FL-22: VFW PAC Endorses Democrat Klein, Makes Republicans Whine!
Lieutenant Colonel Allen B West (US Army War Criminal, Ret) is not a witch. Allen West is a macho hetero Spartan warrior with a higher security clearance than the President. He's into Nazis and movies about gladiators, likes to dabble in torture, is a favorite of Sarah Palin, and, of course, he's a deadbeat who's running on a platform of fiscal responsibility.
Obviously, Allen West is a candidate with impeccable credentials and an Iraqi War Veteran to boot, so WTF is the VFW PAC doing endorsing his progressive Dem opponent Ron Klein?
VFW Pac claims that their endorsement is based on the fact that Klein strongly supports veterans, but some on the right are livid that the VFW PAC would ignore the tea party torture hero Allen West in favor of a man who actually supports veterans on the issues that are important to them.
The Palm Beach Post reports that some veterans are demanding a retraction of the VFW PAC endorsement, but despite the whining, VFW PAC is standing firm behind Democrat Ron Klein because Ron Klein really does support our troops:
The VFW PAC operates separately from the 2.1 million-member VFW. Its endorsements are based on how legislators vote on key issues for veterans and members of the military. House members who agreed with the VFW's position on at least 10 of 13 selected votes received endorsements.
Citing the "angry tone and tenor" of calls and messages to VFW headquarters, leaders of the veterans group called on the PAC this week to rescind all 356 of its House and Senate endorsements.
The PAC today acknowledged that "emotions are running high" in some races, but said it is standing by its endorsements.
"It would not only be unfair, but contrary to VFW-PAC By-Laws to disregard the incumbent's record of support and endorse another candidate," the PAC said in a statement. "The VFW-PAC will not abandon those in Congress that have supported issues of critical importance to our nation's security and veterans."
Tea party heads are exploding.
Support the candidate who really supports the troops. Give to Ron Klein.
Marco Rubio: From Poor Boy Cuban Hero to Grinder?
Marco Rubio, son of working class immigrants, Republican US Senate candidate and, of course, a hero, is facing questions stemming from spending decisions made during his reign as Speaker of the Florida House.
In 2007 while courageously leading the Florida House of Representatives, Rubio somehow found the time to become a true hero to a bereft group of judges who really really needed a new courthouse. A Taj Mahal courthouse.
Scheduled to be completed in November, it's a $48 million behemoth in which each judge will get a 60-inch LCD flat screen television in chambers (trimmed in mahogany), a private bathroom (featuring granite countertops) and a kitchen (complete with microwave and refrigerator).
How did it get funded? Like many things that gain life in Tallahassee, the courthouse grew out of a last-minute amendment on the last day of a legislative session. The funding for the courthouse was buried in the middle of a 142-page transportation bill, approved the last day of the 2007 session.
The state had never floated a bond issue to build a courthouse, but Sen. Victor Crist of Tampa attached the amendment that allowed the court to float a $33.5 million bond issue.
Several legislators say they were not aware the courthouse amendment was in the transportation bill when they voted on it.
Former Rep. Lorrane Ausley of Tallahassee voted against the bill, but she says she did not know about the amendment that was added to build the courthouse in her hometown.
"It was safer to vote no on things like that given the lack of transparency on stuff like this,'' Ausley said last week. "I do recall that the judges worked the halls pretty hard. I don't think the Legislature ever intended something like this.''
That bond issue didn’t quite cover all the extras so $16 million was taken from the state's Workers' Compensation Trust Fund.
Now Rubio, ever the bashful type, has refused to take credit for this kind hearted deed. In fact,
Rubio said Wednesday the proposal for the courthouse, which has been criticized as too luxurious in a time of severe budget constraints, originated in the Senate, not the House, which he controlled; and that it wasn't the Legislature's job to scrutinize building plans.
...Asked about the courthouse in an interview with the Tampa Tribune editorial board, Rubio, said, "That specific spending priority emerged from the Senate."
He said funding courts is "a core governmental function," but, "How that money is spent and what it's spent on is not what the Legislature does. The Legislature doesn't approve architectural plans, it doesn't approve purchasing orders."
In other parts of the interview, Rubio emphasized his commitment to cutting government spending and eliminating earmarks.
...The courthouse is being built on the outskirts of Tallahassee for the state 1st District Court of Appeal at a time when state courts are laying off employees and making do with inadequate or dilapidated quarters because of budget cuts.
...State Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Ocala, then chairman of the House council on law enforcement and courts, has been quoted in news reports as saying the project was pushed through at the request of two politically influential judges with connections to two Rubio aides. Dean couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
And it turns out that Dean may be on to something, for despite his protestations to the contrary, Rubio has been named as a “hero” by the very judges for who were elevated from mere mortals overseeing innocuous courtrooms to Hela Judges in charge of the Taj Fucking Mahal! Bitches!
Since the story first broke about the palatial new courthouse being built in Tallahassee, the former House speaker has said it was a Senate priority, and he couldn't even remember the money being appropriated to build it.
But now the St. Petersburg Times has obtained an e-mail circulated among the judges on the courthouse building committee that identifies the "heroes'' in delivering the money to build it.
Among them, the e-mail identifies a select few who were "especially helpful,'' including Rubio.
"I have never heard of this list'' of heroes, Rubio said this week.
...Dated April 29, 2008, the e-mail exchanged by judges on the building committee and court staffers encouraged them to personally thank those who helped secure the funding.
...Rubio, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, has repeatedly said the courthouse was a Senate project and the House knew nothing about the architectural plans. He said it was part of the last-minute House and Senate give and take.
Rubio's appropriations chairman, former Rep. Ray Sansom, remembers it differently.
...He said 1st DCA Chief Judge Paul Hawkes frequently visited Sansom's office to remind him the project was a priority of the speaker's. As was Sansom's practice whenever someone said he had the speaker's backing, Sansom said he went to Rubio to make sure.
...In an unrelated case, Sansom has been criminally charged with grand theft in connection with a $6 million appropriation in the 2007 budget for a friend's airplane hangar. He has denied wrongdoing, and his trial is scheduled for January.
Poor Boy - Rubio’s altruistic inner Cuban wants no part of the credit for this selfless accomplishment. Despite his status as Hero, he seeks no recognition- he’d probably prefer to be hiding out on a submarine.
But Rubio may go from hero to the grinder. Rye? Well, a Grand Jury could soon be asking questions about the Taj Mahal courthouse.
A grand jury in Leon County will hear a complaint next week about the controversial new courthouse being built in Tallahassee for the 1st District Court of Appeal.
Leon State Attorney Willie Meggs said Wednesday that he has received a complaint from a citizen who wants a grand jury to review the situation surrounding the courthouse.
Meggs said he will bring the case to the grand jury when it meets Wednesday.
...Two years ago a complaint sent to Meggs about former state Rep. Ray Sansom prompted a grand jury not only to indict Sansom but to issue a scathing report of how the Legislature handled the 2007 budget. The report criticized a system that lets a handful of powerful lawmakers make multimillion-dollar decisions in secret.
The grand jury urged the Legislature to "clean up the process" and make Florida "an example to the nation as a state that works for the people and not the special interest of those who have money to influence the Legislature."
It was in that same 2007 legislative session that the $33.5 million bond issue for the courthouse passed the Legislature as an amendment to a transportation bill.
Nothing like a good meaty scandal to chew on leading up to election day.
Bi-Party Crist Wont Pick Partner
Florida Governor and one-time leading Senatorial Candidate Charlie Crist is finding that coming out as bi-party is not the cakewalk that he was hoping for - his old friends feel betrayed and confused, his new friends are somewhat fickle, and his enemies are gleeful as he bends and twists to distance himself from the very party whose supporters he must approach if he is to have any chance to win.
Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, Crist declined to answer the caucus question - if elected, will he caucus with Democrats or Republicans? As he has for weeks, he evaded the question by asserting that he will "caucus with the people of Florida." Unfortunately, the people of Florida don't hand out committee assignments.
A few days ago, he tried to go both ways on healthcare. He stated that he would have voted for healthcare reform then he corrected himself and said he would not have voted for the bill. He doesn't like it - not one bit! But since it's already passed and everything, he thinks we should keep it and make it better. Of course, since he wont be sitting on any committees, his opinion may not matter all that much.
And last week in liberal Broward County, he thanked God that he was no longer a Republican then travelled to a much less progressive part of the state and bragged about being a "Jeb Bush Republican."
But even as Chain Gang Charlie repaints himself as a bi-party milquetoast with compassionate leanings who still enjoys the occasional hippie punching, Kendrick Meek and Florida Democrats are gearing up to remind voters of Crist's true preferences:
(Click to listen to wav audio file.)
This is Charlie Crist calling to set the record straight. I'm pro life, I oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants, I support traditional marriage, and I have never supported a new tax or big spending program.
The fact that Meek, a real Democrat, won the party nomination over self funding former Republican Jeff Greene will make life difficult for Crist. Democrats will use the boastful conservative's own words against him again and again and Democratic voters will continue to come home to Meek - Meek presents a clear progressive choice vs. Chain Gang Charlie's newly found wishy washy middle-of-the-roadism.
Meanwhile, Marc Rub's (Marco Rubio has had the vowels removed from the end of his name for conduct unbecoming a Hispanic, per Tampa's La Gaceta newspaper) campaign is hammering Crist as a turncoat and newly enflamed liberal. Crist wont be winning too many votes from this wing of his spurned party.
So far, Crist refuses to pick sides, but he can't win with independents only, his old party still hates him, and Democrats are warming to Meek - Meek is far and away the best candidate on the issues, and he is, in fact, just the kind of "better Democrat" that we need in DC.
Crist's approval ratings are dismal and he is a man without a party. Many observers do not see a way for him to win unless he promises to caucus with the Democrats, but just as he missed his oppurtunity to switch parties and clean Meek's clock in the Dem primary, Crist may again be waiting too long to pick sides.
Teach Your Children Hell? No!
Hillsborough County voters smote the Terry Kemple campaign a death blow on Tuesday. Despite raising more money than any other candidate in the four candidate non-partisan race, Kemple's extreme beliefs and religious agenda may have turned voters off as he barely managed a humiliating third place finish with less than twenty percent of the vote.
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DISTRICT 6
383 of 383 Precincts Reporting
Benjamin Fink 11.83% 12,939
April Griffin 48.37% 52,883
Sally A. Harris 20.63% 22,557
Terry Kemple 19.16% 20,953
Incumbent April Griffin garnered close to fifty percent of the vote and will face surprise second place finisher Sally Harris in a runoff in November.
Right Wing Koch Suckers Swallow Wads of Kash
Charles and David Koch are the owners of Koch Industries. They are filthy, rich, and they fund a self-serving "Kochtopus" of organizations designed to destroy progressivism - a shadowy network of Koch Suckers eagerly swallowing all the cash that the Kochs can pump out.
Rachel Maddow has been all over the Koch brothers story, but for the most part, their deliberate strategy of flying well below the radar as they hide behind their proxy advocacy organizations has worked to keep their name out of the limelight.
In a must read in this month's New Yorker, Jane Mayer illuminates some of the Koch brothers greatest hits.
They were born to a wealthy Bircher daddy - a man who made much of his fortune by selling American trade secrets to evil communists - who taught them the basic American value of shirking ones moral duty to repay one's society for having provided the resources which one blatantly exploits in order to make a killing.
Put simply, they are extremely wealthy self-serving libertarians.
Unlike George Soros, who is often villified as the evil trillionaire funder of all things vaguely leftish, the Koch brothers are very secretive about the organizations they fund, and the causes that they champion through these organizations invariably tend to line up perfectly with their personal and corporate economic interests.
All Blockquotes are from
Covert Operations - The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
by Jane MayerOf course, Democrats give money, too. Their most prominent donor, the financier George Soros, runs a foundation, the Open Society Institute, that has spent as much as a hundred million dollars a year in America. Soros has also made generous private contributions to various Democratic campaigns, including Obama’s. But Michael Vachon, his spokesman, argued that Soros’s giving is transparent, and that “none of his contributions are in the service of his own economic interests.” The Kochs have given millions of dollars to nonprofit groups that criticize environmental regulation and support lower taxes for industry. Gus diZerega, the former friend, suggested that the Kochs’ youthful idealism about libertarianism had largely devolved into a rationale for corporate self-interest. He said of Charles, “Perhaps he has confused making money with freedom.”
Freedom rules. Regulations and laws are for losers.
"There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times."
- Charles Lewis, founder of Center for Public Integrity
Koch Industries is a vast conglomerate, the second largest privately held company in the US
...whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars...The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra... Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
And like the best of the classic American capitalists, they even steal from American Indians.
...the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs investigated their business and released a scathing report accusing Koch Oil of “a widespread and sophisticated scheme to steal crude oil from Indians and others through fraudulent mismeasuring.” The Kochs admitted that they had improperly taken thirty-one million dollars’ worth of crude oil, but said that it had been accidental. Charles Koch told committee investigators that oil measurement is “a very uncertain art.”
Koch Industries is a huge polluter. The Kochs spend more than Exxon on Climate Science denialism.
David Koch told New York that he was unconvinced that global warming has been caused by human activity. Even if it has been, he said, the heating of the planet will be beneficial, resulting in longer growing seasons in the Northern Hemisphere. “The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because far greater land area will be available to produce food,” he said.
But mostly they don't speak for themselves - why bother when they can simply create entire organizations to speak for them?
Cato Institute
In 1977, the Kochs provided the funds to launch the nation’s first libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute. According to the Center for Public Integrity, between 1986 and 1993 the Koch family gave eleven million dollars to the institute. Today, Cato has more than a hundred full-time employees, and its experts and policy papers are widely quoted and respected by the mainstream media. It describes itself as nonpartisan, and its scholars have at times been critical of both parties. But it has consistently pushed for corporate tax cuts, reductions in social services, and laissez-faire environmental policies.
Cato is also, of course, big into Climate Change Denial and they pushed Climategate incessantly.
The Mercatus Center
The Mercatus Center at the public George Mason University is a non profit under the Kochs' control.
The Wall Street Journal has called the Mercatus Center “the most important think tank you’ve never heard of,” and noted that fourteen of the twenty-three regulations that President George W. Bush placed on a “hit list” had been suggested first by Mercatus scholars. Fink told the paper that the Kochs have “other means of fighting [their] battles,” and that the Mercatus Center does not actively promote the company’s private interests. But Thomas McGarity, a law professor at the University of Texas, who specializes in environmental issues, told me that “Koch has been constantly in trouble with the E.P.A., and Mercatus has constantly hammered on the agency.” An environmental lawyer who has clashed with the Mercatus Center called it “a means of laundering economic aims.” The lawyer explained the strategy: “You take corporate money and give it to a neutral-sounding think tank,” which “hires people with pedigrees and academic degrees who put out credible-seeming studies. But they all coincide perfectly with the economic interests of their funders.”
Triad Management
The Kochs were getting pretty good at screwing with the conventional wisdom. Then they took it to a whole new level.
By 1993, when Bill Clinton became President, Citizens for a Sound Economy had become a prototype for the kind of corporate-backed opposition campaigns that have proliferated during the Obama era. The group waged a successful assault on Clinton’s proposed B.T.U. tax on energy, for instance, running advertisements, staging media events, and targeting opponents. And it mobilized anti-tax rallies outside the Capitol—rallies that NPR described as “designed to strike fear into the hearts of wavering Democrats.” Dan Glickman, a former Democratic congressman from Wichita, who supported the B.T.U. tax, recalled, “I’d been in Congress eighteen years. The Kochs actually engaged against me and funded my opponent. They used a lot of resources and effort—their employees, too.” Glickman suffered a surprise defeat. “I can’t prove it, but I think I was probably their victim,” he said.
The Kochs continued to disperse their money, creating slippery organizations with generic-sounding names, and this made it difficult to ascertain the extent of their influence in Washington. In 1990, Citizens for a Sound Economy created a spinoff group, Citizens for the Environment, which called acid rain and other environmental problems “myths.” When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigated the matter, it discovered that the spinoff group had “no citizen membership of its own.”
...Triad Management, had paid more than three million dollars for attack ads in twenty-six House races and three Senate races. More than half of the advertising money came from an obscure nonprofit group, the Economic Education Trust... Charles Lewis, of the Center for Public Integrity, described the scandal as “historic. Triad was the first time a major corporation used a cutout”—a front operation—“in a threatening way. Koch Industries was the poster child of a company run amok.”
The Bush years
During the 2000 election campaign, Koch Industries spent some nine hundred thousand dollars to support the candidacies of George W. Bush and other Republicans... The Kochs have cast themselves as deficit hawks, but, according to a study by Media Matters, their companies have benefitted from nearly a hundred million dollars in government contracts since 2000.
Their filthy lucre even taints the halls of the Smithsonian - a prominent Koch sponsored exhibit on the Koch Hall underplays the significance of climate change while compeltely ignoring the possibility that fossil fuels may be a big part of the problem.
Now they are using their Americans for Prosperity front group to sponsor "grassroots" Tea Party events and organizations.
The Republican campaign consultant said of the family’s political activities, “To call them under the radar is an understatement. They are underground!” Another former Koch adviser said, “They’re smart. This right-wing, redneck stuff works for them. They see this as a way to get things done without getting dirty themselves.” Rob Stein, a Democratic political strategist who has studied the conservative movement’s finances, said that the Kochs are “at the epicenter of the anti-Obama movement. But it’s not just about Obama. They would have done the same to Hillary Clinton. They did the same with Bill Clinton. They are out to destroy progressivism.”
Read the whole article . I left out a lot.
State House 48: Tea Party Camping. With Fluoride.
Marg Baker is a Tea Party Republican candidate for Florida State House District 48, which covers parts of Northern Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties, near Tampa. She's been running a pretty standard issue Tea Party campaign. But lately she's achieved another level.
Marg hits all the right notes - she is a divorced, single pro-family, anti-government semi-retiree. She's likely on Medicare and she derives all her income from her monthly Social Security check. She knows that we can only increase state revenue by lowering taxes and doing away with regulations, and she hates the sorry state of her local water supply, which makes her sick when she drinks it.
In fact, she says that water is the most "pressing" issue for the people of her district, the essence of her campaign, if you will.
General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, Jack, Jack, listen, tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first... become... well, develop this theory?
General Jack D. Ripper: Well, I, uh... I... I... first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
General Jack D. Ripper: Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue... a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I... I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
General Jack D. Ripper: I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh... women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No.
General Jack D. Ripper: But I... I do deny them my essence.
At the same time, she likes to emphasize that her "most serious issue" is her one person quest to do away with early voting in Florida because early voting costs too much and leads to "corruption like ACORN."
Oh, and she has just thoughtfully proposed solving our immigration problem with Internment Camps!
Yes. Internment Camps.
"We can follow what happened back in the '40s or '50s."
"I was just a little girl in Miami, and they built camps for the people that snuck into the country because they were illegal," Baker said. "They put them in the camps and they shipped them back. We can do that. We can do E-Verify. We must stop them."
Baker could not be reached Wednesday to clarify what camps she means. But in World War II, the U.S. government forced about 110,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese into internment camps after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Presidents have apologized to those who were interned, and Congress voted for compensation.
...
"We've got to get them off the street, and they have to live and sleep somewhere," Baker said. "Not in prison, but they should be held until we ship them out and they should not mingle among the people.
"Who knows what diseases they are carrying or if they are criminals? They snuck in here and are walking among us. This is wrong.
Wait a minute. Camps in the nineteen-forties? Do you know what this means? The diseased criminal immigrants must have been in cahoots with the Reds! They were all part of a vast conspiracy, along with ACORN, to poison our water supply and sap and impurify our fluids during periods of early voting!
I need a blackboard.
Now, she made these remarks in front of a friendly 9-12 Project meetup on August 2, and they were warmly received by the audience, but no one else really noticed until the YouTube video started circulating.
Her campaign has not clarified her remarks about Miami camps in the 1940's or '50's, and there is some speculation that the model she had in mind was the Japanese internment camps of WWII, but there is another possibility.
There were camps in the Miami area for migrants in the '40's - migrant labor camps. Camps set up to house a workforce so desperate for employment that entire families were literally walking into the state hoping for a chance to work backbreaking agricultural jobs for subsistence wages. Luckily for the workers, generous area landowners stood ready to provide exactly that!
A lot of these families hailed from nearby Southern states - that is, they were American citizens, but migrant labor camps did not discriminate - they were quite happy to take in workers of all races regardless of immigration status, and to a wide-eyed pale-skinned little girl, all of those dirt encrusted farm laborers must have looked quite brown and foreign and deportable.
Most of the diverse people who comprised the influx of workers into Florida in the later years of the Great Depression came from other southern states.
These migrant laborers made their way south from Georgia and from throughout the Upper and Mid South (from Eastern North Carolina and Kentucky to Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma) after the loss of tenant positions on leased farm land, foreclosure, falling farm yields, or the closure of textile factories and other industries forced them away from their homes.
Some Sense of Security
Migrants took whatever little possessions they could carry and traveled, often with their entire families, to the warmth and agricultural abundance of Florida in search of sustenance, shelter, and some measure of economic security.
Of course, without those handy camps, the migrants would have been walking among Marg's friends and family, spreading disease and fluoride and ACORN propaganda.
So, maybe Marg was thinking of the Japanese-American citizens who were interned by our government, or maybe she was referencing the American migrant workers who were employed by generous landowners in order that she be provided with a refreshing glass of Florida orange juice every morning.
Regardless, it is obvious that her motives are pure - lily white, actually - and that she is a woman of great vision - a woman we can trust with our bodily fluids without fear of losing our essence.
I'll give Marg the last word (from the video):
"We gotta have guns!"
No Longer Beating a Dead Horse
I give up - there's really no reason to rally behind the only real Democrat in the Democratic primary race. No Party Charlie Crist is with us on everything except what he's not with us on and that's good enough for me, so the primary is officially moot.
Look, I will always like Kendrick - he's such a nice guy! But his campaign is teh suck. It lacks visibility and support, and Meek is not a gifted orator, and he's not as cool and popular as Charlie, so it's over. I can not vote for Kendrick. I am going to invite Crist into my life.
Some say we need work hard to elect better Democrats. Balderdash. I used to be in that camp, but I have seen the light - a halo, actually, just behind Crist's head.
I don't care if we have a real Democrat on the general election ballot in November. I don't need a chance to vote for a candidate who stands for my values.
I am going to vote for Charlie Crist come hell or oily water. What could possibly go wrong?
To this point, Charlie Crist has been nimbly avoiding the literal gusher of indictments and arrests and trials and IRS audits and FBI investigations and lavish credit card spending sprees and, well, just about everything bad that's been happening to the Florida GOP. So I'm betting that none of those scandals will touch him, and I'm absolutely certain that no new bombshell revelation will pop up that might affect his general election chances.
In fact, I have such faith in Crist that I'm betting everything I have.
Of course, I'm not worried that after the Democratic primary Crist will realize that I now have no leverage over him - that I've already placed my bet and that I will have no recourse were he to kick me in the face. I don't need a plan 'B'. I'm positive that Crist is different. He wont hurt me. Honest.
And by backing Crist now I can absolutely guarantee that Marco Rubio will not win the election.
After all, there's no way that anything that no one could have predicted could possibly have come to pass by the time I cast my ballot for Charlie Crist in November.
So I see no reason to even pay any attention to the Democratic primary much less back a candidate just because his values line up nicely with mine and the rich carpetbagger he's running against is a real schmuck. This would be a waste of my valuable time and it really does not matter one iota who the Democratic nominee is because I am going to vote for Charlie Crist.
What could possibly go wrong?
Kendrick Meek could really use our help, but none of us like him anymore, so just don't bother.
The Chain Gang Charlie Crist is Born
“I'm as conservative as any governor. I'm chain gang Charlie. I'm pro-gun. I'm pro life,”
That's Charlie Crist way back in 2009 before he made a sincere and heartfelt decision to completely change.
Charlie Crist recently became the darling of Florida's teachers as he polished his indie cred by vetoing an absolutely horrible education bill. But he hasn't always had such concerns for schools.
In the 1990's, Florida had a choice: we could start down the road toward the proper funding of education and programs for the poor, or we could lock more people up and devise humiliating ways to publicly shame them.
Led by Republican Legislators like Chain Gang Charlie Crist, Florida decided to follow the lead of Alabama and Arizona and spend money on shackled work gangs and other high profile regressive prison policies.
After spearheading the legislation that cost 2 billion dollars and would force Florida's prisons chief to "require selected inmates to perform labor wearing leg irons in chain gang work groups," Crist embarked on a fact finding mission with the secretary of the Department of Corrections Harry Singletary to have a look at Alabama's trendsetting chain gang revival and maybe get some ideas for Florida's big debut.
As Singletary whined to a reporter that "Everyone wants a silver bullet, and this is not the silver bullet. This is not the answer to the crime problem. We could have 45,000 people on chain gangs, but if people are still having babies at 13, if we're not educating folks or if there's not enough jobs, then we're still going to have problems," Crist was bizy checking out the latest in Chain Gang Haute Couture:
Singletary came away from Alabama convinced that the only practical implementation of the legislature's demands involved individual shackles rather than the Alabama model which featured prisoners chained to each other.
But Charlie Crist had a pretty specific image in mind when he first fantasized his chain gang law, and in that image a group of 5 beautifully muscled bad boys, dark skinned, heavily perspiring, bound with handcuffs and leg irons and shackled together with chains break rocks beside the Interstate. People driving through get all warm and fuzzy as they pass within inches of these dangerous and swarthy criminals who are being beneficially overseen by several heavily armed white men with orders to shoot to kill.
Oh, wait - that's not the image of Charlie with his "gang" that I was trying to post... let's try this oped cartoon from the Gainesville Sun instead:
Good stuff, and Chain Gang Charlie was not about to allow the teary eyed liberal prisons chief to mess with the exquisitely detailed image that Crist had spent years thinking about.
Crist wrote the Governor. He wrote editorials. He complained to reporters. He helpfully pointed out that gangs of 5 were way better than gangs of one, but to no avail. Chain Gang Charlie's chain gangs were about to be ruined by Singletary and no one seemed to care.
But state legislators say the program clashes with what they envisioned when they passed the chain gang law earlier this year. Senator Charlie Crist, a Republican from St. Petersburg who sponsored the law, said individual chains would pose a higher safety risk because they would not prevent an inmate from jumping into the back of a car to escape. Mr. Crist also said the setup made the punishment less harsh.
"The idea is not to be cruel but to have an appropriate punishment that also serves as a deterrent," he said.
The Florida Department of Corrections is scheduled to start the program with 90 inmates at three prisons, and expand it by Dec. 1 to 210 inmates at seven prisons.
Corrections officials like Mr. Singletary have been reluctant partners in reinstituting chain gangs, which were abandoned in Florida and other states in the 1940's, but which this year made a modest comeback, reflecting the nation's tougher stance on crime. While supporters see them as an effective way to send an anti-crime message, critics cringe at the spectacle of shackled men, most black, stirring images of slavery.
The executive director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, Alvin J. Bronstein, said the Alabama chain gang program had led to more injuries among inmates, for example, when someone tripped and fell, dragging others down. He said he had also received reports of fights among inmates because of slow or fast walkers in the chain.
Mr. Bronstein said the Florida and Arizona programs were more humane and preferable because they reduced the risk of accidents and tension among inmates.
So Charlie got his chain gangs, and they were no walk in the park, but they were not as punitive and regressive as Crist had fervently imagined they might be.
And Chain Gang Charlie Crist is Born.
This Is Democracy?
Florida’s statewide filing deadline for November races fell on Friday and news reports highlighted a great example of the kind of behavior that disgusts voters who say that they are just fed up with the same old “business as usual” as politicians from both parties took turns abusing a loophole in Florida law that allows for the disenfranchisement of thousands every election season.
Last minute write-in candidates closed primaries between Republicans vying for a state Senate seat and Democrats running for the Hillsborough County Commission.
In the District 3 commission race, incumbent Kevin White will square off against former state Sen. Les Miller and businesswoman Valerie Goddard in the Aug. 24 primary.
The winning Democrat will face Dwight Bolden - a political newcomer who filed to run as a Democrat but qualified as a write-in candidate - in the Nov. 2 election.
"I didn’t have any money or a campaign team, so I went with the non-traditional way," said Bolden, whose name, under election laws, won’t appear on the ballot.
He wasn’t the only unexpected contender to qualify this week for the fall elections.
In the District 12 Senate race, a pair of unknowns qualified as write-in candidates, fueling speculation about whether the two were asked to run to close the primary.
They are Derek Crabb, 30, a Petco store clerk, and Kimberly Renspie, 20, a student at Catawba College in North Carolina.
If they hadn’t filed, all district voters, regardless of party, would have decided the race between former state Rep. Kevin Ambler and Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman in the primary.
The write-in candidates mean that only Republicans can vote in the primary, leaving all other voters with a choice in November of the primary winner and the two write-in candidates whose names won’t appear on the ballot.
So, who is 30-year-old Crabb?
Republican candidate Kevin Ambler wondered the same when he read Crabb's sparse financial information.
"My first thought was, my opponent might want a closed primary, so maybe he recruited this person," he said.
The opponent, County Commission member Jim Norman, is also Republican.
Because no one has filed as a Democrat, the Aug. 24 primary would have been open to all voters.
That is, until Crabb came along as a write-in, listing no political party.
The district comprises northern Hillsborough and central and eastern Pasco counties.
Speaking hurriedly from the pet store, he said he has never held public office.
When asked why he is running, he said, "I don't think I want to comment on that." Pressed for an answer, he said, "Without disclosing too much, I want my voice to be heard." Pressed even more, he added, "I'm trying to lay low right now."
Write-in Candidate Loophole
Florida is a closed primary state. Only voters who are registered as a member of a particular party may participate in that party’s primary election.
In 1998, Florida voters stated their desire for more open and meaningful elections by passing an open primaries amendment that allowed all voters, regardless of party affiliation, to participate in a primary election if the winner of the primary election would be running unopposed in the general.
In other words, if 5 Republicans are running for a State Senate seat and no Democrats are in the race, then every voter in that district should be able to vote in the Republican primary - which is ordinarily only open to registered Republicans - because the primary will effectively decide the winner of the general election.
If only registered Republicans are allowed to vote in the example above, then Democrats and independent voters are disenfranchised along with folks who are registered with minor parties like the Greens or the Tea Party.
Although the intent seemed clear, and eminently fair, the actual language left just a bit of wiggle room.
If all candidates for an office have the same party affiliation and the winner will have no opposition in the general election, all qualified electors, regardless of party affiliation, may vote in the primary elections for that office.
The amendment passed in 1998. By 2000, a loophole was already being used to close primaries that should have been open to all registered voters. Several legislative races and at least one US House race were affected.
The write in loophole has affected only one US House race, the district 1 Republican primary between incumbent Joe Scarborough and Bob Condon, both of Pensacola. There are 4 write in candidates.
This is how it works: Back to the example cited above with 5 single party candidates in the race. If a candidate will benefit from disenfranchising two thirds of the electorate, all the candidate need do is produce a write-in candidate and VOILA! the primary is closed to all but the party faithful.
A write-in candidate can qualify for the ballot pretty easily.
A write-in candidate is not entitled to have his or her name printed on any ballot; however, a space for the write-in candidate’s name to be written in shall be provided on the general election ballot. A write-in candidate is not required to pay a qualifying fee, election assessment or party assessment, or file petitions(Section 99.061, Fla. Stat.)
And once a write-in candidate is “qualified,” then the general election will be "contested" and the primary is closed.
Of course, many voters thought that this loophole was unfair, and lawsuits have been fought to fix it. Florida courts have sided with the politicians in this fight.
In Lake County, a man who was registered as a Republican declared himself to be a write-in candidate for the Democrats in a county commissioner race. That step prevented 93,000 Democrats, independents and other non-Republicans from casting a ballot in the election.
But Hill said he could not - as the loophole's challengers wanted - make a judgment on a write-in candidate's intentions.
"Nothing in the Constitution authorizes this court or any other court to predict the degree of opposition a candidate will present or to determine whether a candidate's opposition is significant or even realistic," Hill wrote in his ruling.
The average margin of victory in the general election for these primary winners who take on a write-in candidate is 99.8 percent.
A spring study by the Florida Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections showed that, through 2006, a write-in had filed to run and thus "closed" a primary in a state legislative race 38 times since the advisory opinion was issued.
The average margin of victory over those write-in candidates was 99.8 percent. Seven times, write-in candidates did not even vote for themselves. The story is similar for many local races, as well.
Critics say this proves that many write-in candidates are just spoilers. They enter the race with no intention of campaigning, much less winning. They simply want to shut out non-party members from voting. Typically, the dominant party in a county uses the strategy when the other party cannot field a candidate with a chance of success.
Both Parties Do It Routinely
Both Democrats and Republicans have learned to love this loophole and to abuse it routinely.
Aronberg said both parties are guilty. In South Florida, it’s seen more often with Democrats, who are in the majority. Elsewhere in the state, it’s a common Republican practice.
Why won’t it change? "It’s hard to ask politicians who benefit from the system to change the system. This is something that the public a only finds out about every two years,"
That’s Dave Aronberg, one of this year’s Democratic Attorney General candidates. He’s been fighting to close this loophole since it was opened up in 2000. Sometimes it seems like he is the only politician in the state who actually cares about this issue. He’s championed lawsuits challenging the loophole and (From the same article:)
State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, introduces legislation every year to close the loophole. And every year he loses.
"It’s disgusting. It’s un-American. It’s un-democratic. It’s a manipulation of the process. And it will continue because the politicians use it to protect themselves," he said.
What’s more, it’s easy because the write-in candidate doesn’t pay a fee or collect petition signatures to get on the ballot.
The result, Aronberg said, every election season, the voters lose out. "In a matter of seconds, thousands of voters are disenfranchised."
The pols who abuse this loophole in the Florida Constitution and the write-in candidates who enable them are frequently so pleased with their cleverness that they don’t even try to hide their evil scheme.
Schlein, 60, a Leesburg Republican, said she declared as a write-in candidate in the race to prevent Democrats from voting in the Republican primary, which pitted two-term incumbent Jennifer Hill against challenger Jim Miller.
The loophole is manipulated easily. In 2004, Jean Enright had her mother file as a write-in candidate for the Port of Palm Beach commission seat she ultimately won. Two Pinellas County brothers have raised eyebrows in running - ostensibly against each other - for a seat on that county’s commission.
Democrat Manuel Press qualified as a write-in candidate to replace state Rep. Irving Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, in District 90. Press was on vacation Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Press and Harvey Arnold, who is running for the seat as a Democrat, belong to the United South County Democratic Club. Arnold, the club’s former president, has received support from local Democrats. Public records show Press’ spouse, Phyllis, another club member, donated $100 to the Arnold campaign.
Arnold denied encouraging Press to qualify as a write-in candidate, though he knew of Press’ plans several weeks ago, he said.
"I’m delighted Press is running so that Republicans won’t vote," he said.
In the race for the House District 86 seat formerly held by Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, homemaker Kathleen Faherty-Ruby of Delray Beach qualified to run as a write-in. A Republican, Faherty- Ruby said she was, paradoxically, running to give Republicans a choice in the election, even though her candidacy shut Republicans out of voting in the primary.
"I wanted to give Republicans a choice of writing in whoever they wanted to in the general election," she said. "Basically, I thought it was the right thing to do."
No one encouraged her to run, the mother of six boys said. She said she doesn’t necessarily want people to vote for her, just whomever they want to write in.
So, if you live in a district with a closed primary and you want to vote for your elected representative, you may have to make a strategic decision to change your party affiliation before the registration deadline on July 26. Then you can vote in the closed primary!
But even that wacky strategy will fail if you live in the area within Hillsborough County where County Commission District 3 and Senate District 12 overlap. In that case you can vote in either the District 3 County Commission race (if you are a registered Democrat) or, for Republicans, the District 12 State Senate race, but not both. Independents wont get to vote in either race.
In Florida, we call this democracy.
Disclaimer: Dave Aronberg is taking on fellow Democrat Dan Gelber for the right to face the Republican nominee for Florida Attorney General in November. I like both Democratic candidates. As of now I am undecided on this race and I will enthusiastically support whichever candidate ultimately prevails. I am writing about the loophole because it is in the news today, not to give props to Dave Aronberg. Having said that, it is impossible to write about this issue without mentioning Aronberg and giving him credit for fighting to fix this mess.
UPDATE: From the comments - Did you notice the Hill-Hill connection? Commissioner Jennifer Hill and Judge Mark Hill are married.
Will Meek Be the Last Pol Standing in Nov.?
In the 3 way race that is expected to develop for Florida Senate, Kendrick Meek is perfectly positioned to benefit from scandals rocking the Florida GOP. No party Charlie Crist's hand-picked head of the Florida Republicans was just arrested for... stealing from the Florida Republicans. Marco Rubio is also caught up in the scandal, as the IRS is investigating reports that he more or less lived off of a Florida Republican Party American Express Card for several years. Perhaps most importantly, Crist's and Rubio's problems are indicative of a GOP brand in Florida that is heavily tainted by rampant corruption.
Charlie Crist made a big splash when he dumped the GOP and went independent. Polls showed him as the new front runner. But Charlie has a little problem.
Jim Greer was Charlie Crist's pick to head the Florida GOP - Charlie almost singlehandedly inserted Greer into the post and Crist supported Greer right up to the day he resigned in January. Charlie Crist was Jim Greer's only friend for quite some time during late 2009 and January 2010. Of course, we all know that Charlie's buddy was just arrested.
Charlie's Greer problem does help in one way - it has taken the spotlight off of his Scott Rothstein problem.
Marco Rubio is in big trouble. Rubio shot to the lead in the GOP primary by playing to his Tea Bagging base. He is running on tax reform, secure borders, the second amendment, and every other right wing hot button issue. Oh, and he is the outsider who is untainted by scandal and corruption - his web ads all proclaim "Principles Stand for Something... Stand With Marco." Oops.
RPOF Individual Spending On AmEx Cards
Speaker Marco Rubio - $110,000
Indicted Speaker Ray Sansom - $173,000
Speaker-designate Dean Cannon - $175,000
Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos - *$2,347
Rubio Chief of Staff Richard Corcoran - $70,000
RPOF Executive Director Delmar Johnson - $500,000
Jr. Party Staffer Melanie Phister - $1,258,000
It turns out that what Marco stands for is the right to live large on a state party AMEX given to him by... Jim Greer. Rubio and other users of State Party AMEX cards are currently under investigation by the FBI and IRS.
Federal law enforcement agencies have launched a criminal investigation into the use of American Express cards issued by the Republican Party of Florida to elected officials and staff, according to sources familiar with the probe.
The U.S. attorney's office in Tallahassee, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are all involved in the probe, which grew out of the state investigation into former House Speaker Ray Sansom. He was indicted on criminal charges that he stashed $6 million in the state budget for an airplane hangar for a friend and campaign donor.
In the federal case, Sansom and others could be charged with making false statements on their tax returns and tax evasion.
...
Meanwhile, in a separate inquiry, the IRS is also looking at the tax records of at least three former party credit card holders -- former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, ex-state party chairman Jim Greer and ex-party executive director Delmar Johnson -- to determine whether they misused their party credit cards for personal expenses, according to a source familiar with the preliminary inquiry.
If any of these big spenders enjoyed any personal financial gain from the use of these cards, the IRS will expect to find said financial gain declared as income on the big spenders' tax returns. The IRS can get kind of picky about this kind of stuff.
Regardless of undeclared personal income, the idea that Rubio managed to spend over $100,000 of party donor's money in a short period of time kind of belies his status as principled outsider. His zealous defenders wont mind, but more moderate potential supporters may be turned off by his easy corruptibility and rank hypocrisy, not to mention his far right stands on issues like HIR and immigration.
Last fall he opposed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, the country's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, saying he had concerns about her case history and testimony on issues such as the Second Amendment right to bear arms. He opposes counting undocumented immigrants in the U.S. census and providing them a pathway to citizenship.
He suggested in an interview with a conservative publication, Human Events, that even illegal immigrant children who have spent most of their lives in the U.S. shouldn't be allowed to stay. He later told The Associated Press: "Young children have to go wherever their parents are."
And after initially expressing concerns about Arizona's immigration law, the nation's harshest, Rubio reversed his position and came out in support, saying subsequent changes aimed at preventing racial profiling have greatly improved it.
"Most people, what they know about Marco Rubio is that he's a young, well-spoken guy who's Hispanic," said Rep. Juan Zapata, a Republican state representative in Florida who was born in Colombia and supports Rubio's rival Gov. Charlie Crist. "People don't know the details."
Zapata said that the Hispanic community would love to support a Latino candidate but that Rubio's views don't further the causes of Hispanic voters.
"I've known him for a long time and I've worked with him and I'm terribly disappointed in the positions he's taken," he said.
At times it seems as if the entire leadership of the Florida Republican Party is engulfed in scandal. Former Speaker Ray Sansom is under indictment for grand theft. Which led to the GOP credit card investigation that Marco Rubio is caught up in and, eventually, the arrest of Crist's buddy Jim Greer. Money Man Alan Mendelsohn indicted for fraud and money laundering. Crist favorite Scott Rothstein indicted for a massive ponzi scheme - he funneled proceeds to Florida politicians of both parties, but the only politician he ever baked a cake for was Charlie Crist. The list goes on and on.
Crist money-raisers have been charged with crimes, while Greer, his hand-picked state party chairman, is the target of probes; Republican candidate Marco Rubio, among 31 Republican politicians and operatives who are facing FBI and IRS scrutiny, has the IRS looking at his use of state party credit cards.
The avalanche of criminal investigations began in early 2009 with the indictment of former House Speaker Sansom after he accepted a $110,000-a-year job at Northwest Florida State College on the very day he became speaker. A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald investigation showed how in the previous two years, Sansom steered $35 million to the school.
...
As part of the Sansom investigation, State Attorney Willie Meggs obtained records detailing Sansom's lavish charges to a GOP American Express card totaling more than $173,000.
The credit card charges sparked federal investigations of Sansom and Greer, the GOP chairman who had been living a life of luxury with chartered jets, four-star hotels and chauffeured limousines charged to his party card
.... Anyone who obtained personal benefits from the cards and failed to report them to IRS could be in trouble.
Now, Kendrick Meek has his own problems, but recent reports tying him to a failed Miami development indicate he was burned by family and staff, and that he had no personal knowledge of any shenanigans. There's apparently nothing there, but the "scandal" will be dredged up constantly to provide some balance to the scores of GOP troubles being reported.
Meek is a hard campaigner - he is the only statewide candidate to have ever qualified for the ballot via petition. He did this by getting out and meeting people and energizing volunteers to gather signatures. He is largely unknown, even among Democrats, and as he introduces himself to voters, his poll numbers will rise.
All 3 candidates will be battered by November, but if Kendrick Meek can take advantage of the big scandals enveloping his main rivals, he may well be the last man standing, and, with luck, we may end up with a true progressive representing Florida in the Senate.