TampaBLAB

Last month, Julie Torres’ art column mentioned the unusual circumstances in which the Arts Council of Hillsborough County awarded 11 grants rather than the usual 10. We stand by that story, but want you to read the two responses we received from the Hillsborough County Arts Council. The letter from from Denise Chavez is below. Please also see the letter from Hillsborough County Arts Council Director of Program Services Jenny Carey.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
by Denise Chavez, board member of the Hillsborough County Arts Council

I was so very disappointed to read the article relating to the Individual Artist Grant Recipients. It was totally misleading.

I am a member of the Hillsborough County Arts Council and had the privilege of sitting on the Individual Artist Grant Committee. The way the process works is each committee member receives a CD of the individual artist’s work, written material provided by the artists explaining why they would like to be awarded the grant money, their budget and a questionnaire relating to their work. The members of the committee then rate each section according to the information the artist provide. We do this on our own. I personally went over some of the information the artists provided several times to see if they met the criteria. We then meet as a group each of us giving our total score for each artist. We discuss each artist, their work and questionnaire and our comments are given to each artist as feed back to help them the next time they apply. It is not easy to make these decisions because, of course, it is subjective and we would like to help everyone.

In this particular instance the difference in points between 10th and 11th was miniscule. If you rounded up they would have had the same score. The point difference between 11th & 12th was great so there was no question. The Arts Council felt that was fair and really did not believe any artist would begrudge another artist the opportunity to have funding for their project. There was no undue influence.

I am sorry your reporter felt the need to besmirch an organization whose voting members are comprised of volunteers and only have the good of our talented and underfunded local artists at heart. The Arts Council has no personal agenda other than promoting the arts and the artists in the community.

Shame on you for not doing a better job of researching the situation instead of looking for a “story” that does not exist. And shame on the artist who complained, sounds a little greedy to me.

Sincerely,

Denise Chavez

Dowdification is a word created by bloggers when a write omits information to support his or her bias.

Used as noun or verb. The willful omission of one or more words so the meaning of the statement is no longer understood but that the statement suits the needs of the writer in launching an ad hominem attack whether or not the construction is truthful or grammatically complete.

Named after Maureen Dowd, based on her manufacture of a quote attributed to President Bush in her May 14, 2003 column (as first reported by Robert Cox on TheNationalDebate.com).

Glenn Reynolds writes his usual one sentence post.

A LOOK AT which voters cared about race in the 2008 elections.

I knew from that loaded sentence Reynolds was going to link to another blogger suggesting Democrats are racist. Sure enough, blogger Jon Henke blockquotes one sentence from a CNN artice.

Those who said race was an important factor voted 55 percent to 44 percent in favor of Obama.

"So, as Mike Turk had predicted last year," writes Henke. "Racism was a more common factor among Democrats than Republicans in the 2008 election."

I doubt Henke has any idea how to read a poll. He certainly is skilled at Dowdification. Henke omits the rest of the paragraph that defeats his thesis. Here is the whole paragraph from the CNN article.

Those who said race was an important factor voted 55 percent to 44 percent in favor of Obama. But Obama also was the winner by a similar margin among those who said race was not important, "which suggests that race was not a decisive factor in this election," Schneider said.

In polling two trends can offset each other. People that wanted a black President polled similarly to voters that preferred Obama and were not influenced by his race. Some pollsters and pundits, at the time, argued that the latters numbers were lower due to the Bradley effect.

The article doesn't go into sample size or question wording. Yet, this lack of information didn't stop Henke from deeming black Democrats racist. The full text of the paragraph states "race was not a decisive factor in this election." How Henke came to the conclusion Democrats are racist is laughable. It is even more pathetic that a tenured law professor would link to this factually inaccurate polling data.

Via Kenneth Quinnell: unemployment is rising in Florida. Since people aren't working, Governor Charlie Crist decided to follow their example. Crist took the Friday off when news broke of Florida's unemployment rate reaching 9.4 percent. Crist took two days off the week before.

Meanwhile, the Florida legislature scrapped Crist's budget recommendations. The Governor's office budget projections were deemed outdated.

"We threw that away," Sen. Mike Fasano of New Port Richey said at a recent budget hearing. A strong Crist ally, he said later that lawmakers rarely pay much attention to a governor's budget proposal.

Senate budget chairman J.D. Alexander has pleaded for Crist to use the Governor's office as a "bully pulpit." Crist continues to take days off and say he is optimistic about the budget. Crist refuses to leave the confines of his "Shiny Happy People" world.

“I am more optimistic about getting a budget today. I had good conversations with the speaker and the president today. I am more encouraged we might get gaming and some significant additional revenue out of the [Sen. Dennis] Jones bill, maybe as much as $700 to $1 billion. There are glimmers of hope.”

Crist, quoted yesterday in the Sun Sentinel.

L’Olivier Restaurant and Cabaret is one of Ybor City’s… and Tampa Bay’s newest and most unique nightspots. Seriously, outside of Disney or Chuck E. Cheese, where can you find...

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You may have noticed the paper covering the windows, an obvious sign that a business is in transition.  Kim Sprague, owner of Glass Reunions, tells DI Buzz she closed her Davis Islands store effective March 27.

The gallery was a welcome addition to the village, but as Ms. Sprague says, “the timing just wasn’t right for the store”. She also cited limited traffic.  “We were hoping people on the islands would use the store for birthdays, anniversaries and special events.”

The items in the DI store are being moved to the Glass Reunions store in Key West, which Sprague says is doing “very well” and regular customers are welcomed to visit the store there.  If you would like to get in touch, the contact information is:

Glass Reunions
http://www.glassreunions.com/
305-294-1720
825 Duval Street, Key West, FL 33040

The gallery is known for it’s national recognized collection of fine art glass, kaleidoscopes, gold & silver jewelry, creative lighting and whimsical mobiles. Representing the work of over 200 contemporary American artists.

The Davis Islands gallery opened for business in August 2008.

The Washington Post blog "The Fix" is asking readers to vote for the best state political blog. I am asking PR readers to vote for FLA Politics as best state blog. Need I remind people that FLA Politics is one of the few blogs on the exclusive Daily Kos blogroll.

Place your vote and the FLA Politics web address in the comments of The Fix post. Justin Sayfie is running a campaign for Sayfie Review. I like Justin and he runs a great site. I like to see a Florida progressive blog win this contest.

Today the Southwest Florida Water Management District imposed tighter water restrictions for the counties of Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas. The restrictions take effect on April 3, 2009 and include shorter periods for lawn watering on authorized days, prohibition of residential and charity car washing and more. (The city of Tampa has passed even tighter restrictions.)
SWIFTMUD PHASE IV RESTRICTIONS