Category — Florida

To help people to have been trashing Floridians from ignorance, here are a few facts about Florida government and politics.

Qualifications for office:

Legislature – you must be at least 21 years old, a registered voter, a US citizen, a resident of Florida for at least two years, and a resident of the district.

State-wide Offices – you must be at least 30 years old, a registered voter, a US citizen, and a resident of Florida for at least seven years.

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Today is kind of a holiday in Florida commemorating the supposed date in 1513 when Spanish conquistador¹ Juan Ponce de León found² the North American continent and named it Tierra La Florida³.

1. That’s thug in Spanish.
2. The millions of people who lived here were apparently totally unaware that it was lost.
3. Shouldn’t that be “Tierra de la Florida”? I guess “Home” wasn’t a very inspired name, no matter what language is used. Most developers do this kind of thing to make believe their crummy subdivision has class.

I would like to personally thank Kos and Corrente for taking the time to ensure as many people as possible get to see the propaganda videos of the Republican Party of Florida. Without your help they might actually have to care about the fact that there were more voters registered as Democrats than Republicans in the state.

It is so thoughtful that you choose to highlight the Republican selection, rather than the selection of the Democratic Party, the audio of what happened to Dan Gelber when he tried to introduce the change in the Florida house. But then the Democratic audio clips includes the Republican asides and laughter, while the Republicans have thoughtfully removed those distractions from their clip.

But thanks to this continuing effort to hide the voter suppression efforts of the Republicans, DNC, and Obama campaign, it is highly likely that the difference in registration won’t last beyond this election cycle. I realize that discovering the truth is too difficult to do, and it might not agree with your prejudices, so spreading propaganda and misinformation is much easier.

I’m sure the people of United States will thank you for your efforts when John McCain is elected President because the Democrats made no effort to win in Florida. It’s easier to make snide and insulting comments about the people of a Southern state than working on any problem.

[Yes, this is sarcasm. Yes, I am extremely angry about it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it less true.]

Wayne Barrett at the Huffington Post covers the DNC’s screw up in a very long post.

He tells you the same thing I’ve been telling everyone for months, including the other states breaking the rules, but not being punished.

The only thing he doesn’t cover, because he isn’t familiar with Florida ballot rules is that, if the Florida delegation doesn’t get a meaningful role in selecting the Democratic candidate, that candidate will not be on the Florida ballot, so McCain wins 27 electoral votes by default without spending any campaign cash. I would remind people who think I’m kidding, that all of the Democratic candidates appeared on the Florida ballot because they weren’t allowed to withdraw their names. The state law controls the names on the ballot. A “50/50” split or seating after the candidate is selected is not going to conform to the law.

There is no time to run another election in Florida, even if people wanted to, because there is no time for a required 30-day comment period, and then running the election prior to the DNC’s June deadline.

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The Local Economy

I can’t believe I’m eating cat food‽

[Editor: I know it’s a lousy picture because it was taken through a window and the flash went off, but this is one that shows best what this “lovely” creature is – a turkey vulture. Apparently there aren’t enough flattened possums on the roads, so he’s forced to stop by a feral cat feeding location for a meal. At least he was eating the cheap wet stuff and not the kibble. For some reason the cats didn’t bother him.]

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Some people might think that such things happen by accident. Those people are still waiting for Santa Claus on Christmas eve. The Republicans made no attempt to disguise what they were up to, and they left records, including this PDF file of the notes used by Jack Merkl during the redistricting debate in the Florida Senate.

There are 67 counties in Florida and 25 Congressional districts. Some might wonder why there are 6 members of Congress representing parts of Broward County, including 5 of the 8 Democrats. Florida District 21 has a piece in the southwest of the county and Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart is the Congresscretin.

You need a lot of screen to appreciated the work that went into Broward, which is just north of Miami-Dade county, so here’s a link to a PDF from the county.

If these guys would put as much effort into fixing the state as they do into fixing elections, they could get elected on their merits.

This is Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s 20^th Congressional district, one of the monuments to the grand old political practice of gerrymandering with the added advantage of digital cartography and the use of geographic information systems that makes it possible with fewer registered Republicans in the state than registered Democrats to enjoy a two to one advantage in both houses of the state legislature and the state’s Congressional delegation.

The legislature is in session, so the craziness and pandering continues.

Not satisfied with the toxic Amendment 2 [“marriage protection”, i.e. gay bashing], the Republicans have a couple of other amendments they want on the November ballot.

Sinfonian gives the basics behind the effect of the anti-Blaine amendment, essentially making it possible for the state to hand out tax dollars to church groups, something that is currently banned in the Florida constitution. The Christianists were surprised to find out that it wasn’t just the Catholic schools who couldn’t get tax money under the state constitution, so the Republicans are going to amend it so they can divert public school funding to unaccredited schools operated without any oversight by religious groups, the real purpose of the various school voucher bills.

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Two South Florida Congresscritters have said they won’t campaign against three conservative Republican incumbents. One is a black male and the other is a white female. You want to guess which one is being attacked on the ‘Net?

Right in one, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is being bombarded from all sides, but no one is talking about Kendrick Meek. The comments thread that accompanies John Amato’s post at Crooks and Liars is not quite in wingnut territory, but it is a general display of ignorance about the realities of South Florida.

If you wonder what people mean about “gerrymandering”, look at Ms Wasserman Schultz’s 20^th district in the National Atlas. The Republicans spent a lot of time designing districts to ensure that while there are more registered Democrats in Florida than Republicans, Democrats can only win one-third of the Congressional seats, and one-third of the seats in the Florida legislature. It’s some world-class mapping on display.

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Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

In unrelated news: you can put the foulest forms of medication in a quarter can of Science Diet a/d, add some water to make a gruel, and a cat will lick the bowl clean. The stuff [a/d] is expensive [$1.30/can] but, you never use more than a quarter of a can at a time for an adult cat because it is so rich. It’s good for dogs too. Definitely not recommended for over-weight pets.

Sinfonian of Blast Off! has been following the career of Sara Gonzalez, who was appointed by Governor Charlie Crist to be the chair of the state’s Public Employee Relations Commission. Some might wonder why a dermatologist’s assistant with an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s in physician assistant studies should be appointed to a position normally held by a lawyer with labor law experience, but that is staid, old-fashioned thinking that ignores Mrs. Gonzalez’s most important qualification: she’s the wife of Crist’s recently hired general counsel, Jason Gonzalez.

Alas the naysayers have won out as Sara Gonzalez has withdrawn her name after the nasty people in the Republican Senate made it known that there was no way they were going to approve this concept. Well, there is a certain amount of bad karma associated with counsels named Gonzales, but apparently even the wingers in the Florida Senate felt this dog wouldn’t hunt.

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I’ve been tied up with vets, sewers, taxes, and a very annoying Motorola cell phone that they apparently designed not to disturb people by making the ring tone audible, so posting has been light at the cottage of cats and chaos.

As Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof noted Spring Break in Daytona Beach is apparently the place for midwestern college students to get drunk and detonate dynamite. From WKMG: Dynamite Explosion In Daytona Was Second In Two Nights, Students Say. Safe to say the state of Florida takes a dim view of dynamiting motels, even during Spring Break, and the three young men involved will be three significantly older men before they get back to college.

The Pensacola Beach Blog is really annoyed at the local media for failing to fact check press releases from our local Congresscretin: Jeff Miller’s Mendacity – Masked Again.

I wrote about the chuckehead from Chumuckla [think Deliverance, but no one capable of playing the banjo¹] back in June of 2006 in Sell Out To Big Oil, and now he’s claiming credit for stopping the bill he voted for and the local media is printing the lie.

1. I grew up here, I’m allowed to defame the local communities, as they have opposing high school football teams.

So I wander out the mailbox and what is waiting for me, but a plea for money disguised as a survey for the Democratic National Committee.

I think question 12 is the one that really, truly demonstrates the disconnect from reality that surrounds these people:

12. How concerned are you that Republican voter suppression schemes will disenfranchise Democrats and impact the outcome of the presidential race?

Just a few friendly hints, Howard:

1. This is really not a good time for the DNC to be asking for money from Floridians.
2. You really shouldn’t mention disenfranchisement for the next two or three decades in the Sunshine State.
3. It is now the 48 State Strategy.

Update: Rasmussen just called on the landline for a political survey, but I couldn’t participate because the numbers on the phone currently connected to the landline weren’t working. Well, at least it reminded me to fix the phone and it saved Rasmussen from recording my opinions.