Allen West and Joe Miller: Thugs of a Feather

The Joe Miller arrest of a reporter by his private militia on the campaign trail is rightfully garnering national headlines. Meanwhile, down in Florida, he-man GOP tea party House candidate Allen West is acting every bit as thuggish, perhaps more so.

Video out today shows Allen West in a public park urging his supporters to eject a Democratic videographer. His supporters, some wearing patches identifying themselves as gang members of a South Florida coalition of motorcycle clubs associated with the Outlaws, surround the tracker at West’s urging and violently force him out of the public park.

Here’s the report from the local NBC affiliate:

And here’s the video from the tracker’s camera as he was bullied out of the public park:

Comparing the West video to the Joe Miller video reveals striking similarities in behavior and mindset. Here’s the Joe Miller video showing his goon squad dealing with some reporters in a public school hallway as the handcuff incident was unfolding:

First, we have conservative candidates for public office utilizing socialized public spaces and arrogantly treating the public areas as private property.

Next we have thuggish goon squads serving as security details for these candidates. The goons are well practiced in their thuggery – in fact, the tactics are reminiscent of high school bullies, so these jerks have been practicing ever since before they dropped out. They are just walking in the park or innocently moving down the hall and “Oh noes!!” someone touched them! The goons are simply defending themselves against agressive individuals who are attacking them as they walk casually along in a large intimidating group.

The goons have been sicced on victims who are simply and legally doing their jobs. The bullies are unleashed to suppress the free exchange of information and ideas. This un-American suppression of political speech borders on terrorism.

The candidates who control these violent cretins are quick to defend them – “I was never more amazed by how members of the Outlaws guarded me,” says Allen West. Joe Miller is still making shit up about “irrational bloggers” to justify the false imprisonment of a reporter. Maybe I can update this story when his story stabilizes.

The Democratic staffer who took the Allen West video above has been removed from the campaign trail for his own safety. For those of you who didn’t watch, at the end of the video, the thugs have forced the staffer away from the West event in a public park and back to the staffer’s car in the parking lot. One of the assailants is seen and heard using a cel phone to run the tag of the victim and obtain name and address information – very easy to access for those who rule through intimidation and fear, and reminiscent of the rightwing online bullies who seek out and publish personal information – “Gee, that’s a nice house you have there. And a nice family. And a nice life. Sure would be a shame if anything happened to it…”

It’s not just in Alaska and Florida either. In Texas, Republicans are joking about shooting Democratic candidates. “Man up” has become the new emasculating rallying cry (also embraced by Allen West.) Paladino seeks to dehumanize teh gay even as youth suicides increase. A Georgia lawmaker defends “shoot to kill” as a valid immigration solution. Dog whistles for violence continue under the radar.

We cannot stand down now. It is imperative that we beat these thugs at the polls. When they lose, they will be pissed. If they win, they will be in charge.

Ron Klein is essentially tied with Allen West. Alan Grayson is running neck and neck with Daniel Webster.Joe Garcia can beat David Rivera. It’s all gonna come down to GOTV. So…

NOTHING is over until WE decide it is. Let’s get going…

Ron Klein
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Fair Districts Florida
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Alex Sink

Amendments 5 and 6 are citizen initiatives that will enshrine fair redistricting rules into the state constitution, forcing an end to the practice of lawmakers custom designing their own voter pools.

Aside from Amendment 5 covering Legislative districts and Amendment 6 covering Congressional districts, the ballot summaries and language are identical. Here’s Amendment 5:

STANDARDS FOR LEGISLATURE TO FOLLOW IN LEGISLATIVE REDISTRICTING

BALLOT SUMMARY: Legislative districts or districting plans may not be drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party. Districts shall not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice. Districts must be contiguous. Unless otherwise required, districts must be compact, as equal in population as feasible, and where feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries.

Full text:

In establishing Legislative district boundaries:
(1) No apportionment plan or district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent; and districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice; and districts shall consist of contiguous territory.
(2) Unless compliance with the standards in this subsection conflicts with the standards in subsection (1) or with federal law, districts shall be as nearly equal in population as is practicable; districts shall be compact; and districts shall, where feasible, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries.
(3) The order in which the standards within sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section are set forth shall not be read to establish any priority of one standard over the other within that subsection.

Simple. Easy to understand. Fair.

The GOP, of course, hates everything about these amendments, but they have failed in multiple attempts to derail the process, including a recent court smack down of their clumsy attempt to confuse voters with dueling amendments, and it looks like Amendments 5 and 6 will be on the ballot in November.

Fair Districts Florida needs help right now with volunteers and money. They have been fighting this fight for years and are very close to victory. A win could make a real difference. A sixty percent super majority is required for passage.

Our present system permits politicians to choose their voters instead of voters having a fair chance to choose their representatives. Legislators use sophisticated computers, voter registration data and past election returns to predict how particular voters will vote in the future. Then they choose which voters are most likely to vote for them and their party and place just enough of those voters in “safe” districts — ones they are sure they can win. Those in charge also pack large numbers of unfavorable voters in into a few districts so the unfriendly voters will have a chance to win in fewer districts.

Each district is rigged to accomplish a particular result. Districts are set up to be either Democratic or Republican and opposing party candidates do not have a chance. Only 7% of Florida’s legislative elections are really competitive. Voters do not have a real choice in selecting their representatives because the elections are rigged before they even start.

Another result is that there are rarely serious challenges to incumbents. In the last 6 years, there have been 420 elections for State Senator and State Representative. Only three incumbents have been defeated! After all, their districts are specially designed for them! With virtually certain seats, legislators have no incentive to be responsive to their constituents and they see no reason to compromise for the public good.

The races for Senate and Governor are sucking all the air out of the room right now, but Amendments 5 and 6 could be far more important for the long term health of representative democracy in Florida.

Join with organized labor, the ACLU, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, Democracia Ahora, the vast majority of Democratic politicians in the state, over 600,000 Florida voters who signed petitions to get these measures on the ballot, some moderate Republicans, and Charlie Crist to support Fair Districts Florida.

This really is a BFD.

ACTION: Support FairDistrictsFlorida.
Florida Voters: Vote YES on Amendments 5 and 6.

On Monday we learned how the Florida constitution can be amended and that the amendment process usually takes the form of a citizen initiative or a Legislative initiative.

Today, we’ll look at one of the Legislative initiatives on the ballot this year.  Amendment One has been introduced by the Legislature to do away with Florida’s public campaign finance system.

As we learned yesterday, Florida’s constitution is constantly morphing as new amendments are passed by voters and edited into the original text.  We also saw some examples of the Legislature introducing amendments specifically to undo earlier, often progressive changes mandated by voters.

This year’s Amendment One is just such an animal.  In 1998, voters enshrined into the constitution a bare bones public financing system for some statewide offices.  Unfortunately, despite the will of the voters, the system never gained much legislative support and now the Legislature is tired of spending perfectly good public money to help candidates compete when it’s stunningly obvious to everyone that raising private cash from corporations and wealthy influence peddlers or just outright buying the election for oneself is teh shit.

Unfortunately, the program that Jeb Bush referred to as “welfare for politicians” is probably doomed.  The system is so broken and full of loopholes that it does little to help underfunded candidates compete, and the tide of special interest and corporate money has been rising in Florida just like elsewhere despite the public system.

There is absolutely no uprising in opposition to this bill, and with even public campaign financing stalwarts like Common Cause singing the death knell of the current system, this may be the last year for public financing in Florida.

“The campaign finance law really has become so messed up, the question is whether we should even try to save it,” said Ben Wilcox, a board member with Common Cause Florida, which has long supported the state public finance system.

“The system has been so manipulated, it doesn’t look much like it was intended to look,” he added.

…

since its earliest days, the public finance system has been gamed by lawmakers, its supporters say.

The most dramatic move came five years ago, when the Republican-controlled Legislature nearly tripled spending limits for those running for governor — raising the spending roof to where this year, candidates can spend as much as $24.9 million and still qualify for taxpayer money.

Spending limits for Cabinet candidates also were raised fivefold that year, from $2 million.

The spending caps were bumped skyward in 2005 in anticipation of a freespending battle in the governor’s race – beginning with a costly GOP primary between now-Gov. Charlie Crist and rival Tom Gallagher.

Eventually, Crist pocketed more than $3.3 million in public funds, while also spending $20 million in the governor’s race. He also drew at least that much financial support from the Florida Republican Party.

Party backing didn’t count toward the spending cap. And having the party cover campaign expenses and air television ads was among the first means candidates used to sidestep spending limits.

The rise of 527 groups in this year’s Republican primary has further blurred the role of spending limits. Such shadowy organizations, named for the section of the IRS code that governs them, can raise and spend unlimited amounts to influence an election – usually through TV ads aimed at tearing down an opponent.

Ironically, Republican Gubernatorial candidate and House Impeachment Manager Bill McCollum, an ardent opponent of public campaign financing, may be one of the last politicians to ever benefit from the system, as his floundering campaign is about to receive a gift in the form of matching contributions from the state.  He needs every penny he can scrape together – his self-financing opponent has unlimited funds.

I’m certainly not going to shed any tears for McCollum, but it’s apparent that whether Amendment 1 passes or not that the financing system in Florida is already really broken.  McCollum’s opponent Rick Scott is attempting to buy the GOP Governor’s race, and Jeff Greene is trying to do the same in the Democratic Senate primary, and both of them may prevail due solely to the vast amounts of cash they are spending.

Amendment 1 aims to tear down the last vestiges of a crippled and broken down system.  Public financing has  been defanged and declawed and essentially left for dead for years.  November’s vote will be the public execution.

The current version of our state constitution is full of seamless and not so seamless examples of good, bad and meh amendments that have been incorporated into the constitution over the years. Pregnant pigs, pregnant minors, a minimum wage and fishing nets are just a few of the subjects addressed in the constitution thanks to the amendment process.

There are five ways to put amendments to the Florida constitution on the ballot, but three are rarely used: two seperate commissions that meet every twenty years, and the Constitutional Convention process which must be initiated by the voters.

The two other methods, the legislative and citizen initiative processes, are fairly common and typically produce a bunch of measures for voters to consider every couple of years.

The citizen initiative is a petition gathering process and can sometimes result in popular measures that are maddeningly progressive in the eyes of our conservative GOP Legislature.

The Legislative initiative is typically crafted with the help of lobbyists in back rooms and can be designed with ulterior motives in mind.

Sometimes, especially in the past few cycles, the Legislature has been known to respond to successful citizen initiatives with amendments that aim to change or cancel out completely the citizens’ efforts.

In 2000, Two years after Jeb Bush was elected Governor, citizens proposed and passed a High Speed Rail amendment, enshrining the forward thinking concept into the constitution and legally locking the Legislature and Governor into action.

But Bush and the GOP dominated Legislature failed to fund the rail project as they placed their own anti-rail amendment in the ballot in 2004 and they managed to convince the voters to cancel out the previous measure.

Similarly, class size is still being debated. Citizens passed an amendment in 2002 mandating specific teacher to student ratios in public schools. The Legislature has been trying to get it watered down for years, and this year another Legislative initiative is on the ballot which aims to change the way heads are counted in the classrooms, thus weakening the original amendment.

So the pattern is becoming clear: first, the citizens propose an amendment which passes with majority support. Then the politicians respond by seeking to water down or completely do away with the citizen mandate. But just undoing amendments wasn’t enough for the Legislature.

Between class size and high speed rail and some other mandates from the voters, including language protecting pregnant pigs from the worst abuses of corporate farming, the Governor and Legislature, as well as the powerful business interests that backed them, were starting to feel a little lack of control. So in 2006, as well as pushing amendments to undo the amendments they didn’t like, they managed to get a super majority requirement amendment into the constitution.

That’s right: stung by repeated voter demands to address important issues, Florida’s leaders talked the voters into making it harder for the voters to speak out. From now on, all amendments to the Florida constitution would require a sixty percent majority to pass.

Which pretty much brings us up to date. As things currently stand, voters this year will have three citizen sponsored initiatives and six legislative initiatives to vote on, several of which are designed to dilute or cancel current or past citizen efforts.

All of which is fodder for several more posts this week. Stay tuned.