Arts Capital of My Arse

The next time you hear about how Sarasota is the art capital of Florida, or the south, or the entire world, all of which one hears (but only in Sarasota), consider this:

 31 ONLINE PREDATORS.

 Count 'em, 31 sexual predators caught seeking to seduce, solicit, or entice a child to commit sex acts.

Thirty-one -- in just 6 days of one Sheriff operation.

 Here's the Wall of Shame.

 Not that they look like they are capable of much shame. Sarasota wants your business, wants you to move here, wants you to think it's just the best thing since sliced child.

 Of course Sarasota can't have all the glory. It shares some of this lice with other bungholes -- Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Port Charlotte, Bradenton, and even California. Long may they fester.

Sarasota City of Koch Stooges: Exhibit A:

What Do You Think of The Defeat Obama Sign?

• It's Great. I Agree With Everything This Sign Says.
   4466 (68%)
• I Don't Agree With The Message, But It Should Stay. It Supports Free Speech.
   331 (5%)
• The Sign Should Be Considered An Election Sign and be Removed
   1343 (20%)
• I Hate The Sign. I Don't Agree With Anything This Sign Says.
   367 (5%)

"We are all Mike Fox" says Specifically Massive Sarasota Stooge Rich Swier 

See more here

Sarasota's Flying Wingnuts

Thousands here are dealing with dementia {gnuwspaper}

We knew that.

Sarasota prides itself on its pretensions of being a hip, artsy, well-heeled, chic town -- totally unlike the Yahoos in the middle of the state, more laid back and stylish than the ancient rich dweebs of Naples or the crochety dorks of Tampa. A smaller, svelte place in the sun. SRQ Cheese Fests indeed.

Best place to retire.

Best beach.

Great opera, ballet, theaters, music scene, clubs.

Only when you see "cosmopolitan" Sarasotans in action, as in these comment streams, you discover they can't spell. Or think. Or put three lucid words together. You discover it's a mega-wingnut town that makes Alabama birthers look like Madison Wisconsin 60's radicals. Home of Jerry Springer. And Dick Vitale. Catering to grammar-free hard-ons full of money, shoes, and nothing going on.

Koch Bros Have Stooge in Sarasota

From Sarasota Patch: 

[Sarasota Resident Asshat Michael] Fox is providing funding for 10,000 signs to be placed in strategic locations throughout the country, in places that are highly visible, similar to the sign placement on Tamiami Trail but Fox is not providing funding for individual signs.


Willis stated that Fox is a local investor with close ties to the Koch Brothers.


Charles and David Koch, who own a conglomeration of businesses and investments through Koch Industries, have reportedly received pledges reaching a combined $100 million at a California conference to defeat Obama, according to The Huffington Post:


"A source who was in the room when the pledges were made told The Huffington Post that, specifically, Charles Koch pledged $40 million and David pledged $20 million.


The semi-annual, invitation-only meeting attracts wealthy donors, Republican politicians and conservative activists. Last year, hundreds of activists gathered outside the walled-off resort to protest the meeting. This year, however, the conference went off quietly."

ASSHAT in Residence - from Sarasota patch.

See also here.

Don't bother with the Herald Trib - nothing to see there.

Sarasota is like everyplace else: Undereducated

Health Care Public Option Vigil in Sarasota, Florida Brings Out Hundreds of Supporters

... One anti-reform protester held a sign with the controversial image of Obama depicted as The Joker. Messages against the public option were mixed, ranging from "Give me liberty, not debt" to "Socialism" to "Get a Job" with lots of mentions of "Obamacare" ...

More...

Sarasota Blogger a former Russ Meyer Vixen?

This blog -- bursting from its mentally tight and narrow bodice with hilarious bunker mentality wingnut central blather -- by this blogger - is allegedly the ... brainchild would not seem to be the mot juste here . . . let's say PRODUCT - the product of this charming young Russ Meyer lady:



According to this report.

A bit of sense in Sarasota

Oct. 19th, 2008

The Herald Tribune of Sarasota seeks to be a lessor

From Sarasota Voices:

I was amused to read of the Herald-Tribune's request to renege on the agreement they made in order to gain a special deal with the City - you remember they threatened to "Go Out East" if the City didn't cut them a deal.

Illuminating, too, is the rationale given for the request - belt-tightening, cutting staff, soon the whole building may be vacant. What then?

"Article 13 of the above-referenced Agreement (copy attached) provides that until December 31, 2016, occupancy of the redevelopment project which was the subject of the Agreement is restricted to "an office building to be used by the Sarasota Herald Tribune or any affiliated business thereof." Because of a drop in the number of employees from 357 persons to 262 persons, the Herald Tribune desires to lease out 15,000 square feet in its building to another office user. 

It's never a good thing to see a newspaper fall on hard times. But in fairness, the Times-owned Herald-Trib has failed to develop a loyal readership because it refuses to put truth before treacle.

...Rumor has it they've been talking to a donut shop to take over one area of the great elephantine whiteness on Main St., Sarasota...

Big in Sarasota

We quite understand that it is impossible for any single newspaper to report all the news. A bona fide news organ does its job when it reports the essential news, that necessary information without which citizens, parents, officials and institutions cannot exist.

We are delighted to see that the Sarasota Herald-Tribune maintaining that integrity of purpose and razor-sharp awareness of the hot news fit to print:

Here's looking at you, Epicenter

The Financial Times pinpoints the center of the worldwide housing bubble, and finds, mirabile dictu, it can be pinpointed in Sarasota:

'Canary in the cage' tells of housing woes

By Eoin Callan in Sarasota County, Florida

Published: August 10 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 10 2007 03:00

The seizure that gripped European financial markets yesterday can be partly traced to an unlikely place. Like the proverbial butterfly that flaps its wings and sets off a tidal wave on the other side of the world, Sarasota, Florida is at the centre of the US housing bust that sent shockwaves through global markets.

Mr. Callan goes on to make clear that Sarasota is by no means atypical of the 16-year threshing turbine known as Florida real estate:

The Sarasota district has experienced the biggest drop in house prices in the country, with foreclosures spiking after a drop of almost 15 per cent in the year to March.

Florida is the "canary in the cage", according to Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs.

The precedent has alarmed Wall Street economists tracking the worst US housing slump in 16 years, as price falls in Sarasota have spread across the state and threaten to drag Florida into recession.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune hastily rushes to correct the FT:

The Financial Times was wrong to single out Sarasota as the epicenter of the global financial crisis . . . said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based real estate analyst.

"Naples, Fort Myers, the Cape Coral market has experienced the largest price drop in the U.S.,"

before acknowledging that it's a minor blemish in a bang-on portrait of a market:

"Florida is where the boom started and ended, and where the bust started," McCabe said. "Previous boom-and-bust cycles have started in California. This time, Florida is the state that experienced the height of speculative activity that drove the boom."

There were obviously other areas of the country that also experienced high levels of speculation -- Southern California, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, Washington, D.C. -- but Florida was undoubtedly the epicenter, McCabe maintains.

After some lipflapping from experts, the FT finds the standard Florida apologist for shite business sighting the mandatory lining of silver:

But Joe Hembree, president of the Sarasota Realtors Association, says the local market will recover as flippers cut their losses. "There are great bargains to be had throughout the community as asking prices have dropped," he says.

And is soon outdone by the SH-T:

Kerry Kirschner, executive director of the Argus Foundation, agreed.

"I think this is positive for Sarasota," Kirschner said. "This will impress on people that they ought to look in Sarasota if they want waterfront property."

Lenders to your posts: a whole new round of sub-prime lending awaits.

Hate crime in Sarasota goes unnoticed by Sarasota press for a week

A family that migrated from Bosnia to Sarasota, Florida, returned home to find their house destroyed by fire, vandalized and covered with anti-Muslim graffiti.

This happened on July 6th, but only began to be reported by local media on July 13th.

It took the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the "newspaper of record" for the city and county of Sarasota, on the Gulf Coast of the Penile State, until July 14th to acknowledge the event's existence.

The paper, struggling with its own problems of dwindling readership, advertising and real estate woes, clearly has better things to do than report hate crimes that destroy the homes of families who have lived in the city for three years with no record of any disturbances.

The paper has not done a follow-up story. One wonders what it would have made of this if the home were owned by one of the local celebs that juice its salivary glands, or, say, just by a typical cute white family, instead of by a family named Sejfovic from Bosnia with three kids.

The SH_T finally squeezed out an update.

"None of the elected officials who actually live in this community have said anything."

What, them worry? when the media itself displays utter indifference...