Category — Florida

The St. Petersburg Times has an op-ed on Florida’s temp Senator: Newest senator takes low road

In Tallahassee, LeMieux, Gov. Charlie Crist’s former chief of staff, was credited with helping the governor’s populist appeal. But Wednesday, he sacrificed candor in a predictable play to a partisan constituency. He reasonably equated Congress to a family who recklessly relies on credit cards to pay the bills. But he implied the runaway spending stems from Democratic control, ignoring that it began under President George W. Bush.

LeMieux really lost the high ground when he bragged that Crist and the Florida Legislature have cut spending by nearly 10 percent, or $7 billion, to balance the budget. LeMieux’s omission: This year’s state budget was balanced only because of $5 billion in federal stimulus dollars and $2.2 billion in new taxes and fees. Florida didn’t live within its means. In fact, it was more like the spoiled offspring of a wealthy family who called Mom or Dad for a bailout.

“High ground”? “Candor”? What part of “Republican” don’t they understand? Charlie needs the Republican base in the primary. LeMieux has to sound all of the right notes on the “dog whistle”, or Charlie won’t even get to run. He has his orders, and LeMieux intends to do exactly what Charlie needs to win.

in an old carpetbag.

The Miami Herald writes that a South Florida Republican to seek Orlando House seat

Republicans eager to unseat a brash Orlando Democrat who said their party’s healthcare plan amounts to hoping people “die quickly” have so far been unsuccessful in finding a candidate.

But now comes a willing Republican — all the way from South Florida.

Armando Gutierrez Jr., son of one of Miami’s best-known political consultants and a member of local civic boards, voted in the city of Coral Gables as recently as April.

But he says he’s the right person to take on Rep. Alan Grayson, who likes to call Republicans “knuckle-dragging Neanderthals” and has become one of the party’s top targets in 2010.

Gutierrez, a 28-year-old real estate developer and Republican Party fundraiser, said he has already lined up endorsements from three Central Florida Republicans: U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis and state Reps. Chris Dorworth and Bryan Nelson.

Well, like the other “Republicans” who have announced they are running, Gutierrez is not now, nor has he ever been an elected official. He is an unknown in the district running against a now nationally known incumbent who has been raking in money to supplement his own considerable personal wealth.

There are already wealthy local Republicans running. I can’t imagine what anyone believes that Gutierrez adds to the race that would make him any more likely to unseat Grayson. I don’t care, but it looks like a political money pit to me.

There has been a lot of ink spilled over how Congresscritter Alan Grayson [D FL08] is going to be targeted by the GOP when he runs for re-election.

The Orlando Sentinel reports on the effort in a short article, Crotty’s out — but other Republicans may want to take on Grayson.

Crotty was the only Republican with any actual experience in government who was thought to be considering a run against Grayson. The guys who are left are all neophytes to politics. The best funded, i.e. wealthiest, thinks he’s going to gain votes by attacking Grayson for bringing Federal dollars to Mouseland, because everyone knows how much voters hate to have Federal dollars spent in their district. [/snark]

Grayson may actually end up with a real opponent in 2010, but it has to be someone who is going to show a lot of hidden talents for politics. Grayson won running as what he has proven to be, a progressive, against an incumbent Republican conservative. The voters decided that he was what they wanted. Unless the UF or FSU football coach decides to run against him, he’s probably in a good position for re-election.

The St. Petersburg Times has a profile: ‘Die quickly’ just a sample of Alan Grayson’s sound bite attack

Routine questions elicit deeply philosophical responses. Asked where he got his political leanings, Grayson’s answer ran eight minutes.

“There are now over 6 billion of us,” he said. “When I buy something, I’m buying the fruits of someone else’s labor. When I watch TV, I’m seeing things that other people have created. We are all highly specialized and highly independent and the only way to make everyone better off is if everyone is better off. My political philosophy is to see that that happens.”

I don’t approve of everything he’s done since entering Congress, especially not the Orlando hurricane center, but he sees it as part of his job as a Congresscritter. He at least knows who he works for – the voters in his district.

The Pensacola News Journal is carrying a report on our former Senator, Mel Martinez. I know you are going to be shocked, but he has managed to get a job with DLA Piper as a lobbyist. Two weeks from the Senate to a lobbyist, that was so unsuspected… 😈

Meanwhile, his replacement, George LeMieux, has been given assignments to the Armed Services Committee, the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging.

Given that he has no actual expertise in any of those areas, I’m sure the helpful people at DLA Piper will be more that happy to give him some guidance.

Those committees are important to Florida, which is why it would be nice to send someone to the Senate who actually knows something about the subject matter.

The voting for the 2009 Netroots Awards has opened.

The voting continues until September 29^th.

From the Orlando Sentinel: Anti-abortion group wants to make birth-control illegal in Florida

TALLAHASSEE — A nationwide anti-abortion group launched an effort in Florida Friday to outlaw all abortions and certain types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and the morning-after pill.

The religion-infused movement, called “Personhood Florida,” would define conception in Florida’s constitution at the “biological beginnings,” supporters said — when the sperm meets the egg. The group filed its amendment today but the exact ballot language is still being worked out, said Secretary of State Spokeswoman Jennifer Krell-Davis.

The amendment seeks to outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. Also criminalized: the morning-after pill and oral contraceptives taken by women, known as the pill. “There are some (birth control) methods that kill a child,” said Pat McEwan, who is leading the Personhood Florida group.
…

At a press conference in Tallahassee, speakers blamed abortion for the financial insolvency of Social Security and the bankruptcy of American auto manufacturers, citing the millions of terminated pregnancies since Roe. v. Wade as costing the nation citizens and customers. They also said that a fetus is a person and should be given protections of law.

They talk about Roe v. Wade, but they are really gunning for Griswold v. Connecticut and the right to privacy. They want to tell people how to live, and to outlaw sex outside of their version of marriage.

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Via Atrios, a New York Times business piece: Owner of Orange County Register May File for Bankruptcy

Freedom Communications, owner of The Orange County Register and 30 other daily newspapers, is expected to file for bankruptcy this week under a plan that will hand its publications to its lenders, people briefed on the matter said on Sunday.
…

The majority of Freedom is still owned by the Hoiles family, whose patriarch, R. C. Hoiles, founded the company seven decades ago as an outlet for his libertarian philosophy…

Among the papers published by Freedom Communications are: the Santa Rosa Press Gazette, the Crestview News Bulletin, the Northwest Florida Daily News [AKA Local Puppy Trainer], the Destin Log, the Walton Sun, the Washington County News, the Holmes County Times Advertiser, the Panama City News Herald, the Port St. Joe Star, and the Apalachicola Times. With the exception of the Gannett-owned Pensacola News Journal, that is pretty much every newspaper on the Panhandle in the Central Time Zone. If you look at a map of Florida, it is the western section South of Alabama.

And people wonder why people in this part of the state seem so “uniformly uninformed”.

Update: They filed today 9/01/09.

The Miami Herald reports that Charlie Crist names ex-chief of staff George LeMieux to Senate seat

Gov. Charlie Crist chose his political shadow and former chief of staff, George LeMieux, to stand in as Florida’s U.S. senator until Crist can seek the seat himself in the 2010 election.

Crist has said that he wanted his appointment to have some time to get ready before Congress reconvenes on Sept. 8.

Mr. LeMieux has never been elected to office. He operates a ‘consulting” business assisting the Seminoles with their gaming interests, you know, like Jack Abramoff, among other things, I’m sure.

It’s so insightful of “Chuckles” to decide there was no need to appoint someone who has experience as a legislator to the Senate. George is a lobbyist, so he has passed a lot of legislation, and he’s wealthy, so he’ll be right at home in the Senate.

the Water Department is one of those wasteful, inefficient government agencies. 😈

Four hours, folks, four hours from when I called to when they left, after verifying there was a leak; calling the other utilities to locate their lines in the area because digging was going to be necessary; digging down to the water main through the tree roots; fixing the pipe; filling the hole; and heading back to the barn.

Earlier this week a circuit breaker popped on a transformer on the next block. People were without power from 8AM, until 3PM. Resetting the circuit breaker requires one guy with a long, non-conductive pole that has a hook on top, to use the hook and grab a ring and pull down, but it took the private utility company 7 hours to make that happen.

The public utilities still have people to do this kind of work. The private utilities have cut their work force to increase profits, and people have to wait… in the heat… and humidity… while the ice cream melts.

Sorry, I forgot, the government is wasteful and inefficient, right?

It’s the first day of school for most of Florida, including Okaloosa County, so time to watch for the buses, the School Zone signs, and the kids wandering around lost.

It’s the last day for “Cash for Clunkers”. It is good economic stimulus, helps the the environment, cost effective, and reduces oil consumption, so it obviously had to be stopped quickly.

If you need a break, try US ‘may take military action’ to liberate Britain from the NHS, or Bush still struggling to explain eight-year gap on CV.

One of the few decent things for local people is no more, as the PNJ reports The Zoo is gone

After 25 years of bringing smiles to children’s faces, the financially troubled Zoo Northwest Florida is closed permanently.

“There was no long-term commitment from the community,” Bob Switzer, one of the zoo’s owners, told the Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council on Wednesday. “We are officially, now, closing the zoo. … We are trying to put together something for the land and the animals.”

As the council discussed a request from the zoo for $125,000, Switzer and the other partners in Animal Park Inc. issued a news release confirming the closure.

Although they didn’t know about the decision, the council did not vote on the allocation because of the lack of a clear plan to make the zoo sustainable.

Ah, yes, it is always about the money. If it isn’t “profitable” it must be eliminated. The “pursuit of Happiness” has no meaning in this area, only the pursuit of the dollar.

My Dad loved the Zoo. He made the drive and took hundreds of pictures at the Zoo. It wasn’t fancy or elaborate like the San Diego Zoo, but it had a nice representative collection, without getting carried away with the big cats. It was a friendly place.

Hurricanes, and the recovery from them, as well as the presence of some people who pursued the buck, were the downfall of the Zoo, but, in the end, it was the local people who refused to give it the support it deserved.

The Miami Herald writes that Florida’s population declines for the first time since 1946

TALLAHASSEE — For the first time since the end of World War II, the growth state of Florida lost population, researchers say, in a sign that the economic recession is even worse than many had feared.

In all, the state lost about 58,000 people from April 2008 to April 2009, according to a new estimate from the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

The decline all but guarantees that state economists will likely revise downward state budget projections released just last week, when they forecast that Florida will receive $147 million less in taxes this budget year than they had previously anticipated.

With fewer Floridians, classrooms will likely be a little emptier than forecast. Already, the state had projected that, in the current budget year, nearly 10,000 fewer kids would be in class.

That estimate is likely to change now as well, and it could mean trouble for teachers because classroom funding is pegged to class size.

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Florida’s junior Senator, Mel Martinez, has decided to make things in state politics more interesting, reports the Miami Herald, and every other Florida news source, by resigning early, as in ASAP.

The names of possible placeholders like Connie Mack, Bob Martinez, and Jim Smith have surfaced, as well as the “cunning plan” option: Charley Crist steps down as governor, elevating Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, who then appoints Crist to the Senate [oh, yeah, give Kottkamp power and expect him to “do the right thing”].

I think we can all assume that Charlie won’t be appointing Marco Rubio.

It may be irrelevant, but the resignation of Martinez a day after he voted for the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and listened to his Republican colleagues race-baiting the process, makes one wonder if he was tired of the Repub caucus?

Come on, Charlie, let’s have some fun – appoint Katherine Harris.