Jeb! and the rest of the state GOP really hate citizen initiatives.
Critics of proposals to make it harder for voters to change the Florida Constitution said Tuesday they’ll fight to protect the citizen initiative process that brought class size reduction, a bullet train project and universal pre-kindergarten to the ballot - and into law.
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Groups wanting to change the state Constitution by petition drive must limit the scope of their proposal to a single subject, clearly explain it in a ballot title and summary, and collect about 500,000 validated signatures. Under the proposals, they would also need a supermajority (60 percent) for passage and have their subject matter restricted to constitutional issues.
“The legislators are not serious about reform,” said Charlene Walker of the League of the Women Voters, one of numerous groups opposed to changing the petition-drive process. “This is an attack on voters.”
The cost of the class size reduction ballot proposal approved by voters in 2002 and the high-speed train project approved by voters in 2000 have fueled the push to change the process.
Gov. Jeb Bush, a vocal opponent of both measures, is still working to repeal the train project but has, for now, backed off his efforts to repeal class size. Business groups actively support the legislative proposals. Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said making constitutional change harder is a top priority.
You might wonder how Jeb! is going about repealing the train project. Well, even as Jeb! encourages his Republican cronies in the Leg to strip basic democratic rights from the people, he sees no problem with using the same process he is attacking to derail high speed trains:
Gov. Jeb Bush and chief Florida financial officer Tom Gallagher brought their criticism of a proposed bullet train to Central Florida on Tuesday, using a Capitol for a Day meeting to again decry its multibillion-dollar cost.
The two are leading a petition drive to give voters a chance to repeal a constitutional amendment approved in 2000 for a high-speed rail system.
“Give voters a chance”? Give me a break. Note to AP: perhaps you could at least pretend to rewrite Jeb!’s next press release before you present his spin as fact. You might also not want to gloss over the fact that Jeb! is using State money (Capitol for a Day) to quash democracy.
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What’s up with the little-noticed caveat included in the White House’s flip flop on the Condi testimony that W and Dick “Dick” Cheney will only meet with the commission together? Josh Marshall has a few ideas.
Update: Billmon gives us a tasty preview of the upcoming testimony.
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Air America Radio premieres today. If you’re not listening to WMNF, check out The O’Franken Factor at noon.
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Don’t you feel safer now?
A roadside bomb in Iraq killed five U.S. military personnel Wednesday morning, according to the Coalition Press Information Center.
Military sources said the attack happened outside Fallujah, west of Baghdad.
Reports said the bomb went off as a military vehicle drove over it.
As of Wednesday, 600 U.S. troops have died in the war in Iraq, 408 of them in hostile action.
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Activists arrested for easing hunger:
The arrests of two young men who joined a group feeding the hungry in a downtown park have reignited debate about the city’s attitude toward the homeless.
The attention comes on the heels of The Salvation Army quietly ending an evening feeding program in Tampa - and as activists, in Tallahassee today for Homeless Advocacy Day, fight legislation they say unfairly targets the homeless.
Mark Parrish went to Tampa’s Massey Park on March 21 for a picnic-style gathering of Food Not Bombs, a group that promotes feeding the homeless. The 24-year-old Tampa man ended up arrested by city police on a trespassing charge.
“You can feed the pigeons in the park, but you can’t feed the homeless,'’ he said Monday. “It’s just not right.'’
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The arrests were news to Rayme Nuckles, executive director of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County. He said he wished the group had contacted him for guidance, but he supports efforts to bring attention to the issue.
“It’s always good that people challenge authority from some perspective,'’ he said.
Nuckles is in Tallahassee supporting the statewide homeless coalition and helping to fight a proposed bill that would allow for people with more than five misdemeanor arrests to serve six to 12 months in jail.
Tampa drew criticism last fall when Iorio stepped up enforcement at parks. Opponents accused her of trying to run out the homeless. She argued she had a duty to make the city a place where everyone felt comfortable.
“The sad thing is, you have a city that has not designated anywhere to feed the homeless,'’ said Kristin Taylor of THORN Ministries, which feeds thousands of people at five locations each week. “Where should we go?'’
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John Burt is a devout Christian whose values include violence and rape. (via AP)
Note to AP: This is a man who uses violence and intimidation to try to change people’s political views. Isn’t that terrorism rather than activism?
An activist with ties to antiabortion violence went on trial Monday on charges of molesting a teenager at a home he ran for troubled girls and women in this Florida Panhandle city.
Six jurors and two alternates were selected for the trial of John Burt, 66, accused of improperly touching and propositioning the girl last year, when she was 15.
The alleged victim, now 16, is to testify through a satellite video link from Northern Ireland after lawyers make their opening statements today at Escambia County’s court building in nearby Pensacola.
The trial will be moved there for one day because the Santa Rosa County Courthouse in Milton lacks equipment for the video hookup. The girl’s father, who lives in South Florida, refused to let her return from her native land to testify in person.
Circuit Judge Ron Swanson has denied a defense request for the girl’s psychological records. He has set aside four days for the trial.
Burt, who has denied the accusations, is charged with four counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and one count of lewd and lascivious conduct. Penalties for each count range from probation to 15 years in prison.
Burt ran Our Father’s House. Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested him at a rest stop east of Pensacola, several days after he had been reported missing while driving a van with a “choose life” license tag.
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But W and Dick are just going to have a conversation - no possibility of perjury, and nice and private.
The White House said today that it will allow President Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify in public and under oath before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, reversing its position that she was prevented from doing so by executive privilege.
In addition, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will testify in one joint private session before all 10 commission members, with one commission staff member present to take notes. The White House had previously said that the President and Vice President would appear only before the chairman and co-chairman.
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So, the industry will stop suing schoolchildren and start worrying about quality and value now, right?
Internet music piracy has no negative effect on legitimate music sales, according to a study released today by two university researchers that contradicts the music industry’s assertion that the illegal downloading of music online is taking a big bite out of its bottom line.
Songs that were heavily downloaded showed no measurable drop in sales, the researchers found after tracking sales of 680 albums over the course of 17 weeks in the second half of 2002. Matching that data with activity on the OpenNap file-sharing network, they concluded that file sharing actually increases CD sales for hot albums that sell more than 600,000 copies. For every 150 downloads of a song from those albums, sales increase by a copy, the researchers found.
“Consumption of music increases dramatically with the introduction of file sharing, but not everybody who likes to listen to music was a music customer before, so it’s very important to separate the two,” said Felix Oberholzer-Gee, an associate professor at Harvard Business School and one of the authors of the study.
Oberholzer-Gee and his colleague, University of North Carolina’s Koleman Strumpf, also said that their “most pessimistic” statistical model showed that illegal file sharing would have accounted for only 2 million fewer compact discs sales in 2002, whereas CD sales declined by 139 million units between 2000 and 2002.
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Get Up with MorningWood, on Community Radio WMNF 88.5 fm, Tampa, and streaming at wmnf.org.
4 to 6 am every Tuesday!
Studio line: 813-239-9663. Call or email the studio anytime!
Today on MorningWood
Lots of new releases, and an underlying parade theme! Call the studio when you hear the MorningWood theme song in the middle of each hour, and I might just give you something special! (Don’t call at the top of the hour - that doesn’t count!)
Playlists
Hour 1 planned playlist
Hour 2 planned playlist
Live playlist
The March of a Thousand Billionaires
Tropical Feetwave: The March of a Thousand Billionaires
Contact Information:
Norwood Orrick
(813)226-2550
norwood@wmnf.org
Event Information:
WMNF pre-Heatwave PARADE - Tropical Feetwave
Saturday May 1st
Gather at 4:30pm; Parade Starts at 4:45pm SHARP
Meet at Avenida Republica de Cuba and 9th Avenue
For immediate release:
Tampa, March 17 - On Saturday, May 1, WMNF Community Radio presents it’s 23rd annual Tropical Heatwave, an eclectic night of hot live bands and DJs spanned across six stages, making it Tampa Bay’s biggest live music event.
Before the music begins, the streets of Ybor City will make way for WMNF’s pre-Heatwave people’s parade, Tropical Feetwave: The March of a Thousand Billionaires - Flamboyant floats, creative costume and musical merriment will fill the streets as we celebrate the cause of the billionaires in none-too serious fashion.
The parade kicks off at 4.45pm. Folks who wish to march in the parade should meet no later than 4.30 pm at Avenida Republica de Cuba and 9th Avenue. Participants should dress appropriately (Billionaire Attire such as Top Hats and Tails for men and Gowns, Furs and Tiaras for women is de rigueur). Everyone is welcome.
Propelled solely by feet-power, big music and stunning costume, the parade will wind itself around Tampa’s historic Latin quarter, culminating at the Cuban Club Courtyard where Opening Games and Award Ceremonies merge FEETwave into HEATwave and the first of a thousand dances begins.
Any person wishing to get involved in the parade in any creative or organizational way, should contact norwood@wmnf.org.
PDF Flier
For updated information on Heatwave, Feetwave and WMNF, please visit
www.tropicalheatwave.org.
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WMNF Community Radio
WMNF is a non-commercial community radio station that celebrates local cultural diversity and is committed to equality, peace and social and economic justice. WMNF provides broadcasts and creates other forums to serve the community by the exposure and sharing of these values.
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Freedom of the press and freedom of speech:
American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.
Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
“No, no, America!” and “Where is democracy now?” screamed protesters who hoisted banners and shook clenched fists in a hastily organized rally against the closing of the newspaper, Al Hawza, a radical Shiite weekly.
The rally drew hundreds and then thousands by nightfall in central Baghdad, where masses of angry Shiite men squared off against a line of American soldiers who rushed to seal off the area.
The closing of the newspaper illustrated the quandary Americans faced in trying to strike a balance between their two main goals — encouraging democracy while maintaining stability. But as the days wind down to the June 30 target date for handing sovereignty back to the Iraqi people, security seems increasingly elusive.
On Sunday, the Iraqi public works minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the northern city of Mosul, and two foreign workers were shot to death nearby in front of a power plant.
Many Iraqis said closing down a popular newspaper at such a crucial time would not curtail anti-occupation feelings but only inflame them.
“When you repress the repressed, they only get stronger,” said Hamid al-Bayati, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a prominent Shiite political party. “Punishing this newspaper will only increase the passion for those who speak out against the Americans.”
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