Category — Florida

The Pensacola News Journal says that Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom announced that he has resigned his job with Northwest Florida State College [OWCC, who are they kidding] because of the controversy over “possible” conflict of interest.

It would have been better if Ray had resigned from the House, because the job will probably still be there at the end of his term, and everyone already assumes that he’s compromised. The Panhandle will get short shrift in the legislature because of Ray’s problems, and we have been ignored for years because the Republicans take the area for granted.

Too bad Ray couldn’t have sold out for something the area needed, rather than the empire building at OW.

Because going to the County Tax Collector’s office to renew license plates is a pain, I decided to to try the on-line renewal that was offered [note that Florida now offers a two-year renewal] in the notice. What a joke.

I can understand about the invalid security certificate, they are using a certificate for the old site and haven’t changed it yet, but the “problem” the state DMV found in the records was laughable and shows why datamining is a concept that is wasted on these people.

The associated DMV records didn’t match because the city name “Fort Walton Beach” appeared as “Ft Walton Beach” on one record, and “Ft Walton Bch” on another, while all of the other information was the same. The renewal notice has the unabbreviated version, and all of them have the complete 9 digit ZIP code.

[Read more →]

MSNBC has an interesting piece on April Charney, a Jacksonville Legal Aid attorney who deals with foreclosures

“You ever look into a place where snakes hang out?” she asks in the middle of a conversation about the loan officers, appraisers, investment bankers, attorneys and others that she believes are responsible for the nation’s worsening financial crisis. “That’s what I see here. They’re writhing and oozing and morphing into creepy stuff with slime all over it.”

Then in her quiet, gentle drawl — the kind of voice that could get you invited to afternoon drinks on the finest porches in South Florida, where she grew up — she leans forward and says quite earnestly, “Not to discredit snakes or anything.”

A genuine “bless their hearts” moment from a woman who is saving people’s homes by requiring that those who are foreclosing on them obey the law.

[Read more →]

This is the feeling you would get if at the end of the movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart’s character, Jefferson Smith, decides that instead of filibustering, he will sell out to Joseph Paine, Claude Rains’s character.

The incoming speaker of Florida’s House is a local politician, Ray Sansom, whom I first encountered through my Mother’s volunteer work with Hospice. Ray was the director at the time, and a good one. The organization prospered under his leadership, but importantly, the people who worked there were happy to be in the organization, not an easy thing given the mission of any Hospice.

When Ray ran for office he had a base to work with, the people associated with Hospice and other non-profits in the area. He was well liked and seemed to be in tune with local concerns.

[Read more →]

New Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Florida’s junior Senator, Mel Martinez (R-Havana), doesn’t want to play any more.

In as much as he had no base in Florida outside of Calle Ocho in Miami, having been hand-picked by the Hedgemony to run in 2004, a move that ticked off Florida Republicans, and faced with a “fun” re-election in 2010, Senator Martinez has decided to “retire” from the Senate after one term.

Jill at skippy the bush kangaroo and others have linked to The Washington Post article about a lack of acorns in the mid-Atlantic states.

Short answer – they are in my yard, and anyone who wants the brown ball bearings of doom is welcome to them, but the management is not responsible if you end up on your backside trying to walk around out there. If you could pick them up before my landlord’s yard guy decides to run around on the mower, it would be appreciated, because they get sucked up and fired out at a pretty good clip and he doesn’t notice.

I keep mentioning that I am surrounded by the base, so I figured I would show you what I meant. The grey area is the land area of the base. There are ranges out in the Gulf of Mexico. The light beige civilian areas are all surrounded by the base.

I live surrounded by Eglin AFB. It is one of, if not the, largest military facilities in the world. They test weapons here. They also have the headquarters of the Air Force Special Operations Command, the Army Ranger School, the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal School, an Army Special Forces Brigade, an Air Force Fighter Wing, a National Guard tank training area, and a half-million acre national forest on the base.

The first runway was built at the site of the current main base in 1933, so it is not exactly something new to the area. The local airport is located on the base and uses the Air Force’s runaway and tower facilities. The fact that there are planes taking off and landing can in no way be considered a new phenomenon.

These realities make this report from the Pensacola News Journal, F-35 decision delayed, blatantly absurd:

[Read more →]

In Houston, a Woman wearing Alaska souvenir nearly denied a vote, but according to the Okaloosa Supervisor of Elections “Know the Facts” page, Floridians can dress as politically as they want, as long as they don’t talk about it [and they turn off their cells while in the polls].

States’ Rights is all well and good, but Federal elections really should be uniform throughout the US. We are too mobile for all of these different forms and standards in national elections.

Update: This is the official Florida site for election returns.

WFTV reports that Dead People Voting Throughout Florida

“This is what makes Supervisors of Elections lose sleep at night,” said Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall.

McFall said it used to be easy to clear out voter rolls.

“We had two people who did nothing but cut obituary notices out of the papers,” she said. “That’s how we found out someone died.”

But 2002’s Help America Vote act, which made it easier to register to vote, also made it more difficult to remove voters from the rolls.
…

[Read more →]

The St. Petersburg Times is running a piece on the effects of provisional ballots on the election process thanks to that other piece of voter suppression passed by the Florida legislature, the “no match, no vote” verification law.

Imagine a law based on the concept that there are no typos in official records. My middle name appears on my birth certificate, military records [once], and my Florida driver’s license. I hadn’t written out my complete name in more years than most of the people reading this have been alive, but I have to sign in with my total name when I vote these days. When I get junk mail I know when someone has gotten my name from the drivers’ license list, because there is my middle name. I have to stop and remember how to spell it, and I am writing it, not signing it, as it is obviously much easier to read than either my first or last name.

[Read more →]

The Miami Herald had a couple of nice pieces on politics in the state:

First was Charley’s hope to stop all those angry people yelling at him: Florida’s early voting hours are extended

Some said the long lines were due, in part, to the bill signed by Gov. Jeb Bush that not only limited early voting to eight hours a weekday, but limited those sites to libraries, city halls and voting headquarters.

The result has been packed rooms throughout South Florida that in some cases fit only a half dozen voting machines.

Republicans said they pushed the bill after complaints from constituents who voted in places of worship and to keep elections costs in line.

Republicans complaining about voting in church halls? Pull the other one, it has bells on. Everyone knows it was voter suppression, plain and simple. Apparently they forgot that Republicans also vote.

[Read more →]

Via the Pensacola Beach Blog, Governor Charley Crist has extended the hours for early voting in Florida with Executive Order 08-217

I order the Supervisors of Elections to open early voting sites from 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. through October 31, 2008 and open early voting sites for a total of twelve (12) hours between 7 a.m. November 1, 2008 and 7 p.m. November 2, 2008.

It is fairly difficult to portray yourself as the party of “the common man” when you restrict early voting locations, and limit the time to the middle of the work day.  This has been a disaster all over the state.

I assume that this is another Reaganesque unfunded mandate, i.e. the counties are going to be required to come up with the money for another expense that wasn’t in their budget.