Meet Joe Redner, “Tampa’s Strip-Club King“:
… More than sunshine, cigars or the rollercoasters at Busch Gardens, Tampa is known for its naked ladies.
And the man in the thick of this spectacle is Joe Redner, who almost single-handedly made Tampa’s adult entertainment world famous. He’s a wiry 72-year-old with a bemused smile and skeptical brown eyes who owns what is arguably the most notorious of Tampa’s all-nude clubs: Mons Venus.
The club — located less than 6 miles from where the Republicans will gather to nominate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as their presidential candidate — isn’t much to look at. The blue-and-purple building sits on a busy stretch of road next to a Taco Bell and near where the NFL champion Buccaneers play home games. There’s a sign outside that says “Home of the Most Beautiful Women in the World,” and another: “Live NUDE Shows.”
“I don’t expect the RNC to be as busy as Super Bowl,” Redner said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I don’t think those people are coming to party.” …
***********
He’s still involved in community issues. He goes to county commission meetings and recently, stopped in to an ACLU meeting about the RNC. He’s worried that protests will get out of hand and that police will use too much force on demonstrators — especially since he’s letting some Occupy Tampa members camp and protest 24/7 on a private lot he owns west of downtown. Redner’s been in the news for that, lately, as well; residents of the area are fed up with the campers and are worried the RNC will draw thousands of people to the neighborhood.Redner doesn’t talk much about the actual Republicans coming to town; he considers himself a very liberal progressive. He doesn’t like the Republicans’ politics, but is hopeful that will bring money into the community. His club’s business is down by 50 percent since its heyday in the late 90s, he said. Tampa is in a recession. …
Other strip club owners in Tampa are more optimistic than Lange about seeing more customers; 2001 Odyssey’s Kleinhans said he’s put in a VIP area for the RNC, complete with a private entrance around the side of the club, so anyone who wants to sneak in unannounced can do so.
Redner refuses to do that for his customers.
“I can’t play to that part of human nature,” sniffs Redner. “If you gotta hide from what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be doing it.”
Folks have been wondering what Redner will do during the RNC. Will he protest and get arrested, like he did when President George W. Bush and his brother, Jeb, held a Tampa rally in 2008? Will he offer some outrageous promotion at The Mons? Tip reporters off if a famous politician comes into the club?
Nope. None of that.
He’s going to be in Vegas, for a gentlemen’s club expo. He’s the keynote speaker.
******
Bonus extra for those conventioneers (and media snoops) who prefer a less passive, more open-ended introduction to Tampa’s entertainment options: Via commentor Dr. BDH, let me introduce you to GaYBOR, “the center of Tampa Bay’s GLBTA community!”
TaMara (BHF)
My tv tells me Akin just went on the radio and said “I was wrong” Like completely wrong on everything he said. I was only half listening, but it sounded like a real apology (oh, noes I see my entire political career being flushed, let me grovel, I’ll make ugly laws later) and not the, “I’m sorry if anyone heard my dastardly words and were offended.” bs.
I await to hear everyone else’s opinion about it….
Felinious Wench
Man, the Republicans can’t function any other way.
WereBear
@TaMara (BHF): I am guardedly happy he realized he sounded like enough of an a$$ to lose in Misery?
If so, we are closer to the 15th Century than the 14th? Yay?
burnspbesq
I guess it’s a good thing that Augusta National has admitted its first woman members, but jeez, Billy, couldn’t you do better than this?
http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/8284599/augusta-national-admits-condoleezza-rice-darla-moore-first-two-female-members
Shawn in ShowMe
I’m hoping Mr. Akin stays in the race because his abject stupidity is the best chance of McCaskill retaining the seat. This ain’t gonna be the last offensive thing he says.
Spaghetti Lee
NFL Champion Buccaneers
Man, the MSM needs to stop living in the past.
Phylllis
In other news, the local anchors in Augusta GA are about to collectively wet their pants over the two women members invited to join Augusta National. Could we be more parochial? I think not.
burnspbesq
@TaMara (BHF):
“i was wrong” could also mean “the magical pregnancy-preventin’ thang is even stronger than I was led to believe.
There is no coming back from this. Rubicon done been crossed.
KG
@TaMara (BHF): a real apology? I didn’t know those still existed in American politics… Though I always love the “I’m sorry if I offended anyone” apologies, if only because it’s really the “My only regret is that I didn’t get away with it” line that I always think when I get caught with a hand in the cookie jar.
Phylllis
@burnspbesq: Darla’s a pretty cool lady, actually.
General Stuck
@TaMara (BHF):
Nobody does a feeding frenzy on their own, like the wingnuts do. Often for things that are stoopid, as much as they are offensive. Akin is an idiot, but he is no less offensive than all the other wingnuts running around with Transvag Wands of Freedom, aspirin, and calling women who have abortions, baby killers, in whatever half baked code it is wrapped.
The intensity of the right wing reaction, I think is a testament to their sense of how wide open they are for attack from dem candidates on any kind of women’s issues. It is a cumulative paranoia, not based in humanistic humility, but purely the calculation of political predators losing votes they can’t afford to. And none so much that, as the female vote, that the more atavistic among them have been working overtime to alienate for some time now. It’s the largest voting block out there.
Thoughtcrime
“Legimate” rape: Laws written and passed by Republicans.
burnspbesq
@Phylllis:
I assume that if Sec. Rice ever actually shows up to play, she will be followed by the same three-Suburbans-worth-of-security-detail that gums up traffic for hours when she goes to eat at Il Fornaio in downtown Palo Alto. Cost to us taxpayers? I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.
piratedan
“Rape is rape,” the president said. “And the idea that we should be parsing, qualifying and slicing what qualifies as rape doesn’t make sense to me and doesn’t make sense to the American people…. What I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of pols, the majority of whom are men, making health-care decisions on behalf of women”.
Jeebus, can’t you just feel the uppityness between the lines? That damn Kenyan doesn’t think we know how to keep our wimmin folk in line, well as soon as the restraining order is lifted and Becky Sue gets me a sammich, I’m gonna tell dat sumbitch he can fergit about gettin my vote
jeffreyw
Alternate image hosting. Behold the braised beef brisket!
jwb
@General Stuck: I think Akin is vulnerable because he wasn’t the candidate that the GOP establishment wanted and they see this as a chance to replace him with someone more to its liking.
karen
What does the “A” stand for?
Phylllis
@burnspbesq: I’ll let you know; FSM knows the local news will follow it breathlessly.
jwb
@jeffreyw: That’s criminal, posting that picture at dinner time.
TaMara (BHF)
@piratedan: Damn I love our president.
The Moar You Know
I like this Redner guy. I hope he makes some money off the locusts.
jeffreyw
@jwb: I plead insanity yer honor! I’m just crazy about that stuff.
General Stuck
@jwb:
He was not the tea party pick, that was Sarah Steelman, so I think he was the establishment pick, as a serving Rep., depending how you view the tea party with the republicans. As well, I think the right wing blogosphere is more pro tea party than not.
gogol's wife
@jeffreyw:
Do you ever provide recipes? I would love to have a good recipe for brisket that doesn’t involve pan-frying it first. That just makes such a mess, I’ve given up on it. But I know my mother made it without doing that. Unfortunately she’s no longer with us and can’t tell me how to do it.
Linda Featheringill
@piratedan: #14
About Obama’s rape is rape statement:
Yes I can and I love it. It absolutely sends a tingle down my leg.
Hill Dweller
@Linda Featheringill: The President also called Romney a crybaby and a liar during the press conference, without actually saying the words.
As an aside, I saw another Romney ad today full of lies about Medicare. They’re scared.
jwb
@jeffreyw: I’d like to know your cooking method as well. That brisket just looks awesome and great food photography as well!
ETA: I see that you have the recipe posted at your website.
raven
@Phylllis: They are more likely to wet their pants over the name of the newly merged Medical College of Georgia and Augusta State. There are some seriously pissed off people about Regents University. I kind of liked it because Pat Robertson tried to get them no to name it that for fear it will conflict with his bullshit university.
Emma
@jeffreyw: Jesus, Jeffrey. How do we get you your own restaurant?
jeffreyw
@gogol’s wife: Let me just whip this out.
raven
@jeffreyw: Did the buzzer go off?
jeffreyw
@jwb: Thanks, jwb. This was my first brisket and I am very happy with it.
raven
@burnspbesq: There is no traffic around there except for Masters week.
Maude
@jeffreyw:
I was out on an errand and so couldn’t remind you to get it out of the oven.
Haydnseek
@jwb: I’ll be right over. What do you like to drink?
jeffreyw
@raven: If it did, I didn’t hear it. Does the buzzer time out? I took it out just a tad early, before the time had elapsed and then got busy.
mechwarrior online
@General Stuck:
That depends on what part of the right wing and what part of the tea party you’re talking about. Lately the Theocrats and the Libertarians seem to be at each others necks.
The libertarians have been pretty united in mocking social conservatives (they were all over Akin in a second) and savaging them worse than the left wing bloggers lately. With a side dash of mocking the “raise defense spending yet balance the budget” nonsense flying out of Ryan and the other fake libertarians. They’ve also been ganging up on the older white social conservatives by telling them to their face medicare and social security are big government and got to go. With snark along the lines of “medicare is more socialist than Obama you idiots”.
It’s a hilarious circular fuck fest. The reason why is easy, Romney isn’t a neocon, social con, Randian, or a libertarian. None of them like him and they are all blaming each other for why they are stuck with him. Ryan is also bombing because he claims to be a libertarian but actually isn’t.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the libertarians and neocons hung this loss around the neck of the social conservatives for not shutting up about sodomy, birth control, vaginas and gays.
gogol's wife
@jeffreyw:
Thank you, kind sir!
raven
@jeffreyw: Shit yea, it flashes and sounds like you hit the jackpot!
Linda Featheringill
@raven:
Online timer:
I used it this evening so I’d know when to check on supper. Good thing, too, because I got wrapped up in causing trouble on the internet.
Very nice tool.
karen
Has anyone in Virginia seen this?
VA Republicans call for Armed Revolution If Obama Wins in November. Apparently it was in a newsletter in March but Politics USA had the article and a copy of the newsletter today.
Can anyone here tell me why that’s not treason or sedition or even mutiny?
Mnemosyne
Can I bitch about my boss for just a minute here? I mean, in general she’s a good boss and I like her, but for some reason she decides that if revisions need to be made to a document, I should make the revisions to the old version that she has on her desk instead of waiting for the new version and can’t seem to understand that if I make the revisions to the old version, that means I will have to make the revisions a second time when the new version arrives.
Seriously, WTF is up with that? Why am I supposed to do my work twice just to make her feel like something is being done at the very instant that she wants it done?!
Spaghetti Lee
Apparently, Sean Hannity just said Akin should get out of the race, after giving him a very sympathetic interview freakin’ yesterday. Given all the repulsive shit Republicans have defended before this, I’m betting they know this asshole will lose a very winnable race, and maybe even that there are a few skeletons in the closet unrelated to the current fuck-up.
raven
@Spaghetti Lee: You must be listening to a replay, that was hours ago.
jeffreyw
@raven: I had it in a tab that wasn’t open when it got to zero. I did switch to it after all was done and it was reading zero but there wasn’t any noise. I checked the volume, it was up. Dunno.
General Stuck
@Spaghetti Lee:
Last polling before this, Akin was up double digits on McCaskill.
Linda Featheringill
@karen: #41
I think it would be armed uprising since it is only a revolution if they actually win.
Dunno what they have in mind but remember the Establishment nearly always has more firepower, in every situation.
Probably the best they could do would be hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.
Maude
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve dealt with people like her. Oh, man, it is almost impossible to get them to understand something like this.
Can you tell her that a newer version is the one to correct or will that just make her mad?
cintibud
@karen: Why isn’t it sedition?
IOKIYAR
jwb
@General Stuck: Twitter says overnight polling had already cut that lead in half.
JustAnotherBob
@karen:
Since no one seems to have answered, let me guess.
How about for All the other yet-to-be-identified groups?
mechwarrior online
@karen:
Being in VA currently that sort of shit flies around here all the time. Nobody takes it seriously. And no it’s not sedition or mutiny (that’s a technical term and limited to the military and even then it’s damn specific in what it means). Beyond that it’s not a prosecutable offense.
Let me put it to you this way. I can rant all I want about wanting to kill someone in a bar, I can’t get in trouble for it. You have to proven actual intent, and for serious charges (and killing someone or armed revolt are, treason is what you’re looking for here) that’s extremely hard. Because millions of people talk like that all day every day. Hell grumbling about killing your boss is a tradition in the armed services (you won’t find anybody who hasn’t joked about fragging someone or throwing them off a ship).
We don’t cart people off for shit talk or thought crimes, if we did the entire population would be behind bars. And that’s all this is, shit talk. If they try to take it anywhere they’ll run into a metric ton of firearms violations and explosives violations along with a few terrorism charges before they reach an actual armed insurrection.
And keep in mind that most of Virginia is pretty much Texas. NOVA is extremely rich and liberal because of all the DOD and intelligence money and jobs (we love us some defense spending. cut defense spending and will rebel against the party because all the rich liberals will go broke in a second. we’d rather not have our taxes go up, shit raid social security and medicare first, and we are socially liberal as hell. we vote democratic for abortion and gay marriage, but on economic and military issues we are just glad they are moving to the RIGHT because that’s where our pocket books work) but the rest of the state is straight out of Texas or Alabama. This sort of revolution talk can best be summed up as “a liberal is in office, the south will rise again” and crops up constantly.
Don’t worry though, don’t cut defense spending and those of us up North will keep the crazies in line. Cut defense (and make us no longer the richest area in the nation) and when the pay checks dry up well… abortion and gay marriage can get bent till we get paid.
JPL
ABC news is not being kind to the repubs tonight. When will Fox say they are not fair and balanced?
Neal
Joe’s great. He’s run for dozens of local offices, never won anything. His son is the guy behind Cigar City Brewing if you’re into that sort of thing. The brewery is around the corner from the Mons. They’ve got a pizza restaurant too.
Hope he makes a fortune on these idiots.
PaulW
Christ. Listen to me if you want info on the best places and things to do while you’re in the Tampa Bay area.
– The original Hooters restaurant on Gulf-to-Bay (SR 60) in Clearwater. Not as blatantly sexist as a strip club, with slightly better food!
– Innisbrook Golf Course (see if you can spot all the spots they used to film parts of Caddyshack!)
– The gulf beaches, primarily Clearwater Beach and Treasure Island
– Cigar Museum, Ybor City
– Sadly, the Rays are on the road next week, so no major league baseball. However, the Dunedin Blue Jays minor league team is at home for the 27th to the 29th playing the Yanks minor league team.
FormerSwingVoter
@TaMara (BHF): I heard his apology as well. It was interesting, because he wasn’t just saying that he was wrong to say it; he admitted to being completely wrong on the facts as well.
Maude
@JPL:
it would be just two sisters having a little spat. They’d make up tomorrow.
lamh35
I know all the talk has been about Mittens lies and Akin’s rape BS, but did anyone catch any coverage of the White House “Kids State Dinner”? Too bad it was covered more. Anyway, here White House video of the President surprising the attendants.
2012 Kids’ State Dinner
scav
@JustAnotherBob: Alternative or Asexual would be my (dull) guess. Ambisexual would be fun though.
Yutsano
@scav: Could also be allies. Some of the straight peeps are all right.
Phylllis
@raven: Yeah, the CBS affiliate managed to shoehorn in a story about some protest about it in between the five different Women @ Augusta National stories they did this afternoon. The renaming was mishandled just about every way it could be.
General Stuck
@jwb:
Not surprising from the over all rabid reaction from his fellow republicans, as well as democrats. The point is he was winning by double digits, and why would the GOP from stem to stern call for him to quit, over something no less offensive than all the other War On Women garbage from the right in recent months?
Dennis SGMM
@karen:
Article III Section 3 of the Constitution:
scav
@Yutsano: Exact. my bad.
Danger, Will Robinson!
@karen: Turns out that if you click the link for for “Virginia Republican Committee” whose newsletter the article references, it’s actually the Greene County Republican Committee, which probably consists of thirty odd individuals total. I could be wrong, but I doubt there are more than a hundred people in the group. Furthermore, the link to the newsletter now shows an error. I’m thinking someone with a brain cell snatched it off the site pretty quickly.
Bottom line, there is no “army” of Republicans in Virginia who are planning an armed revolution if Obama is re-elected. It’s just a couple dozen grumpy old farts, and one in particular who likes to open his mouth before he thinks.
Of course, I could be wrong…
Spaghetti Lee
@General Stuck:
I think you’re kind of missing JWB’s point. If Akin’s lead was cut in half a day after he said this, that’s pretty impressive. I think the GOP knows that Akin could easily lose this race that should have been an easy win, and they desperately want him gone before it gets worse.
I agree with your point about the war on women (although I’m honestly not sure I’ve heard something quite this awful, at least not from a national-level candidate), and it makes me wonder if the GOP’s sudden change of heart is due to some bigger and worse scandal in Akin’s past, and they’re using this current one as an excuse.
JPL
@lamh35: That was so cute. Since I live in GA and there was a gal from Dunwoody chosen, I sent it to all my repub friends. Before you berate me about repub friends, you gotta understand where I live.
Phylllis
@PaulW: And for eats, Bern’s Steakhouse, and the original Columbia resaurant in Ybor. Plus Tampa has put their trolleys back online, which are cool as all get out to ride.
mainmati
@jeffreyw: A lot of pickled jalapenos there. Hope you can still taste the brisket. :)
Maude
@JPL: Isn’t the dirt even red there? Speaking of red state.
JPL
@Maude: Orange/red clay… ugh.. I think Raven and others can back me up but it does seem as though the more repubs elected in the state, the crazier it becomes. Years ago folks would vote for increase in taxes to support schools and roads.. no more.
Maude
@JPL:
I’m in NJ. My county has red clay dirt. It’s a Republican county. We have Christie, who is destroying the state as I write this.
TaMara (BHF)
@lamh35: I covered it.
I loved the whole idea. But of course I run a cooking blog, ymmv.
Anne Laurie
@karen:
When I’ve seen it used elsewhere, it’s been for ‘alternative’ — anything from vanilla polyamory to the hardcore fetish stuff. Which is kinda ridiculous, from a logical standpoint, but that’s the problem with our penchant for defining individuals primarily by their sexual preferences.
AHH onna Droid
@PaulW: Best Tampa: turn off I-75 at the Florida Turnpike and spend your time and money in America’s swampy armpit, Orlando.
jeffreyw
@mainmati: Those are some of the peppers I grew on my patio last year. I have to say, that this batch of jalapenos is by far the best I have ever eaten. I wish I remembered the recipe:( Pretty sure they were a raw pack, and were processed in a boiling water bath. They are crunchy still!
jefft452
“I can’t play to that part of human nature,” sniffs Redner. “If you gotta hide from what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be doing it.”
I this about Mitt’s tax returns?
SiubhanDuinne
@TaMara (BHF):
I haven’t even looked at Balloon Juice today and haven’t read any of the comments yet, so apologies if someone else answered you similarly, and doubtless better. But I saw a brief WaPo article, and was struck by this:
Now to me, that sounds as though he has not changed his views one iota, he simply used the wrong word, “legitimate,” when he really meant “forcible.” either way, I’m pretty sure he still believes those spermicidal juices are gonna keep on squirtin’ when it’s rapey-time.
SiubhanDuinne
@burnspbesq: Did you expect them to invite Shirley Sherrod or someone right out of the gate? I’m just happy it’s happened. Hillary will be wearing a green jacket soon enough. And Elizabeth Warren. And Sonia Sotomayor. And some day soon women members won’t even be newsworthy enough to mention, and won’t that be cool?
Ronzoni Rigatoni
@Phylllis: Bern’s Steakhouse is outstanding and always crowded. Reservations please, and bring money, LOTSA money. The Columbia is also great and Ybor City is always fun.
Mnemosyne
@Maude:
The problem is that we were going to have to wait 15 minutes to get the newer version when she wanted the revisions done NOW NOW NOW … even though those revisions would then have to be RE-done using the newer version, which would mean that doing it NOW NOW NOW would actually waste time rather than saving the time she thinks it would save.
Argh. I don’t know why she has so much trouble understanding this concept of waiting for the updated version before making more changes, because she is not dumb.
ETA: She is somehow convinced that making changes to the old version and then moving those changes to the new version when it arrives rather than waiting and making all of the changes to the new version is somehow saving time. I do not understand why.
SiubhanDuinne
@Phylllis:
Yes yes yes yes yes. My only really good memories of Tampa are of Bern’s. Best steaks and most awesome wine list on the planet.
But beyond that, true story: my late ex-husband and his boss took an important out of town prospective client to Bern’s, thinking to impress the fuck out of him with the dead cows. Turns out the guy was a vegetarian (this was in the ’70s, when being vegetarian was just weird, man). Anyhow, Ken and Steve order their filets and chateaubriands, and then the client tells them he doesn’t eat meat. The waiter doesn’t turn a hair, brings him, according to the client, the best and most delicious veggie meal he’s ever had. I do remember that Bern’s were early adaptors of hydroponic cultivation.
The prospect became a client, and Ken told the story for years to demonstrate the total awesomeness of Bern’s.
(Oh, by the way. Nobody in the entire history of the world has ever made a banana daiquiri to rival Bern’s. Just saying.)
Sad_Dem
@karen: My guess is that the “A” in GLBTA stands for “asexual.”
JoyfulA
@Phylllis: Yes, Darla Moore is cool. And it’s a great comeback from Nikki Haley’s throwing her off the university board, despite her huge donations, in favor of a crony.
PaulW
@AHH onna Droid:
Blasphemer.
Also, I want to add the Tarpon Springs sponge docks for great Greek food, but it is a bit hard to get to.
karen
@PaulW:
I went to Tarpon Springs a long time ago (in the 80s). I don’t know if they’re still doing sponge diving but my father got a great Greek fisherman’s hat.