Archive for the ‘Florida Politics’ Category
July 26th, 2010
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Author: Congratulations to all the Florida Netroots winners!
Special mention needs to be given to Kenneth Quinnell for all of his work on behalf of Florida progressives. Thanks, Kenneth!
And, thanks also to everyone on this list, everyone who was nominated, everyone who helped KQ, and everyone who has been working to advance progressive causes in Florida. Some days seem more frustrating and hopeless than others, but all of this work really does help create a better, more civilized world.
And, in full disclosure, I assisted the Florida Progressive Coalition in no way, other than being a fan and voting in some of the following categories.
Best National Blog
The Reid Report
Best State Blog
FLA Politics
Best Local Blogs
Saint Petersblog
Best Media Blog
Politifact Florida
Best Professional Blog
Doug Tudor
Best Party Website
Democratic Veterans Caucus
Best Candidate Website
Alan Grayson
Best Local Party Site
Pinellas County
Best Interest Group Website
Hands Across the Sand
Netroots Candidate of the Year
Alan Grayson
Netroots Activist of the Year
Mark Ferrulo (Executive Director Progress Florida)
Netroots Organization of the Year
Progressive Push
Best Online Campaign
Spill Baby Spill
Best Use of Twitter
Peter Schorsch
Best Overall Use of Social Media
Peter Schorsch
Best Post
Daniel Tilson, Florida Progressive Coalition, “Florida Republican
Party Rots From Top Down”
Best Ongoing Series
Peter Schorsch, Saint Petersblog 2.0, “Crist vs. Meek vs. Rubio”
Best Online Radio Show
Alison Berke Morano and Susan Smith, No Days Off
FPC’s Progressive Hall of Fame
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Bob Graham
Mark Ferrulo
Steve Schale
Ray Seaman
FPC Progressive Courage Awards
Vicky Impoco
For more progressive Florida goodness you can find all the nominees for this years Florida netroots here.
Posted in 
Why does anyone think Crist would caucus with the Democrats?
“One thing we asked on the poll was whether people thought Charlie Crist should caucus with the Democrats or Republicans if he was elected. 43% of respondents said he should go with the Democrats and 37% with the Republicans.
“Perhaps more interesting was what those planning to vote for Crist had to say. Within that group 55% said he should caucus with the Democrats to only 22% who expressed the opinion that he should join forces with the Republicans.”
It’s been a busy day, so today’s post is a round-up of some of the items that caught my attention.
LeBron is a democrat (or at least donates to the DNC).
***
Rasmussen polls indicate that 60% of Floridians oppose the federal government’s suit against Arizona over their new immigration law. 62% support passing legislation similar to Arizona’s in Florida.
***
The Florida Gators have been misusing Facebook according to the NCAA.
“A Florida assistant posted comments on the Facebook walls of two recruits on Aug. 5. An opposing school monitored the walls and reported the comments to the SEC office.”
***
The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville is trying what looks like a progressive exquisite corpse (“each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence”).
“Note to readers: In recent weeks, we have been running a progressive column based on the local political sage, Jimmy Ray Bob.
“We started with an opening chapter written by Columnist Ron Littlepage, then asked members of our E-Mail Interactive Group to contribute the second chapter.”
I like the idea even if I’m not bowled over by the columns so far.
***
DARPA is inventing their own version of True Blood, an artificial blood grown in a vat that can be used in war zones.
“The blood was produced using hematopoietic cells, derived from umbilical cord-blood units. It’s a trick that scientists have pulled off for years. The hard part is making quantities of red stuff that are large enough for military or medical utility. Currently, it takes Arteriocyte scientists three days to turn a single umbilical cord unit into 20 units of RBC-packed blood. The average soldier needs six units during trauma treatment.
“‘We’re basically mimicking bone marrow in a lab environment,’ company CEO Don Brown tells Danger Room. ‘Our model works, but we need to extrapolate our production abilities to make scale.’
…
“Human trials aren’t likely until 2013, but the Pentagon could invoke “emergency protocol” to snag the blood sooner — Brown predicts military use within five years.”
It’s been a busy day, so today’s post is a round-up of some of the items that caught my attention.
LeBron is a democrat (or at least donates to the DNC).
***
Rasmussen polls indicate that 60% of Floridians oppose the federal government’s suit against Arizona over their new immigration law. 62% support passing legislation similar to Arizona’s in Florida.
***
The Florida Gators have been misusing Facebook according to the NCAA.
“A Florida assistant posted comments on the Facebook walls of two recruits on Aug. 5. An opposing school monitored the walls and reported the comments to the SEC office.”
***
The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville is trying what looks like a progressive exquisite corpse (“each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence”).
“Note to readers: In recent weeks, we have been running a progressive column based on the local political sage, Jimmy Ray Bob.
“We started with an opening chapter written by Columnist Ron Littlepage, then asked members of our E-Mail Interactive Group to contribute the second chapter.”
I like the idea even if I’m not bowled over by the columns so far.
***
DARPA is inventing their own version of True Blood, an artificial blood grown in a vat that can be used in war zones.
“The blood was produced using hematopoietic cells, derived from umbilical cord-blood units. It’s a trick that scientists have pulled off for years. The hard part is making quantities of red stuff that are large enough for military or medical utility. Currently, it takes Arteriocyte scientists three days to turn a single umbilical cord unit into 20 units of RBC-packed blood. The average soldier needs six units during trauma treatment.
“‘We’re basically mimicking bone marrow in a lab environment,’ company CEO Don Brown tells Danger Room. ‘Our model works, but we need to extrapolate our production abilities to make scale.’
…
“Human trials aren’t likely until 2013, but the Pentagon could invoke “emergency protocol” to snag the blood sooner — Brown predicts military use within five years.”
Deadline for voting in the Florida Netroots Awards is July 10. Below are the categories and links to the nominated blogs. Someone nominated R/CT for “Best Local Blog: Blogs about city/county/regional politics in the state of Florida,” and for that I want to give the nominator a hearty Thank You!
To vote, however, you can’t simply choose one category and vote for your favorite blog. To reduce the chance of manipulating the polls, only votes that cover all asterisked categories will count (you’ll find the asterisks at the voting page). Also, you need to leave your email address for the vote to count.
There are a lot of great blogs in the list below. I recommend checking some out, and then supporting the Florida netroots by voting. If you’re not sure who to vote for, you can always follow Stogie’s advice and vote local.
One site that doesn’t seem to be on the list, but is well worth checking out, especially for those in the Tampa Bay region, is St. Petersblog 2.0‘s sibling site Battleground Tampa Bay.
Vote here: 2010 Florida Netroots Awards
1. Best National Blog: Blogs written by Floridians that cover primarily national politics.
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Politics1
RangerAgainstWar
The Reid Report
Pensito Review
2. Best State Blog: Blogs about statewide politics in Florida.
Storm Warning
Rantings From Florida
Beach Peanuts
FLA Politics
Pushing Rope
Saint Petersblog 2.0
3. Best Local Blog: Blogs about city/county/regional politics in the state of Florida.
Re/Creating Tampa
Pensacola Beach Blog
The Reid Report
BlueBroward
Saint Petersblog 2.0
Eye on Miami
Ybor City Stogie
Here Be Monsters
4. Best Media Blog: Blogs written by professional journalists at Florida publications.
Death, Taxes, Politics
The Feed
Naked Politics
Politifact
Riptide/Miami New Times
Daily Loaf
The Juice
The Fine Print
Crowley Political Report
5. Best Professional Blog: Blogs written by state or local political parties, candidates or party operatives in Florida.
Doug Tudor
Steve Schale
Heather Beaven
Alex Sink
Rick Kriseman
Florida House Democratic Caucus
6. Best Party Website: Best Florida-wide website associated with a political party or political party unit (such as a caucus or coalition).
Florida House Democratic Caucus
Florida Democratic Veterans Caucus
Florida GLBT Democrats
Florida Small Counties Coalition
7. Best Candidate Website: Anyone running for statewide or local office in Florida can win this one.
Heather Beaven
Alex Sink
Joe Garcia
Rick Kriseman
Doug Tudor
Charlie Justice
Dave Aronberg
Alan Grayson
Dan Gelber
8. Best Local Party Website: This one is for Florida DECs, clubs or local chapters of statewide caucuses or coalitions.
Polk County Democrats
Miami-Dade County Democrats
Brevard County Democrats
Pinellas County Democrats
Broward County Democrats
Pasco County Democrats
9. Best Interest Group Website: Any Florida-based nonparty activist, charitable or grassroots group.
Florida CHAIN (Community Health Action Network)
Hands Across the Sand
Tampa Bay Living Green
Progress Florida
Democracy For America Miami
10. Best Writer: Anyone whose writings is published at any of the above websites is eligible for this one. Winners should have one or more of the following qualities: good grammar and presentation, provides original reporting, has a good sense of humor, shows creativity, has a strong personal touch, or has an effect on the real world because of their writing.
Blogwood
David F. Carr, BlueBroward.org
Trish Ponder, Pensito Review
Ray Seaman
Leaflet
Ranger Against War
Jake, Rantings From Florida
Vicki Impoco
Daniel Tilson, Examiner.com
Joy-Ann Reid, The Reid Report
Nancy Imperiale
Tyler Winik, Opinion Matters
Peter Schorsch
11. Netroots Candidate of the Year: The Florida candidate at any level who has best incorporated the Netroots into her/his campaign and done the best job of treating Netroots activists as valid constituents and not just another group of people to exploit.
Dan Gelber
Heather Beaven
Doug Tudor
Alan Grayson
Dave Aronberg
12. Netroots Activist of the Year: The individual who has done the most to advance the goals and activities of the progressive Netroots in the state of Florida.
Kenneth Quinnell
Leaflet
Ray Seaman
Rosalind Moffett
Mark Ferrulo
13. Netroots Organization of the Year: The organization that has done the most to advance the goals and activities of the progressive Netroots in the state of Florida.
Progressive Push
The O-Train
BlueBroward.org
14. Best New Blogger: This one should go to the best blogger who has been blogging about Florida politics for no more than a year and a half.
Jake, Rantings From Florida
Daniel Tilson, Examiner.com
Fernando Rendon, Opinion Matters
Cathy Salustri, Hard Candy
Steve Schale
15. Best Online Campaign: This is an award for the best use of the web and related technologies to achieve some kind of goal, such as fundraising, fighting legislation or other activism.
SpillBabySpill, Progress Florida
53 Fixes, Rick Kriseman,
Anti-SB6 Efforts, Florida Education Association
16. Best Use of Twitter: Any Floridian who uses Twitter and whose posts incorporate the following qualities: good use of the language, original reporting, a good sense of humor, creativity, a strong personal touch and an effect on the real world because of their writing.
Peter Schorsch
Sinfonian
Dan Gelber
Dave Aronberg
Eric Jotkoff
Steve Schale
Kenneth Quinnell
Progess Florida
17. Best Overall Use of Social Media: The best use of the various social media sites (Twitter, Facebook and other similar sites) in accomplishing political goals.
Progress Florida
Dave Aronberg
Steve Schale
Joe Garcia
Organizing for America Florida
Joy-Ann Reid
Peter Schorsch
Dan Gelber
Heather Beaven
18. Best Post: The best-written post since last year’s awards.
Robert McKnight, FLA Politics, “Ah, Come On Rick….,”
Leaflet, Leaflet Descending, “Meltdown Mogul’s Senate Agenda – Through Time”
Daniel Tilson, Progress Florida, “Florida’s Biggest Tax Burden?”
Jake, Rantings From Florida, “Please Bud, Run As A Democrat”
Daniel Tilson, Florida Progressive Coalition, “Florida Republican Party Rots From Top Down”
Peter Schorsch, Saint Petersblog, “So who exactly is the HNIC of St. Petersburg? A white guy’s analysis”
RangerAgainstWar, “Payday Loans”
Kendrick Meek, The Hill’s Congress Blog, “Reform the filibuster”
Julie Hauserman, Progress Florida, “Crist Picks Oil Driller Lobbyist To Advise State”
Heather Beaven, Beaven for Congress, “A mile in your shoes”
19. Best Ongoing Series: The best regular feature that incorporates at least five posts since last year’s awards.
Mustang Bobby, Bark Bark Woof Woof, “Question of the Day”
Peter Schorsch, Saint Petersblog 2.0, “Crist vs. Meek vs. Rubio”
Jon Bleyer, Progress Florida, “Best Of The Blogs”
Peter Schorsch, Saint Petersblog 2.0, “5 Things I Think About the St. Peterburg Times”
20. Best Online Radio Show: The best progressive/liberal/Democratic radio show that is aired solely online and does not air on traditional radio.
Alison Berke Morano and Susan Smith, No Days Off
Nicole Sandler, Radio or Not
21. Florida Progressive Coalition Progressive Hall of Fame: FPC is sponsoring a virtual “Progressive Hall of Fame” that should be awarded as sort of a lifetime achievement award to a person or organization (amateur or professional) that has made a significant contribution towards making Florida a bluer, more progressive state. This award may have more than one recipient.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Dave Harper
Ray Seaman
Phil Perry
Steve Schale
Jackie Dowd
Mark Lane
Mark Ferrulo
Sinfonian (Site defunct)
RangerAgainstWar
Bob Graham
Damien Filer
The Hillsborough County Republican Party website looks much better than the Hillsborough County Democratic Party website.
Notice how the HCRP has social media links at the top of the right-hand column. Starting at the top and working your way down you can join an email list, go to their YouTube page, or join them on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. The HCDP has a link to “Get Involved” which leads to a page asking for a lot of information, and a lot of boxes to check, but no clear indication of what happens after you fill out all the information. Where’s the Facebook link? Who’s twittering? Why is the only thing under the Get Involved button a link to register for the 2009 conference registration?
***
I mentioned last week that Pushing Rope had some advice for the Meek campaign, as did St. Petersblog 2.0. I considered offering up my own advice, but ultimately decided it would only be an exercise in asking a candidate to emphasize the stuff I think is important.
Though I’ve yet to officially endorse any candidate in my role as Local Blogger I’ve supported the Meek campaign since he announced he was entering the race. I don’t think current polls mean a lot, and I hope he’s been laying a grassroots foundation that will pay off in August, September, and October.
That said, for most of my liberal, Democratic, and left-leaning centrist friends, Meek remains a mystery.
***
The Hillsborough County Democratic Party also has links to a campaign asking Buddy Chiles to drop out of the race. For that they can manage to set up a Facebook page.
This, I believe, is exactly the wrong attitude. People should be encouraged to run, to participate. This seems like a defeatist attitude that’s already looking for someone to blame for November’s loss. If Sink loses, perhaps it’s Sink’s fault, rather than Chiles. Why even use energy for this? As I noted above, the Hillsborough County Democratic Party website needs lots of attention, so why spend what little time you have trying to drive people away from Chiles instead of toward the candidates of the Democratic party?
***
I should have included Pinski Politics in the Florida Politics blogs post I did a couple of weeks ago.
***
Obama’s transparency efforts continue (mostly un-noted). The OMB recently launched the Payment Accuracy website.
“In fiscal year 2009, 18 agencies identified 78 programs that are susceptible to significant improper payments based on risk assessments of all federal programs.”
The Medicare Fee-for-Service program tops the high-error list with $35.4 billion in improper payments.
“Improper payments” occur when either:
* federal funds go to the wrong recipient,
* the recipient receives the incorrect amount of funds (either an underpayment or overpayment),
* documentation is not available to support a payment, or
* the recipient uses federal funds in an improper manner.
You might want to bookmark some of these, or drop some into your RSS feed reader. In no particular order, here are some of the local politics blogs and pages I read regularly.
The Florida Independent’s daily essential Florida politics reading.
The Spencerian is one of my favorite local blogs that covers national politics.
Pushing Rope is another.
In addition to contributing to Pushing Rope and Cogitamus, LitBrit keeps her own blog here.
Sayfie Review offers a nice round-up of what’s going on in Florida newspapers.
St. Petersblog 2.0 does an excellent job of covering local races.
The St. Pete Times The Buzz is essential reading, as is Creative Loafing’s politics page, and the Mitch Perry Report.
Campaign Manager is a fun insiders blog. Updates aren’t particularly frequent, but insights are great.
The Florida Progressive Coalition Blog updates infrequently, but has a tremendous blog roll.
Florida Politics covers a lot of ground.
Interstate4Jamming2 provides a great model for how to cover local politics (in this case, Polk County). I wish more counties had local bloggers like Robert.
Of course, other sites (like Stogie, and Sticks) also touch on politics, but it’s not their emphasis, or they link without much commentary.
There are a lot of great political bloggers in the Tampa bay area. Keeping up with the above takes all my time, but comment if you have one you’d like to recommend.
You might want to bookmark some of these, or drop some into your RSS feed reader. In no particular order, here are some of the local politics blogs and pages I read regularly.
The Florida Independent’s daily essential Florida politics reading.
The Spencerian is one of my favorite local blogs that covers national politics.
Pushing Rope is another.
In addition to contributing to Pushing Rope and Cogitamus, LitBrit keeps her own blog here.
Sayfie Review offers a nice round-up of what’s going on in Florida newspapers.
St. Petersblog 2.0 does an excellent job of covering local races.
The St. Pete Times The Buzz is essential reading, as is Creative Loafing’s politics page, and the Mitch Perry Report.
Campaign Manager is a fun insiders blog. Updates aren’t particularly frequent, but insights are great.
The Florida Progressive Coalition Blog updates infrequently, but has a tremendous blog roll.
Florida Politics covers a lot of ground.
Interstate4Jamming2 provides a great model for how to cover local politics (in this case, Polk County). I wish more counties had local bloggers like Robert.
Of course, other sites (like Stogie, and Sticks) also touch on politics, but it’s not their emphasis, or they link without much commentary.
There are a lot of great political bloggers in the Tampa bay area. Keeping up with the above takes all my time, but comment if you have one you’d like to recommend.
Didn’t this happen a lot during the last election season? A lot of Republicans, including John McCain, stole songs to use in their campaigns and were sued by the artists? Heart asked Palin to stop using the song “Barracuda.” Van Halen, Jackson Browne, and John Mellencamp threatened suits if McCain/Palin didn’t stop stealing their music for their own use.
And now Charlie Crist stole “Road to Nowhere” for one of his commercials.
“It might be pointed out that Republican campaign organizations have done this kind of thing before. John McCain’s campaign used the Jackson Browne song “Running on Empty” and Reagan’s folks used Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” Both were used illegally without permission, and in the case of the Jackson Browne song a lawsuit was brought. After the Republicans lost several motions attempting to dismiss Browne’s complaint, they settled with him. Part of the settlement said that the Republican National Committee promised to respect artists’ rights and to obtain licenses for the use of copyrighted works in the future. So, it’s not like they weren’t warned, or hadn’t been burned before.”
UPDATE: Oh, and the Steve Miller Band had to tell Marco Rubio to stop illegally using “Take the Money and Run” earlier this year.
I have three topics for this week’s Politics Monday.
First, civic education in Florida.
Even Florida Republicans sometimes advocate liberal values. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, sponsored the “Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Civics Education Act,” which requires middle school students to be tested on civic knowledge. The bill passed both houses unanimously. Civic education has been a cornerstone of liberal education policies from John Dewey to Ralph Nader.
If I were feeling disingenuous I’d congratulate the Republican legislators who supported this liberal bill for their great courage during this time of conservative backlash, etc. etc., but I don’t really believe that’s the case. I think that many conservatives, Republicans, tea partiers, libertarians, etc. hate liberals more than liberalism.
I can sympathize. There are some astoundingly idiotic liberals out there, and sometimes I’m embarrassed to belong to the same group. And, I’m sure I embarrass my tribe-members equally on occasion.
We all suffer when we start to conflate ideas with the people who hold them. Just because you hate Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or Barack Obama doesn’t mean everything they do or say is bad. In fact, those three men have done more to shrink government and lower taxes than all Republican presidents of the 20th and 21st century combined.
Similarly, just because Republicans support civic education doesn’t mean that liberals should automatically oppose it. The civic education bill sponsored by McBurney IS bad in that it supports and furthers standardized testing, but at least it is an advocacy for teaching Florida students about the role of government in their life, and their role as citizens in a democratic republic.
***
Second, spinning Arizona’s ethnic studies legislation.
Arizona recently passed a law about education that has many liberals in a tizzy. It seems clear that the intent of the bill was to constrain ethnic studies classes and classes on that perennial conservative bugaboo – multiculturalism. Tom Horne, the Republican who sponsored the bill, supposedly wrote it in response to learning that a Latina teacher told her class “Republicans hate Latinos.”
That may be the case, but since the story is from the ubiquitous, but not very reliable AP, I’d take the story with a grain of salt. We don’t know if the teacher really said that, or if that was the impetus for Horne’s bill.
The key points of the bill are –
“Prohibits a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that:
Ø Promote the overthrow of the United States government.
Ø Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.
Ø Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
Ø Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
I have had more than my fair share of ethnic studies classes, and I’ve never been in one that even comes close to promoting the overthrow of the US government. Nor have I ever been in an ethnic studies class that promotes resentment toward a race or class of people, was designed solely for a particular ethnic group, or advocated ethnic solidarity.
This is a bill passed against a mythical stereotype rather than classes as they actually exist. And, as far as the language of the bill goes, it’s not so bad. Students SHOULD be treated as individuals and not as representatives of their race, nation, sex, gender, or ethnicity.
But, do you know who actually DOES teach to children of a particular ethnic group, and teaches them to resent different races, and promotes the overthrow of the US government? Some (but, not all) home school programs favored by Christian militia groups.
It seems to me that the liberal spin on this could be praising the Arizona lege for restricting many home school programs and schools favored by Christian militias.
Regardless of Horne’s intent, this bill will probably have almost no effect on any class. Rather than whinging about how horrible this bill is, liberals COULD be on the offense and point out how the only people this will affect is some-but-not-all home-schooled children.
I’m willing to bet there are zero elementary or secondary school classes urging children to overthrow the US government (or college-level classes for that matter). I am equally certain that there are children home-schooled by militia-loving parents who are taught this every day.
***
And third, Bill McCollum’s support for an unprecedented increase in the size of government.
You would think a desire to oversee a huge increase in government power would make McCollum anathema to Republicans and conservatives in the state of Florida, but he’s counting on the nativist tendencies of Florida conservatives to blind them to his recent advocacy for a mind-boggling increase in the state government’s powers.
McCollum flip-flopped on his original stance on the Arizona immigration bill. Originally he stated that Florida had a different set of problems and would need its own unique legislation to deal with those problems. Then (presumably because that didn’t poll well) he had a change of heart and embraced the Arizona law, writing “I would support a similar law for Florida.”
OK, let’s think this through for a moment. How will we distinguish citizens from non-citizens? Clothes, shoes, skin color, language, neighborhood, etc. are not sufficient to determine citizenship or non-citizenship. Drivers license? Ummm, how many people did you know in high school with fake IDs? And, yes, they are better now, but kids still acquire fake IDs. If all we’re relying on is driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs then all we’re doing is creating a black market for forged identity cards.
If you want to seriously enact and enforce a law like this then ALL citizens will need new high-tech identification cards, matched to their birth certificate or immigration status files. In order to make sure citizens comply we’ll have to impose some sort of fine or penalty on those who refuse to get IDs (otherwise how will we tell the illegal immigrants from the cranky libertarians?).
So, to implement McCollum’s immigration policy we’ll need tax dollars to cover the cost of the new IDs, the people to assign and keep track of those IDs, and law enforcement to make sure everyone has a new ID. We will also have a government that has a permanent file on every single citizen mandated by law.
And yet, we hear nary a peep from the tea partiers and libertarians who are willing to go to war over the perceived excesses of Health Care Reform.