Staring with FPC’s courageous thespians, the visual and performing arts had a fabulous Saturday in Flagler, with two gallery openings and two local theater productions. That’s what the county’s unbound cultural scene should be about.
Editor's Blog
Festival Filibuster: How Palm Coast Plays Hardball With Flagler Beach
If Palm Coast is serious about playing nice with its neighboring cities and not competing for “special event” visitors, why is it doing exactly that with signs greeting visitors exiting the Interstate?
John Mica’s Politbureau: How the Chamber Endorses While Pretending Not to Endorse
Flagler County’s Whigs and wigged coupled and clapped at the Palm Coast Yacht Club as John Mica accepted tributes and dispensed charismatic prepositions on his way to a 10th term in Congress.
The Sentinel’s Mica Endorsement Over Beaven: Pork Is Good As Long As It’s Our Pork
The Orlando Sentinel’s unsurprising endorsement of John Mica over Heather Beaven replicates duplicity and errors rampant in discussions of federal spending, pork and earmarks.
Idioting Up Over Islam, Rev. Franklin Graham Reveals America’s More Present Dangers
This time, Rev. Franklin Graham is unable to get away with his usual offenses and fallacies on Islam during a town hall with Christiane Amanpour.
Mica Challenger Heather Beaven’s First TV Ad Soldiers On, Without a Fight
Heather Beaven is running for Congress against nine-term incumbent John Mica, though her first TV ad, less than two months from the election, is more of an early-summer and gentle meet-and-greet.
Memo To Enterprise Flagler: Why Your Tax Plan Is Fumbling (and What To Do About It)
From its message to its messenger, Enterprise Flagler’s tax-and-build plan is facing obstacles and unanswered questions of its own making. It may be too late to reverse opposition, but not too late to do the right thing.
Mainland High School Coach John Maronto’s Prostitution Arrest: Hold Your Sanctimony
Mainland High School football coach John Maronto, 68, was arrested in a prostitution sting Sept. 4. Hold your sanctimony: wasteful police stings aside, he did nothing wrong.
Quit Surfing. Quit Working. Go Vote.
Unless you have a well articulated political science doctor’s note, you have no excuse but to go vote today. Precinct locations and guides included.
Pierre on WNZF’s Open Lines with David Ayers This Morning
Chatting it up about local politics, local media, the primary election, the good referendum on the ballot and the very bad one, and more.
Where Spin Meets Bull: Florida Hospital’s Lars Houmann on the Dispute With United Healthcare
A three-and-a-half minute video by the Florida Hospital CEO is a window into the company’s deception and disingenuity.
School Board Candidate Peter Peligian’s Impersonation (and Tax and Claims) Problems
It’s not just that allegedly allegedly used his identity: School board candidate Peter Peligian is not living up to his own claims of transparency and accountability.
Charter School Failure: Why Imagine and Heritage Weren’t Included in FCAT Tallies
Charter schools are not in the same league as traditional public schools. Their standards are lower. The burden is on charters to prove their worth.
Watching Team USA Live With Eddie Johnson (US 1, Ghana 2)
We’re covering the US-Ghana World Cup match live with soccer great and Bunnell native Eddie Johnson, from Palm Coast’s Houligan’s.
Catch FlaglerLive on CNN
I’ll be on CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield during the 3 p.m. hour discussing the oil spill’s impact on local governments, and particular local school districts.
Hanging With Manatees
It’s not just seeing manatees upclose alone that moves you. It’s seeing their injuries, and their utter helplessness.
Heather Beaven’s WTF Campaign
Democrat Beaven’s congressional campaign against John Mica so far is shoddy, vague, and lacking transparency.
Obama-Leno: No Correspondence
How even Barack Obama is funnier than Jay Leno. Then again, it’s no contest. Tales from the Correspondents dinner.
In Alabama, They Speak Ass
Alabama Republican candidate Tim James pledge to ban non-English driving tests, in a campaign video, is xenophobic mob appeal.
Brian McMillan’s Stick Figures
The Palm Coast Observer’s managing editor has a new blog full of tiny jewels of witty wisdom from our most precious philosophers.
Brett Copeland Star Spangles at School Board
Brett Copeland, a senior at Matanzas High School, switched from violin to voice to sing the national anthem at a school board meeting.
Call Me a Tea Party Fan
Maybe not a fan of the tea partiers’ ideas. But definitely a fan of their sincerity and, yes, eloquence. Let’s bust some stereotypes.
Tea Party Circus Is In Town
I’m about to head out to Palm Coast Parkway and Old Kings Road where the tea party folks are holding their latest rally against (fill in the blanks).
Farewell to I-95
This morning’s commute, from home to government complex, was 3.1 miles, most of it unimpeded even by Palm Coast’s reputedly unbearable traffic.
He Had His Moments, But…
There’s too much reaching for the old magic–which is just the problem: this lunge for “magic,” this desire to make the impossible real, when it should be the other way around.
Is This Harry Reid Cartoon Offensive?
The Omaha World Herald’s sanctimony over a skin-tone cartoon is more offensive than Harry Reid’s misjudgment.
Prohibition’s Binge of Sanctimony
On the history and stupidity of Prohibition, the 13-year binge of sanctimony that a minority of eugenics fans and anti-German racists imposed on the majority.
Brighthouse, Worst Company in Florida
Brighthouse puts a happy face on its business. For customers of cable and internet service, Brighthouse can be a miserable experience. If it’s customer care you’re looking for, it ain’t there.
A Health Care Deal out of Arab Bazars
For all the missteps, for all of Obama’s prevarications and defanged tactics, the end result will (should the bill pass) vindicate whatever he did, however he did it. What was bound to be a colossal battle turned out to unravel the worst and little of the best about America.
Initial Unemployment Claims Up 17,000
Weekly unemployment claims are up 17,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 457,000. The 4-week moving average was 473,750, a decrease of 7,750 from the previous week.
Rev-Up Time for the Flagler Youth Orchestra
They’re practicing as I’m writing–the Flagler Youth Orchestra’s four music teachers (Jonathan May, Jack Jeffe, Justin McCulough and Linda VavBuren–in preparation for tonight’s inaugural concert of the new season: the quartet is putting on a few pieces of its own for the occasion, including, from what I hear, a Christmassy jaunt or two. It’s barely […]
Forget Obama’s. What About Sadie’s Vietnam?
Sadie’s relationship with Vietnam was a complete surprise. But it explains an adolescence rife with post-traumatic stress disorder and reenactments of napping through napalm.
Unemployment: 10.2%. Corporate Profits: Up 10.6%
Corporate profits, which logged some record-breaking soars during the Bush years, are back to their not-so-old form, outgunning the unemployment rate.
The Twisted Reality of War’s Homecoming Videos
Soldiers’ “surprise” homecomings are the new voyeurism, and soldiers’ children and wives the most exploited victims.
Quit Dithering: Let Them Ask and Tell
Any soldier’s morale faint enough to be affected by a fellow-soldier’s sexual inclination is a warning that that soldier’s fibers may not be worth the fatigues he’s wearing. Homophobia, not homosexuality, is the sickness in the deal.