the last days of Bush-bashing

Well, I’d like to think I never bashed Bush for anything he didn’t truly warrant … . Here’s an example — a column I wrote in July 2006 after his mal apropos back-rubbing at the G8 Summit.

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By now, we all know that George W. Bush spent a few seconds giving an unsolicited and evidently highly uncomfortable “back rub” to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the recent G-8 Summit.

Some people are calling his action just a friendly “rub” among world leaders. No harm, no foul. (more…)