Via FlaBlog and Florida Politics, an article that deals with hometown political pundit Susan MacManus. She’s often quoted in the NY Times and other national publications, and invariably identified as a professor of political science, which she is. The problem is that she is also a Bushie. By presenting herself as a disinterested impartial observer, [...]
Archive for June, 2004
Fundies fight for Florida
June 21, 2004
Florida Fundamentalist Christians are looking for lemmings, according to this Palm Beach Post article. They are never satisfied. On the day when this country passes laws mandating church attendance and random drug tests for all citizens, these people will be urging us to bomb Canada to stop the illicit over the border flow of verboten [...]
Jeb! is right – we need property taxes
June 21, 2004
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has the money quote in today’s throwaway Tribune article on the proposed property tax amendment. The article mentions nothing new, but here’s Iorio: “I’m sure that when presented with an opportunity to decrease one’s property taxes, most people think that sounds good,” Iorio said. “But I also think most people will [...]
Got Democracy?
June 20, 2004
In the past five days, the posters have appeared mysteriously on walls and buildings across San Francisco. They feature the most enduring image of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal — the Iraqi man, hooded, his hands tied with electrodes — but this time, the prisoner is set against an American flag, and this time, the [...]
ACLU examines purge list
June 18, 2004
Buried in an article on executive clemency in The Miami Herald, is this little gem: Chief among the groups complaining about the possible felon purge of voters is the American Civil Liberties Union, which on Thursday got a copy of the list of the nearly 47,000 voters drawn up by the Division of Elections. The [...]
69,000 eligible ex-felons can’t vote in 2004
June 18, 2004
Breathless headlines around the state the last few days have been trumpeting Jeb!’s spin on the restoration of rights for Florida ex-felons. The numbers really aren’t as good as Jeb! and many of the state’s newspapers would have you believe (surprise!), and the bottom line is that tens of thousands of ex-felons who should have [...]
Jan Platt disappoints
June 17, 2004
Hillsborough County Commissioner Jan Platt voted against a living wage for the working poor last night. Her vote could have swung the outcome. I expect hateful unimaginative moral crusaders to kick the working poor in the teeth every time they are given the chance. Thus, it was no surprise to see every Republican member of [...]
Ronda Storms favors sex and drugs
June 17, 2004
County Commissioner Ronda Storms apparently feels that the working poor are making plenty of money and babies right now, and that they should stop breeding and start having casual sex and spending their money on drugs. “If you can’t afford four children, birth control has been around since the 1960s,” she said. “There is a [...]
A fitting tribute
June 16, 2004
So, we can expect to see lots of businessmen and residents complaining about the burden of having to change their letterhead and business cards, right? Ronald Reagan Road, Street or Boulevard could be coming to Tampa. City Councilwoman Rose Ferlita on Thursday called for the city to rename a street in honor of the former [...]
No contractor left unpaid
June 15, 2004
Jeb!’s crew is getting ready for a little union-busting privatization. Failing public schools would have to recruit top teachers and craft individualized education plans for every student or risk takeover by a private contractor under tough new rules being presented today to the Florida Board of Education, The Herald has learned. The proposed rules could [...]