Thugs, Dictators, and Freakin’ CommunistsNo surprise that the first two are local boys: Thanks to Kirk Nielsen for exposing Otto Reich, the thuggish Bush administration nominee for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs (“Waiting for Otto,” November 8). And as reported in the same issue in “Riptide,” a…
A lot can happen if a drinking hole manages to stay open 89 years. Tobacco Road started as a speakeasy and gambling den during Prohibition and would have been a strip club back in the Mariel days, but the crowd was so rough no woman, self-respecting or otherwise, would work…
A few weeks ago a county hall insider mentioned to me that he had heard about an interesting memo written by Tom David, executive assistant county manager. David is new to Miami-Dade government, brought in by County Manager Steve Shiver seven months ago to be his right-hand man. Since his…
A Paragon of Fair and Thoughtful JournalismFree weekly lauded for political coverage: So New Times considers itself an alternative newspaper. Yeah, right! Lately you guys have been coming across about as alternative as the Wall Street Journal. Let’s see, first there was your puff-piece interview with former Miami Beach Mayor…
Forget about anthrax jitters or terrorist sleeper cells. To hear outgoing Miami Beach Mayor Neisen Kasdin tell it, there’s a more imminent threat, one set to rear its head with the local election this Tuesday, November 6. “The fate of the Beach hangs on Elaine Bloom beating David Dermer in…
So Sayeth the Old SpookNow tell us, would it help to bribe the INS? Bob Norman’s article “Admitting Terror” (October 18) was a true public service. It’s shameful how indifferent our authorities are regarding immigration. Having lived in Mexico, Uruguay, Spain, and Japan, among other places, I can tell you…
The folks at IRmagazine have a roundabout strategy for boosting readership. “It’s a literary magazine,” explains editor in chief Ben Carrasco. “We do short stories, poetry, nonfiction. But people like to read about music, so we write about music, too.” The only problem is, Carrasco doesn’t think there’s all that…
“A recession is never a good thing,” says Saul Gross, owner of Streamline Properties (a real estate management and brokerage firm) and a candidate for the Miami Beach City Commission in the November 6 election. But, he explains carefully, there’s a “silver lining” to this ongoing crunch, particularly as it…
INS: Incompetent Nonsense ServiceAnd I should know because I worked there: I am a former immigration inspector at Miami International Airport and am writing in response to Bob Norman’s article “Admitting Terror” (October 18). I agree with Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector José Touron’s assessment of the persistent problems that…
Pushed back from the original September date, the Fourth Annual Mix Show Power Summit finally went down this past weekend, bringing to town more than 100 commercial radio mix-show DJs for some high-profile politickin’. The Eden Roc meet-and-greet sessions were closed to the public, but late-night Thursday through Sunday, jocks…
High and InsideIn perpetual awe of the slugger: I read Gaspar González’s article about Ted Williams (“America’s Past Time,” October 11) and just had to say it gave me chills. I have been a die-hard baseball fan since I was old enough to hold a bat, and ever since then…
On September 5 Emilio Estefan, Jr., and his niece, Univision host Lili “La Flaca” Estefan, made the short list of guests at the Bush administration’s first White House gala, boosting the Latin factor at the dinner honoring Mexican President Vicente Fox. Cowboy to cowboy, the Mexican leader was pushing the…
Investigators on the trail of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Miriam Alonso have uncovered a dizzying array of front groups and secret bank accounts apparently used by Alonso to generate and then hide a private slush fund. Prosecutors and police discovered the existence of these bank accounts while researching Alonso’s connection to…
What’s the tasteful way to make a buck during a time of national tragedy? That’s the question the pop culture industry has been gingerly grappling with a month on from the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In those strikes’ immediate aftermath, entertainment practically vanished from…
Trauma + Emotion = Sincere SentimentAnd Now This Word from Your Pinko Weekly Beware confusing the message with the messenger: In last week’s issue, I was surprised to see a full-page open letter next to the regular letters section that appeared to be endorsed by New Times. It wasn’t signed…
You don’t need to tell the staff at the Delano Hotel that a recession is here. One look at the pool makes it pretty obvious. Gone are the days when only a strategically placed tip would snag you a prime deck chair as the $400-per-night set splashed and sweated in…
Orwellian RageStill, I’ll defend her right to be wrong: My first response to Susan Eastman’s article “1984 and Counting” (September 27) was anger. But upon reflection I realize she had every right to disagree with all the patriotism and fanaticism that follows it. She is correct in her assessment of…
In the dark days of slavery, Carnival offered release. For two days and nights before Lent every year in Trinidad, sorrow gave way to bacchanal as the horrific face of reality was hidden by the mask of fantasy. Now, less than a month after the terrorist attacks, Carnival’s music and…
Even through a closed door you can still hear DJ Greo’s angry voice thundering away. “I got no life!” he hollers. “I got no girlfriend! I got no kids! I’m a grown-ass man now, and all I got is this!” This is Blaze 104.7 FM, the hip-hop station Greo has…
Ferré: Can This Leopard Change His Spots?Not if history is any measure of the future: Ashley Fantz let Maurice Ferré off the hook too easily in her profile (“That Old Familiar Face,” September 13). Ferré is a man who, once upon a time during his early campaigns in the Seventies,…
The most powerful statement made at last Friday’s all-star telethon, “America: A Tribute to Heroes,” was unspoken and unsung. Simulcast by more than 35 networks and cable outlets and 8000 radio stations, the two-hour program quietly provided 89 million viewers with a definition of heroism based solely on saving lives…
From Secret Service to Public ServiceScribe praised, demands promotion, big fat raise: Thanks to Rebecca Wakefield for accepting the challenge of investigating and writing about the plight of my son Patrick Cruise regarding the illegal conduct of the Secret Service (“Life in the Secret Service,” September 13). She did a…
