Category: politics

  • Tampa Mayoral Election – 2019

    I often rely on the Tampa Bay Times to provide useful information on local political elections. Their coverage is usually pretty good. But they don’t always cover every election or every candidate. And since I like to do my own research, I figured I’d start blogging about the elections. Here’s what I’ve found on the…

  • a vote against McCollum for Governor of Florida

    Anyone looking for a reason not to vote for Bill McCollum for Governor of Florida? Look no further than an article in today’s St. Petersburg Times noting that, under his direction, the State Attorney General’s office spent over $100,000 on “expert” testimony to hire George Rekers, a homophobic hack who had already been discredited by…

  • the ticket of false hope 🙁

    In case you missed it, President Obama came to my university, University of Tampa, last week.  He spoke mostly about the funding for high speed rail, but then took questions from the audience. Faculty at my University were reserved a certain number of seats, we just had to ask for a ticket.  I asked for…

  • why no email campaign?

    Sorry for another political post, but something just dawned on me.  I was walking through the lobby of one of the main buildings on campus and there was a student group giving away donuts if you would call your Representative, Senator or the Whitehouse and urge them to take action on the genocide in Darfur. …

  • You disagree with me? LAAA LAAA LAAA

    As a social scientist I’m fully aware of the fact that people tend to listen to, observe, and even seek out media and information that support their existing beliefs (this is a subset of both confirmation bias and self-justification).  Along with this is the tendency of people to avoid, criticize, and even demean any media…

  • big government vs. little government

    For all you fans of reducing government out there, maybe you should reconsider.  This NYTimes article gives a good illustration of situations when small government doesn’t make sense.  For years the government has allowed private companies to provide student loans at virtually no risk to the companies as the government insures the loans and provides…

  • Why the Republican Party needs to dissolve…

    I caught this article in the NYTimes yesterday about the corruption and excess of the New York state Senate under the rule of Republicans over the last 40 years. Here’s an excerpt: They [Democrats] recently realized there are some 75 employees working at the Senate’s own printing plant, a plain brick building on the outskirts…

  • Yes we can!

    President-elect: Barack Hussein Obama!

  • last pre-election political post

    A sociology colleague of mine sent me the following email last night.  I know I’ve been more political than usual lately (for obvious reasons), but I’m hoping this is seen as more sociological than political, even though it is politically biased: Subject: What if… Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin What if things were switched around?…..think about it. …

  • two Presidential Candidates in one week

    Apparently the University of Tampa is the place to be right now.  John McCain is making his second visit to the UT today.  Though, of course, John McCain doesn’t actually want to talk to students or faculty.  He’s talking to the bigwigs at MacDill Airforce Base and other local business leaders.  It’s some “security” pow-wow. …