Jessica Ehrlich Town Hall Meeting

Democratic congressional candidate Jessica Ehrlich will hold a town hall meeting this Wednesday. Ehrlich will talk about maintaining a strong middle class and the importance of Medicare. Ehrlich is running against Republican incumbant Bill Young.

WHO: Jessica Ehrlich (FL13) and the SEIU

WHAT: Town Hall Meeting

WHEN: 6:00 PM –Wednesday, August 1 st

WHERE: 449 Central Avenue. Suite 104

St. Petersburg 33701-3876

Update: the post has been changed because the Ehrlich campaign moved the venue of the town hall meeting. The address in the post is correct.

Best Headline of the Day

I had to click the link on Twitter when I saw the headline "Westboro Church Protesters Confronted By Zombies." Supporters of the military dressed up as zombies to counter-protest the Westboro Church.

Eight members of the church, known for frequently picketing military funerals and other events as a protest against the progression of gay rights, found themselves confronted with the counter-protest while picketing outside of the Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Friday. The playful counter-protest was launched by Spanaway, Wash., resident Melissa Neace, who spread the word of her idea on Facebook.

"We wanted to turn something negative around, into something people could laugh at and poke fun at," Neace told The News Tribune. "It was the easiest way to divert attention from something so hateful."

The Westboro Church came to Seattle to stage a protest at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord. No one is exactly sure why they chose the base or what exactly was the point of their protest was. Most likely, the Westboro Church wanted to gwt publicity for their hate-filled agenda.

The Foo Fighters staged their own counter-protest to mock the Westboro Church.

Write A Caption: Sarah & Todd Palin Edition

"Please take a picture of us. We are in desperate need of attention."

Mitt Romney's Twitter Whale Fail

This is cheesy beyond words. Politic USA has caught the Mitt Romney campaign buying Twitter followers. Romney experienced a massive spike in followers as he was overseas. Romney disasterous visit to England doesn't doesn't explain the spike.

Mitt Romney’s Twitter account gained 23,926 followers yesterday. As of 2 PM ET, Romney has more than tripled that total with 75,912 new followers. In some of these hours, the official Romney account has only had 700 mentions and 15 retweets, yet tens of thousands of, ”new people” are now following him.

This shows a campaign that doesn't understand how social media works. Posting interesting content on Twitter or Facebook is going to attract followers and likes. Having Twitter followers that are not real people means the tweets will not be read. What's the point of that. To make matters worse, this isn't the first time Romney has been busted buying followers. It would probably be cheaper for Romney to hire a conservative that knows how to use social media.

Quote of the Day

"I like Governor Palin. I've met her. I know her. She - attractive candidate. But based on her background, she'd only been governor for, what, two years. I don't think she passed that test…of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake."

Dick Cheney, on why it was a mistake for John McCain to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate. >p>

Cheney has been advising the Romney campaign on who to pick as the VP candidate. I'm looking forward to the moment when Cheney recommends himself.

The Fashionable Connie Mack

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Connie Mack was caught using campain money to buy clothes from Brooks Brothers. Whoops.

Records show identical charges of $234 were made on April 12 and May 16 and the campaign listed it as "clothing." Federal law prohibits the use of campaign funds for personal items including "clothing, other than items of de minimis value that are used in the campaign, such as campaign ‘'T-shirts' or caps with campaign slogans."

Wisely, Mack campaign spokesman David James admitted to The Buzz that the Brooks Brothers purchases were a screw-up. I hope Team Mack didn't think they could get away with buying clothing with campaign money. Former Hillsborough County Commissioner got into a scandal for using campaign money to Mack has other problems. His hometown newspaper, The Naples Daily News, withheld their endorsement. To make matters worse, the NDN editorial board wrote an open love letter to Mack's opponent Dave Weldon. Ouch.

Mitt's Excellent Adventure to England

The DNC is running this ad on Mitt Romney's disasterous trip to England. It is almost like Mitt Romney is a secretly working to get President Obama re-elected. The man just keeps putting his foot in his mouth.

Tanya Tucker - Would You Lay with Me (In A Field of Stone)

Tanya Tucker's classic rendition of the David Allan Cole song.

Tampa RNC Strip Club Update

It is no secret that Tampa strip clubs are looking to make big money from the Republican National Convention in Tampa. There was this tidbit in the New York Times that I found hysterical.

As further evidence of the clubs' nonpartisan appeal, Don Kleinhans, the owner of the 2001 Oddsssey, said when the Promise Keepers, a male evangelical group, came to town years ago, business was rollicking.

"We had phenomenal numbers all weekend, and they walked in wearing badges and name tags and weren't shy at all," he said.

I bet Republicans would be embarrassed if Occupy Tampa was protesting outside and video-recorded delegates entering the clubs. I am not saying that should be done or those videos should be posted on Youtube. If those videos are on Youtube, I wouldn't suggest you send me the link. Especially, if it is a famous Republican. I would never ever suggest such a thing.

It may not be possible to film Republicans entering several of the strip clubs. The clubs are making special VIP entrances the aren't visible to the general public. That doesn't mean it is impossible for someone with mad ninja skills to get record a video of a prominent Republican. It would be most unfortunate if that was to happen. However, citizen journalists have the First amendment on their side.

What Allen West Said

The Patrick Murphy campaign has created the website WhatWestSaid.com. The website feutures the outlandish quotes of Congressman Allen West.

Some gems from Allen West.

Social Security disability... is a form of modern slavery."

"I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party."

"President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi... get the hell out of the United States of America. Yeah, I said hell."

[Obama] does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning and having that title of American. He'd rather you be his slave."

There was West's attack against Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. The offense Wasserman-Schultz committed was correctly pointing out that West supports Medicare cuts.

You are vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives.

West then shows what a tough guy he is by using threatening language against a female member of Congress.

Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige.

If West really wanted a fight, he would have ran against Wasserman-Schultz in 2010. West lives in her district. West decided to run against the vulnerable Rick Klein. So much for being a tough guy.

Domestic Partnerships Begin Aug 1 in St. Petersburg

Via Saint Petersblog: the city of St. Petersburg will begin allowing gay and lesbian couples to register for a Domestic Partnership Relationship Certificate. Registration will begin at the St. Petersburg City Clerk's office on August 1st.

Items needed to register. 1. Driver's licence, state ID, passport or military ID.

2. $30.00 for registration fee.

For more information: call 727-893-7448.

Side note: since it was announce that St. Petersburg would do the domestic partnership registration, I have heard no news stories of straight people rushing to get divorces. The fact that there has been a lack of controversy over the domestic partnerships shows that the Christian Right is losing the gay marriage debate. St. Petersburg is not the ultra-liberal San Francisco. People are becoming more comfortable with the idea of gay marriage.

Friday Cat Blogging

Zoo worker Doug Hamilton says goodbye to a group of lion cubs. The hugs react by going into hugging overload.

Rick Santorum defends Joe Paterno

Unsurprisingly, Rick Santorum defends former Penn State coach Joe Paterno. For a politician claiming to be for conservative family values. It shows great hypocrisy to claim Paterno did not cover-up Jerry Sandusky molesting young boys.

SANTORUM: I actually read the Freeh Report. I don’t know if you did or not, but I did. And, my concern with the Freeh report, a lot of the conclusions in the Freeh report aren’t matched by the evidence that they presented and so I’ve been talking to a lot of folks at Penn State and they say, ‘you’re just gonna have to wait for the criminal trial of these two guys at Penn State.’ I think there is going to be a whole new line set on what really went on there. So I’m sort of sitting back and waiting for the facts to come out as opposed to at least I’m being told is a version of the facts. … Let’s get the truth. So I think we’re going to see some things come up a little different in the next six months. I just want to make sure we get it right.

When Santorum says he read a report, that translates into Santorum not reading a report. Santorum claimed he read a jobs numbers report by President Obama's economic advisors. Santorum claimed the report shows that the stimulus failed because it only created 240 million jobs. If Santorum was smart he would realize he is giving President Obama false credit for the greatest job creation in modern history. Of course, Santorum doesn't know this because he never read the economic advisors' report or bothered to learn basic economics. If Santorum bothered to read the Freeh report he would know several emails show Paterno being involved in covering up Sandusky's crimes against young boys under his supervision. Law professor Wes Oliver told ESPN that Paterno would have likely faced criminal charges, if Paterno was still alive.

"If you look at what happened here, it's very clear that they were aware that they had a pedophile on their campus," Oliver said.

Santorum defended the Catholic church, after it was discovered church leaders covered-up priests sexually abusing boys. Santorum blamed people advocating for gay rights for the conduct of the Catholic church. Santorum is a member of the Catholic church and a Penn State alumni. Santorum places more importances on institutions he admires than for the welfare of children. That is an odd position for a man who claims to be pro-life.

Fail Whale

When Twitter goes down it becomes news. That sums up what a force Twitter has become in our cultural landscape.

Pulling A MacManus

I coined the term "pulling a MacManus." Pulling a MacManus is when a jouralist is facing deadline and need a conventional wisdom quote that turns out to be incorrect. Journalists will call USF political science professor Susan ManManus were such nuggets of wisdom about how Republicans were going to win to 2006 midterm elections big-time.

Do a search for "Susan MacManus on Google News and you will find pages of her giving bad predictions to political beat reporters. MacManus is horribly wrong about the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act.

"Clearly the economy and jobs is still going to preeminent," she said. "But what this ruling does do is interweave healthcare as a cost item and a job creation item into the debate. So in a way, it sort of joins the two issues."

Actually, Obama and Romney stopped talking about the ACA a week after the ruling. Obama got hammered in the midterms on health care and Romney's Massachusetts heallth care has the unpopular mandate. Both candidates would rather talk about anything, but health care. MacManus then makes a hysterical prediction.

"With this 5 to 4 ruling and one that seems very divided--they ruled one way on the Commerce Clause and another way on the tax clause," she said. "If anything, I think that their favorability ratings may be going down a little bit and they may be seen by, particularly independents, as just another politicized Washington institution."

The substance of MacManus' argument is Americans are going to be unhappy with the Supreme Court because of its interpretation of the Commerce Clause. Does she actually believes the casual independent voters she speaks of are going to be that legally nuisanced. MacManus points out she is speaking about independents that don't follow the news cycle religiously.

Will journalists please stop getting quotes from MacManus. It is lazy writing.

Quote of the Day

"I can’t guess to what their motives are. I would just ask for an apology. I mean if I did something that was wrong. I would apologize.”

George Zimmerman, asking black people to apologize to him. Zimmerman said this after Sean Hannity accused black people of rushing to judgement. This exchange took place during Hannity's softball interview of Zimmerman.

X - 4th of July

X - 4th of July

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My all-time favorite song for this holiday.