Florida
updated
11:01 a.m.
If you want it, we've got today's "FloBama" Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. "Worse than the problem"? "An open-ended proposal to cut property taxes and raise other revenues had both supporters and detractors struggling this week to predict how the measure would affect the Floridians who vote on it in November." " Sides Argue O...
FLA Politics - 11:00 a.m.
Everyone, including the White House, thinks the Surge in Iraq began in January 2007. But according to John McCain , it started before that. The Arizona senator has told reporters during a stop at a super market in Bethlehem, Pa., that what the Bush administration calls "the surge" was actually "made up of a number of components." McCain says some components of the surge began before Bush ordere...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - 7:41 a.m.
John McCain was scheduled to go to New Orleans yesterday ostensibly to visit an off-shore oil rig and upstage the Obamapalooza tour of the Middle East, and also to meet with Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) and size him up as a possible running mate. But the trip was canceled at the last minute, citing the bad weather from Hurricane Dolly, not to mention an oil spill in the Mississippi River ("but th...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - 7:41 a.m.
Elaine Donnelly, an anti-gay activist, made a fool of herself in front of a Congressional committee discussing the status of "don't ask, don't tell." Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of "transgenders in the military." She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading "HIV positivity" through t...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - 7:41 a.m.
The McCain campaign whips out a web ad linking Barack Obama to Fidel Castro. A Democrat in south Florida alerted the Huffington Post to the image, which shows Obama and Castro, profiled side-by-side, above a quote from the Cuban leader praising the Illinois Democrat as "the most advanced candidate." [...] But the quote is misleading in regards to the actual political dynamics in play. For sta...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - 7:41 a.m.
Let's turn this one around: Name something you once did that seemed stupid at the time but turned out to be a good thing? For me, one was not selling my 1988 Pontiac station wagon when I bought my 1995 Mustang . Another one was taking a playwriting class in college....
Bark Bark Woof Woof - 7:41 a.m.
The wife of the Democratic candidate stopped by Miami to help raise funds for the campaign. The candidate's wife wore white. Not a hint of camouflage. Campaigning in a linen sheath one week after The New Yorker magazine caricatured her as a black militant, Michelle Obama addressed hundreds of donors in Miami Wednesday in her largest event in Florida so far. About 800 people contributed between...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - 7:41 a.m. - 2 clicks 
Robert Novak has a run-in with a pedestrian. Politico reports that conservative pundit Robert Novak “was cited by police after he hit a pedestrian with his black Corvette in downtown Washington, D.C., Wednesday morning.” Novak initially “drove away from the scene,” but turned around when “a bicyclist stopped him and said, ‘You hit someone.’” Novak claimed: “I didn’t know I hit anybody.” But Was...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Wed 4:04 p.m.
It's interesting that the right-wingers who crowed when Iraq had "free and democratic elections" (remember the purple-finger craze?) and installed Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister (and defended him against the puppetry charge from liberals) now dismiss him as a political hack because he backs Barack Obama's timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. The simple fact may be that Prime Minister ...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Wed 12:40 p.m.
John McCain in New Hampshire: This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign. I think that pretty much qualifies as the winner of today's episode of Desperation Bingo....
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Wed 12:40 p.m.
Salon.com uncovers evidence that the Bush administration's spying on U.S. citizens was -- and remains -- far more widespread than previously thought. The last several years have brought a parade of dark revelations about the George W. Bush administration, from the manipulation of intelligence to torture to extrajudicial spying inside the United States. But there are growing indications that the...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Wed 12:40 p.m.
For someone who says the Surge was the greatest thing for Iraq since the invention of the air conditioner, John McCain seems to be fact-challenged, according to Spencer Ackerman . For McCain to say that the Anbar Awakening is the product of the surge is either a lie or professional malpractice for a presidential candidate who is staking his election on his allegedly superior Iraq judgment. It m...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Wed 12:40 p.m.
Via the Huffington Post : An ABC-TV outlet in Houston, and now the Houston Chronicle, have posted a video taken at a political fundraiser for Pete Olson, featuring George W. Bush last week -- capturing some embarrassing/revealing moments after, he noted, he had asked cameras to be turned off. The first moments form the July 18 event find him speaking almost incoherently in admitting, for once, ...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Wed 12:40 p.m.
It used to be that hair coloring was strictly for women, but now everyone can do it. So my brother asks... Do you/would you dye your hair? My answer: No and No. The reason is simple; I'm getting salt-and-pepper gradually and age-appropriately, and besides, the last time I tried to fool Mother Nature (see below ), Mother Nature fought back cruelly. (HT to Lab Kat for reminding me of this qu...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Wed 12:40 p.m.
Estelle Getty has died. “I am the mother,” she declared in her opening line in “Torch Song Trilogy,” Harvey Fierstein’s 1981 play about the travails of a gay man in New York City, and as a summary of her career, her character was right. “I’ve played mothers to heroes and mothers to zeroes,” Ms. Getty wrote in her autobiography, “If I Knew Then What I Know Now ... So What?” (Contemporary Boo...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Wed 12:40 p.m.
Swing-State Project has changed its race ratings on four Florida House races: FL-15 (Open): Likely Republican to Safe Republican Republican Bill Posey: $220K raised in the second quarter of 2008. Democrats Paul Rancatore and Steve Blythe: $18K raised (combined) in the second quarter. NEXT. FL-21 (L. Diaz-Balart): Likely Republican to Lean Republican When local prognostic...
FLA Politics - Wed 12:04 p.m. - 6 clicks
If you want it, we've got today's "FloBama" Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. "Welcome back, governor. Now let's get back to work" The South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board: "Crist might only have been gone for 10 days, but the mood across the Sunshine State grew darker in that time." - "First, a jobs report came ou...
FLA Politics - Wed 12:04 p.m. - 6 clicks
The Tampa Tribune criticized ACORN in an opinion piece that ran on Saturday July 19th for putting Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning on notice that the state of Florida was not in compliance with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. According to the act, voter registration assistance must be provided not only at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) but at all agencies that provi...
FLA Politics - Tue 10:06 p.m. - 11 clicks
Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. "Florida's economic reality bites" The Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial board: "The state led the nation in job losses for a 12-month period ending in May, and experts say the construction and tourism industries have yet to hit rock bottom, though declining home sales and rising gas prices already h...
FLA Politics - Tue 10:06 p.m. - 9 clicks
Nobody could figure out how the person who lived there was able to ascend to his "home" suspended from an overpass. The fire department had to send a ladder truck so city workers could remove more than a dozen garbage bags of personal belongings -- mostly clothing and bedding -- from a nestlike living space in the supports on an overpass. Los Angeles police said they checked out ...
The 13th Juror - Tue 6:30 p.m.
Orlando Sentinel columnist George Diaz weighs in on the City of Sanford's uninformed perceptions of homeless people. Read his column here ....
The 13th Juror - Tue 6:30 p.m. - 8 clicks
Federal health officials are divvying up $49 million among states that provide subsidized health insurance to people who can't buy it because they have medical problems. None of that money will be coming to Florida. That's because Florida closed its high-risk pool for the medically uninsurable in 1992 and has not accepted any applicants since. The state has missed out on a share of the $286 mill...
The 13th Juror - Tue 6:30 p.m. - 7 clicks
if you vote for this man based on his stance on this issue and this commercial then you should be ashamed to be called a Floridian. i firmly believe that the republicans will never get over the old mark twain mantra, "just because you have a big hammer doesnt make everything a nail." drilling is not the answer. just because we can drill, and there are some thoughts that there may be oi...
becoming change - Tue 12:00 p.m.
From the New York Times : Radovan Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted war criminals for his part in the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, was arrested Monday in a raid in Serbia that ended a 13-year hunt. Serge Brammertz, the prosecutor of the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, hailed the arrest as an important step in bringing to justice on...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Tue 7:10 a.m.
Both Richard Cohen and David Brooks offer observations on the great American pastime: spending and owing, and according to both of them, it comes back to being a matter of character. Mr. Brooks first: Decision-making — whether it’s taking out a loan or deciding whom to marry — isn’t a coldly rational, self-conscious act. Instead, decision-making is a long chain of processes, most of which happ...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Tue 7:10 a.m.
From the Detroit Free Press : Chevrolet unveiled its long-awaited production version of the 2009 Chevrolet Camaro sports car Monday in the dome in Warren where it was designed, next to historic GM vehicles -- the '50 Corvette Stingray, the '51 LeSabre and the 1969 Camaro -- whose league it hopes to join. It's a nice story about a cool new -- and fuel-efficient -- car, but it hits a sour note in...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Tue 7:10 a.m.
From the Miami Herald : Travelers, be aware: Your full-blown image -- private parts and all -- could soon be visible to a security officer, on-screen, at an airport near you. Miami International Airport is one of a dozen airports nationwide that have begun pilot-testing whole-body imaging machines, which reveal weapons and explosives concealed under layers of clothing. ''It allows us to detect...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Tue 7:10 a.m. - 9 clicks
I think it speaks volumes when the McCain campaign thinks it's equally important to choose the timing of the announcement of Mr. McCain's running mate as it is to choose the person himself. I'm pretty sure that there isn't anything in the Constitution that includes providing scene stealing news coverage in the description of the duties of the vice president, but after the tenure of Dick Ch...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Tue 7:10 a.m.
Richard Cohen's tattoo analogy reminded me of something. Back when I went to the gym every day, I had some pretty impressive biceps (if I do say so myself) and a buddy tried to convince me to get one of those bristling barbed-wire tattoos on my arm. Fortunately the expense and my phobia of needles prevailed, and I didn't get it. It also occurred to me that while a tattoo like that would be...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Tue 7:10 a.m.
Ford Motor Company looks to the little cars . The struggling automaker, reacting to what it sees as a rapid and permanent shift in consumer tastes brought on by high gas prices, plans to unveil its new direction on Thursday, when it will report quarterly earnings. Among the changes, Ford is expected to announce that it will convert three of its North American assembly plants from trucks to c...
Bark Bark Woof Woof - Tue 7:10 a.m.
Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. "Get ready ..." "The old lever machines are long gone. We all know what happened with the punch cards and hanging chads. And now the touch-screen machines are relics, too. Get ready for optical-scan voting." " Voting Is Safer, On Paper ". The Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial board: "In less than six w...
FLA Politics - Mon 6:38 p.m. - 11 clicks
"There is a fierce behind-the-scenes battle for influence over presumptive Democratic candidate Barack Obama's Hispanic and Latin American agenda," and some Democratic strategists say that its outcome could determine the result of the November elections. Some Obama backers in South Florida, in particular, are especially miffed at what they see as excessive power by labor-union-tied, left-lean...
FLA Politics - Sun 8:30 a.m. - 12 clicks
Start your web-day with the Florida Progressive Coalition . Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. How to win Florida "Set aside the soaring speeches and rock-star rallies, and Sen. Barack Obama's future in Florida depends on a fragile proposition." To win the Sunshine State, the Democrat needs a massive turnout among two fickle voti...
FLA Politics - Sun 8:30 a.m. - 13 clicks
Seriously, this calls out for legal guardianship proceeding, or a report of exploitation to the Florida abuse hotline. "In a Republican Party news conference call [Friday] to introduce a new John McCain campaign video," 82 year old Col. Bud Day, a long-time friend and fellow Vietnam POW with McCain ... Florida Republican Party officials said after the call that Day was speaking for the Rep...
FLA Politics - Sat 6:04 p.m. - 20 clicks
You really should start your web-day with the Florida Progressive Coalition . If you want it, we've got today's "FloBama" Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. Is this man brain dead? Charlie has finished his a "four-day trade mission to Britain ... with speculation about his vice presidential chances, hopes that cheap Florida...
FLA Politics - Sat 6:04 p.m. - 14 clicks
Reidblog has this " Flashback post of the week: Carswell's ghost ", from the sadly short lived Blog de Leon (which we have refused to remove from our blog roll in the hopes that (s)he will some day return). Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. Charlie strides world stage ... Florida in crisis "Crist capped a four-day trade mission to Br...
FLA Politics - Fri 9:06 p.m. - 17 clicks
Today's FloBama: " Obama sister woos women ", " Florida a multimillion-dollar gold mine for presidential hopefuls ", " A Lonely Joe ", " Obama not giving up on Florida ", " Obama not giving up on Florida ", " Crist Has Cameo In Latest Jib Jab Spoof ", " New McCain TV spot slams Obama's Iraq flipflop ", " Party registration efforts focusing on November, not primary ", " Obama troops coming ...
FLA Politics - Fri 9:06 p.m. - 18 clicks
Party affiliation aside, I feel caught in the middle many times during campaigns. I'm not plastered in "O" tattoos like Obamatards... but I am more aware of the campaigns than your average American. Campaign season is a mix of emotions- exciting to see change possibly come, but sick and tired of all the media and pundits running the election. What ever happened to real speeches and radio addresses...
becoming change - Fri 3:03 p.m.
Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. "Grim" "With unemployment rising and incomes falling more than expected, Florida's slowdown is here to stay for another full year, the state's top analysts reported Wednesday in their gloomiest report yet." " Outlook Grim For Fla. Economy ". South Florida races heat up "Democrats for th...
FLA Politics - Thu 10:34 p.m. - 14 clicks
Chris Cillizza at he Washington Post's Politics Blog -- The Fix makes " The Case for Charlie Crist ". He writes this morning: "Florida Republican Gov. Charlie Crist has been all over the national news lately." On the policy front, he backed up Sen. John McCain's (R) call for lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling, a reversal of his opposition to drilling spurred, Crist said, by the h...
FLA Politics - Jul 17 - 8 clicks
Today's FloBama includes: " Poll: It's The Economy, And Fl. Voters Think Obama Better On That Issue ", " Atwater borrows Barack's message ", " McCain speaks to NAACP, poll update ", " Obama has more cash, fewer bundlers; Pawlenty's one of McCain's, not Crist ", " The Short List — Wed., July 16 ", " Vice President Crist ", " Obama campaign opens Florida headquarters ", and...
FLA Politics - Jul 17 - 9 clicks
Start your day with the Florida Progressive Coalition . If you want it, we've got today's "FloBama" Our digest and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows. Diplomatic coup! Charlie hammers out deal with UK And you thought that trip was a waste of cash. "Gov. Charlie Crist is promising to work with Britain to develop clean energy technology and...
FLA Politics - Jul 17 - 8 clicks
A pack of Kool cigarettes, a can of Budweiser and a box of Boston Baked Beans sat on the dashboard of an unlocked car with the windows rolled down. Somewhere nearby two New Orleans police officers watched and waited for someone to reach into the bait car and snatch the items. They wouldn’t have to wait long, as the car was parked just one block away from a homeless encampment, where dozens of de...
The 13th Juror - Jul 16
Project Homeless Connect has been moved from downtown Sanford to a Longwood church after several people complained the program should not be held at the city’s civic center. Northland, A Church Distributed, agreed to host the July 30 event. Last year, more than 350 people attended the Sanford event. About 200 volunteers offered medical services, employment counseling, food, showers, mental hea...
The 13th Juror - Jul 16 - 2 clicks
The “Homes for Heroes Act” has been passed by the House of Representatives, but is facing a presidential veto if it makes it through the Senate. HR 3329 , which would provide shelter for homeless veterans and their families as well as lending assistance to help low-income veteran families from falling into homelessness, won House approval 412-9. The White House immediately signaled that the le...
The 13th Juror - Jul 16
keep an eye out for the obama sign! Gators & Obama my goodness... "you have to become the change you wish to see in the world" Ghandi this space is dedicated to the progressive movement of change and the trials of staying focused on what it takes to trasnform into that change... ...
becoming change - Jul 16 - 8 clicks
my friends and family can vouch for this...when out at a night time facility, i would wander to the local host of libations and ask for a good old fashioned union american made light beer. to which i would be handed a bud light or Michelob light. i wrote a post a few weeks back about how the world as we know it will be drastically different within 6 months, but i never would have thought th...
becoming change - Jul 16
Montreal is my new favorite city.... at least in the summer festival time.... it's a beautiful, urban, green, cosmopolitan, chic, diverse, shopaholic ..... and more city. ...
Sarasota Livin' - Jul 16