The live chat lives! Tuesday noon - 1 p.m.

I hope you'll join me at noon Tuesday for our weekly live chat here on TroxBlog. For an hour or so I'll be taking live questions and comments on current events in the Tampa Bay area and beyond.

Look for a new announcement here at noon Tuesday with the headline, "The March 25 chat is OPEN." Click on the "comments" link of that post, and you'll see a page with everything that's been said in the chat so far, and a space for you to add your own question or comment.

What would you like to talk about? We missed last week's discussion of the Obama speech about race. Those wacky Democrats still  haven't figured out their presidential primary. The Legislature is in session doing all kinds of interesting things. And if you insist, we can talk more stadium, although I'd just as soon talk baseball.

Lastly, if you'd like to "pre-file" a question or comment in advance of Tuesday's chat, add it to the comments of THIS announcement a few lines below, and I'll work it in. And if you can't be here live, you can always check back later to read a transcript.

Otherwise, I hope to see you at noon Tuesday!

Comments

[typist]

Here is the transcript (office tape system) of the Rays/Mayor first meeting in Feb '07.

http://www.geocities.com/ante_chamber/transcript.htm

[Buzzard]

Nothing against the Rays, but why do the St. Petersburg poo-bahs always have to focus on old downtown? And why does The Times let them get away with it? How about shifting some of the largesse to areas that need a shot in the arm - like perhaps the 34th street corridor? There are taxpayers there also.

Howard, to continue the puppy research, I would like to request a photo of said alpha Troxler rolling around on the floor with said beta Louie.............very cute piece today.

SunCruz should be nailed to the wall regarding the sea grass bed destruction....

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/article429975.ece

Lorraine

[20/20]

I think recent stories, stats, and facts have shown that the “Build it and they will come” perception on the part of those who want to “build it” and those who approve its’ construction… has run its course. People are leaving Pinellas and our state in record numbers. I think the reality of the day is; “over build it, speculate its value out of the reach of the majority, bloat its budget, waste its revenue, hide the facts and lie to those who fund it… and they will leave.”

I say; build the new stadium if you and “we” wish… but don’t use one red cent of tax dollars or one square inch of publicly owned land to fund its construction. I am tired of watching our taxpayers lose their jobs and homes while our government uses our taxes to bail out private industry.

[Paul Cooper]

Recent letters to the editor complaining about the DNC action against Florida and Michigan are too little, too late. Did these folks contact the Democratic candidates and protest their signing of an agreement not to campaign or participate here in Florida? I did. The DNC action was outrageous, but the leading candidates -- including the two still active -- agreed. Here's the pledge they signed:

THEREFORE, I _______________, Democratic Candidate for President, pledge I shall not campaign or participate in any state which schedules a presidential election primary or caucus before Feb. 5, 2008, except for the states of Iowa,
Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, as “campaigning” is defined by rules and regulations of the DNC.

The way I read the pledge, "...shall not campaign or participate..." means shall not campaign or participate.

Maybe a pledge isn't really a pledge, kind of like saying you had to run across the tarmac to avoid sniper fire when the videotape shows exactly the opposite.

[David Mathews]

I visited downtown St. Petersburg today and happened to notice that the $4 diesel era has arrived. I had to stop and take a picture:

http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1/409.html

Incidentally, today was an astonishingly beautiful day. A little cold to begin with so I decided to not visit the manatees of the Old Northeast neighborhood. Went to Haslam's instead and once it had warmed up sufficiently happened to visit the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.

I was very happy to see that all trees within the sanctuary have become nesting sites for egrets, pelicans and other birds.

Florida is a beautiful place but you do have to search very hard to find the smallest fragments of nature which have survived the asphalt catastrophe. Nature is going to reclaim all of this territory once the automotive era has ended ... and this is the very good news indeed.

[David Mathews]

Florida's Tourism industry has a dismal future. High gasoline prices and the death of the airline industry ... that's a one-two punch which is powerful enough to end tourism altogether:

High-priced fuel scares airlines

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2008-03-24-jet-fuel-costs_N.htm

"Like poker players dealt a bad hand, they're trying to act calm, but $100-plus oil is starting to really scare the people who run the USA's airlines.

"Record prices for both crude oil and refined jet fuel are threatening to send U.S. carriers spiraling toward deep losses, drastic service cutbacks, job cuts and, perhaps by year's end, an industrywide cash crunch."

Yet St. Petersburg is devoting its attention to something as trivial as a new baseball stadium! Maybe someone should tell these people that "The End is Coming!"

Not that they would listen to such a message ... the automobile and the airplane must constitute an eternal entitement of the obese American hyperconsumer with their unbreakable addiction to oil and insatiable appetite for all material things.

We're going to live long enough to witness the collapse of the United States of America. We are going to lose our God-given Constitutionally-guaranteed American Way of Life: A McMansion for every homeowner, an SUV for every American, and a perpetual sale at every mall.

But the Earth cannot sustain such unhealthy appetites for very long. We've pushed the Earth beyond its limits and Nature is beginning to push back. Unfortunately for humankind, Nature is considerably more powerful than humankind and this is the reason why our civilization cannot survive for so very much longer.

A nation addicted to oil cannot survive Peak Oil. Americans need to begin planning for an entirely different future. How will Florida function in the post-automotive age?