Troxler’s back and, man, did I miss him. For most of his column, Trox lays the wood to Bill McCollum, but he also takes time to criticize Kendrick Meek and the scandal engulfing his campaign:
When it comes to Rentboy.com vs. a Cadillac Escalade, I’m goin’ with Rentboy as the lead story — and yet, who cannot admire the stink surrounding U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the leading Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate?
Of course, the scandal is its own problem, which may or may not blow over. But, in my opinion, the real problem for Kendrick Meek here is that this is one of the few times he has made it onto Troxler’s radar screen.
A blurb about Meek releasing his tax returns gets the treatment the gimmick deserves; buried on page 7, right after the obitss.
In other political news, Janet Zink takes the lead in the post-announcement good news stories the Times will certainly publish about Tampa landing the 2012 GOP convention. Zink writes that “the city hopes to do as well as the 2008 host cities, which saw a cash influx of millions.” So that’s positive stories 1, critical stories 0, keeping in mind that Times publisher Paul Tash sits on the host committee welcoming the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Speaking of Tampa, with city elections just 10 months away, a group is forming to back Ed Turanchik for mayor. Jeez, what do you think will be his number one issue? (Hint: it rhymes with smigh smeed smail.)
If there’s anyone the Times loves more than Turanchik, it’s Independent Charlie. Another day, another editorial lauding Crist for vetoing a bill that should have never been written.
And if the Times editorial board loves Crist, that admiration is nothing compared to Eric Deggans’ infatuation with the television show Glee. I’m beginning to wish the cast of a show like Sons of Anarchy would stop by the set of Glee and kick the shit out of Neil Patrick Harris. I get it. He’s gay, but he can play a cool straight guy. Now let’s see Rupert Everett or Eric McCormack do it.
A couple of extra things I think I think about the Times today: check out a separate post I wrote about the newspaper’s outreach to readers to find a “cheap” name for one of their new online features.
Finally, there is a story about the compassionate sentencing of the teen who was driving a boat and crashed into a jetty, killing a teenage girl who was on board. I’ll leave the debate about the teen’s sentencing to others. What I wanted to point out was the blip about Rajesh Patel, the convenience store owner who sold beer to the the underage kids involved in this incident. This son-of-a-bitch’s store is in my neighborhood. And so my mother and I have protested outside of his store and taken down the license plates of those we thought were underage and buying alcohol from Patel. On one night alone, our efforts chased away as many as 60 cars, all packed with teenagers looking to score a six-pack. That was on just one night. Patel is the real culprit in this incident. He sold alcohol to teenagers, something he does all the time. When will he be sentenced?
