BlogWood: Norwood's Fair and Balanced Nattering

Shame on Jim Davis

The median income in Congressman Jim Davis' district is $33,559. That's not a lot of money, so what the fuck is he voting for the bankruptcy bill for? As many others have eloquently pointed out , this unnecessary bill will shaft hard working Americans while further enriching the credit card Shylocks and other predatory lenders.

I guess Jim is expecting a big pile of tainted cash from the banking industry for his run for governor – he got $67,000 from banking PACs in 2004. Funny thing – he also got a lot of cash from labor unions. He must figure that it's safe to vote for legislation that screws the working class, since he sometimes uses a little lubrication (though it's full of sand, and it's really quite irritating), while the GOP, in contrast, never lubes or washes or even asks before they forcibly violate every meager protection for the common good that has ever been envisioned by more enlightened people.

Thankfully, Davis and every other Florida Democrat voted against the permanent repeal of the estate tax, a tax that only affects a handful of the richest Americans and which, if not repealed, could have generated enough income in the coming decades to guarantee the solvency of Social Security for, uh, forever .

Krazy Koan Friday!

When is a tax increase not a tax increase?

Gov. Jeb Bush's support for raising local taxes to deal with Florida's exploding growth seems to put him at odds with a previous pledge he made.

He strongly disagrees.

The governor's push for local tax increases without voter approval is not the same as supporting higher taxes, Bush spokeswoman Alia Faraj said Thursday.

"He has said very clearly he will never raise state taxes," Faraj said. "He's offering flexibility to local governments to address taxes that already exist."

Citing $5.3-billion in tax sources local governments could tap, Bush urged legislators to lift a longstanding requirement that voters approve them.

Some legislators are wary, viewing it as a back-door tax increase. Some county commissioners say the state is trying to force them to increase taxes. Bush also is advocating a referendum in November to ask voters to approve borrowing all but $1-billion of $9.5-billion for roads.

Faraj said Bush was upset that the St. Petersburg Times reported Wednesday that his new position breaks a 1994 campaign pledge that voters should have "the right to approve all tax increases."

When Bush rolled out his growth management plan Wednesday, he emphasized that he opposes state tax increases. But his support for dropping voter approval of new local sales and gasoline taxes for schools and water system projects caused a major stir in the state House.

A tax increase is not a tax increase when it serves to make Florida's highly regressive tax system even more so by raising the sales tax and other fees that disproportionately impact low income residents. It also helps if there's a huge break in the works for the very rich.

Welfare daddy seeks another public handout

Welfare daddy supreme Mel Sembler is seeking ownership of a public sidewalk. The problem is that some people think that just because they have a constitutional right to freely and peacefully express their opinions that they ought to be allowed to do so. Silly people: they actually feel that the constitution is more important than shopping!

Thankfully, a majority of St. Petersburg City Council members may actually agree that allowing safe and legal protests on public property is not necessarily a bad thing.

Hoping to ban demonstrators from BayWalk's main entrance, officials with the entertainment complex want the city to grant them control of the sidewalk in the area.

City Council members have asked administrators to study BayWalk's request, which would convert the sidewalk on the north side of the Second Avenue N, between First and Second streets, into private property.

Craig Sher, president and CEO of the Sembler Co., which owns and manages BayWalk, said moving protesters was among the recommendations that grew out of three recent community forums held to address a January fracas among teens at the complex.

Sher said protesters have hurt businesses and jeopardized public safety. Pedestrians have been pushed or fallen into the street to avoid demonstrators congregating on the sidewalk, he said.

"There have been lots of near misses," Sher said. "There's been screeching brakes and swerving cars. We want our business to thrive and have our customers come in unimpeded."

I've gotta call bullshit on this one. This stretch of road, which runs right through the middle of Bay Walk, is congested with pedestrians and very slow moving cars – it's impossible to drive quickly without causing major mayhem. Further, there are always plenty of cops around to keep protesters from blocking sidewalks, and the protesters know and follow the rules.

In fact, traffic moves so slowly that when I was driving the world famous True Majority Pig Mobile through the area one Saturday night last year, an over-enthusiastic teenage girl ran up to the moving vehicle and jumped onto one of the pigs. I stopped within a few seconds, and by the time I opened my door to shoe her away, 2 cops were already on the scene preparing to call parents and lecture. (They flagged me down a little later to fill me in and get my side of the story)

Anyway, anyone who claims that the protesters are causing a public danger or that the cops are not providing adequate crowd control is completely full of shit.

Now, back to our story...

But St. Petersburg civil rights attorney Marcia Cohen worries granting blanket control of the sidewalk to BayWalk could squelch protesters' constitutional rights.

City laws allow police to keep sidewalks passable and safe, she said.
......

Since BayWalk opened in 2000, protesters have gathered along the Second Avenue N sidewalk, usually on Friday or Saturday nights. People must pass the demonstrators to get from a nearby parking garage to BayWalk.

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement demonstrated at BayWalk weekly for eight months after one of its members was arrested there. It stopped after BayWalk officials agreed to loosen their code of conduct. The anti-war group, St. Pete for Peace, began staging protests during the buildup to the war in Iraq.

"It's the only place in downtown that's vibrant," said Jay Alexander, a member of St. Pete for Peace. "It's more exposure."

The anti-war group typically has 15 to 50 people at BayWalk. It recently scaled back its presence from weekly to twice a month, on Saturdays between 7 and 9 p.m.

Chris Ernesto, one of the peace group's organizers, said he thinks the battle has been fought and won against limiting protesters at BayWalk.

In July, city officials canned a controversial proposal to bar protesters from BayWalk and Tropicana Field. It would have created "no protest zones" and prohibited demonstrations on the north side of the Second Avenue N sidewalk, among other areas.

"At this juncture we are bestowing our confidence with the City Council to side with the Constitution," Ernesto said. "It's a public sidewalk. It's for use by the public, which includes protesters as defined by our Constitution."

Many council members acknowledged they are wary of giving up control of a sidewalk to move protesters.

"There are a lot of ramifications," council member Virginia Littrell said. "If we do it for BayWalk, do we do it for everyone? In St. Petersburg we try to make sure we treat everyone equally."

Council member James Bennett said he sympathizes with BayWalk officials, but would prefer exploring the idea of closing Second Avenue N to traffic, temporarily on weekends, or permanently.

"Legislating for one part of the sidewalk, I'm not necessarily in favor of doing," Bennett said.

"I don't know if we're ready to cross that bridge."

Council member Jay Lasita, who is undecided on the issue, said he's more amenable to selling the public property to BayWalk instead of just handing it over. "That way it becomes a business transaction," he said.

St. Pete for Peace will be protesting at BayWalk this Saturday . Everyone is welcome.

Anti-abortion bill moves ahead

The anti-abortion clinic rules legislation that GOP lawmakers have been pushing is moving forward.

The Florida House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to tighten regulation of clinics that perform second-trimester abortions, with supporters citing safety as the goal.

Opponents said the intent was to erode the constitutional right to abortion and warned the measure could drive women into illegal and unsafe abortions.

The 82-27 vote, largely along party lines, sent the legislation (HB 1041) to the Senate, where a similar bill (SB 1862) has cleared one committee and is pending in a second.

Gov. Jeb Bush supports the measures, spokesman Russell Schweiss said.

The bills order creation of an array of regulations for abortion clinics, from rules about sterilizing equipment and training of employees to requirements on care after abortion. The actual regulations would be written by the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
......

Mona Reis, director of a West Palm Beach abortion clinic for more than two decades, said the legislation could force abortion providers to close their doors or raise prices. She said the motivation for the bill was not women's health but antiabortion politics.

Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, said the bill was "simply hassling" women who want abortions.

If you're relatively wealthy, you may still have choices, albeit ever narrowing ones, but legislation like this, which will force many clinics to close, will really hurt poor and uninsured women who simply don't have the means to take time off of work and travel in order to have a safe, legal medical procedure.

More.

Democrats find spine, at least for a day

This is what can happen when an opposition party decides to finally stand for something. Jeb! Wont be able to thwart the will of the people in a special election, which means his cynical attempt to bribe teachers into selling out their students will have to wait.

A plan by Gov. Jeb Bush to call a special election this fall to scale back the class size amendment appears dead after a rare show of political strength by Senate Democrats.

All but one of the Senate's 14 Democratic members said Wednesday they will vote against a bill calling for a Sept. 6 election to ask voters if they want to keep the class size requirement frozen at the current level.

A three-fourths vote by both chambers is required to hold a special statewide election. In the 40-member Senate, that means at least four Democrats and all 26 Republicans would have to vote for the proposal for it to succeed.

Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, worried about low voter turnout in a special election. "It's a very, very important issue and there would be very little input from the public," Smith said. "We ought to be aiming for just the opposite.

Bush has said the next round of strict classroom size requirements, which kick in during the 2006-07 school year, will cost the state billions of dollars in new school construction and teacher salaries. So he proposed scaling them back in a constitutional amendment that also would increase teacher salaries.
He blasted the Democrats for not offering an alternative.
"Unfortunately, the Democrats have reached the point where they don't have an agenda so they're just against things, which is too bad," Bush said. "Better to have said, "Okay, we're going to lock down against this, but here's our proposal ... But they didn't do that."
But Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said he opposed a special election, which could cost $18-million, and wasn't sure a majority of Republican senators supported it.
"In the overall scheme of gaming of elections, that's a pretty heady approach to try to get something into a special election environment so you can focus on a more narrow section of the turnout and drive outcomes," Lee said. "Frankly, except for emergency situations, it's somewhat undemocratic in my view."

And the Democratic alternative is to let democracy work: voters mandated smaller class sizes. There is no need to come up with an alternative plan to thwart that vote.

Why does the GOP hate the American dream?

So, as expected , the GOP dominated Florida Legislature just found out that it has $2.2 Billion in extra cash just laying around, and the first thing they try to do is slash a program that pays for affordable housing – a program that is sorely needed in these times of rapidly escalating costs.

The boom in Florida's real-estate market has been larger and longer than anyone could have predicted, with one state economist at an economic meeting Monday in Tallahassee describing it as "insane."

The downside of that rise: Affordable housing for low-income Floridians has been increasingly hard to come by.
Yet in a year when legislators were wondering what to do with hundreds of millions of extra dollars even before a revenue-estimating conference Monday increased the state's anticipated income, a bill gaining steam in the legislature would hurt state funding for affordable housing even more.

The House last week passed a bill that would limit how much of the money generated from documentary-stamp taxes is put into a trust fund that pays for affordable housing.

The results of that measure, according to a study by the Florida Housing Coalition, would be the loss of more than 12,500 homes for low-income Floridians and nearly 30,000 jobs tied to the construction and repair of those homes.

In Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, 763 homes and nearly 1,700 jobs tied to those homes would be lost.

"It's a disgrace," said Jaimie Ross, executive director for affordable housing for 1000 Friends of Florida. "It's something that Florida voters really need to understand. Their legislators are taking a budget that's flush with revenue, giving it to the rich and taking away from the poor."
......

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Fred Brummer, R-Apopka, said $376 million is too much to automatically set aside for affordable housing.

"Affordable housing is certainly a noble need," Brummer said. "We're not talking about something that isn't just. But what's the difference between the funding of classroom education and justifying their need, as opposed to affordable housing getting their money at the front gate, getting their money off the top?"

Rep. Nancy Detert, a fellow Republican, disagrees.

As the bill sped through committees, she unsuccessfully tried to soften its blow by making the cap a "soft cap," so that the limit could go up as doc-stamp revenues do.

"When people hear 'affordable housing,' they're thinking welfare housing," said Detert of Venice. "But we're talking about normal workers: People who work in this building, people who are firemen, the stucco guy, the roofer can't afford a house."

Dorina Jenkins, Fort Pierce community services director, said there isn't enough money this year for more than 100 people in the city to tap into the funds.

Jenkins runs a program funded through the doc-stamp revenues that helps low-income families with the down payment and closing costs on their first homes.

"It would put a tremendous dent in homeownership in our city," she said of the proposed cap. "It would make it impossible for those people to take on the American dream of owning their own homes."

The Republican agenda includes money for corrupt Corporate Welfare Daddies , but no money for sick children . The GOP is all about giving cash to religious schools , but there's not enough for small public school classes and decent teacher pay . Cigarette companies get help while anti-smoking programs are choked off .

Now, if all of this pisses you off just a bit, try not to show anger in public, else a neighbor may twist your wrath into a personal threat and legally shoot you dead in the street, thus invoking the sacred GOP given right to kill our fellow man if he so much as looks at us funny.

Remember: the culture of life only counts for the chosen wans.

Big Tobacco steps up, Legislature sucks butt

Last week, we learned that our legislature is rightly concerned about greedy, evil terrorists trafficking in counterfeit cigarettes, resulting in lowered profits for deserving corporations such as Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds.

Now, the facts that virtually all of the major tobacco companies have themselves been involved in numerous tax evading smuggling schemes and that they are almost certainly the actual manufacturers of many of the “counterfeit” products and that they have partnered with organized crime syndicates around the globe, those facts are so obviously not germane to this conversation that I am specifically not going to mention them.

So, on to today - The Tampa Tribune informs us that some of those innocent cash rich tax evading tobacco companies may somehow benefit from another bill that's making its way through the legislative process.

Two pieces of legislation, House Bill 1261 and Senate Bill 2012, propose tacking a 40- cent tax onto the per-pack price of discount cigarettes distributed by manufacturers that escaped Florida's landmark tobacco settlement.

It's an attempt by lawmakers to close a loophole in Florida's 1997 agreement with the nation's largest cigarette makers. At the time, the small companies accounted for less than 1 percent of all cigarette sales, so Florida ignored them when striking the deal for reimbursement of taxpayer money spent treating sick smokers.

Rep. Ron Greenstein, D-Coconut Creek, saying that Camel had ``stepped up,'' wanted to know why the state wasn't demanding the same of all cigarette manufacturers. ``Cheap cigarettes cause just as much cancer and disease as their higher-priced counterparts,'' said Greenstein, who is sponsoring the House bill.

Because smaller tobacco companies such as 305 and Maverick did not participate in the settlement, they have been able to sell their cigarettes for less than popular name brands from the major manufacturers, which raised prices to pay for the $200 billion settlement. A pack of Marlboros, for example, can cost as much as $4, and some of the budget brands go for $1.50 a pack.

......

Lawmakers say the tax increase could help beef up funding for the state's antismoking programs for teens.

The state brings in hundreds of millions of dollars each year from the settlement and tobacco taxes, but the Legislature hasn't been spending much more than $1 million annually on tobacco prevention programs.

In 2004, the Legislature budgeted $1 million for smoking prevention programs, down from $37.5 million in 2003 and as much as $70 million in 1999. This year the state could spend even less, using the remainder for cancer research and other health care programs.

Opponents of the proposed bills, however, argue they amount to a sweetheart deal for one midsize tobacco company, Liggett Group. Liggett, a major producer of budget cigarettes, was one of the original companies to settle but had negotiated favorable terms by cooperating with state investigators in the case against the other manufacturers.

If passed, the new taxes would target Liggett's primary competitors, causing their prices to climb while leaving Liggett's prices unchanged.

So, the tax increase could be used to fund smoking prevention programs. But, as the article notes, and as I pointed out last week (just in case you somehow failed to follow the link the first time), the once impressive anti-smoking program has all but been killed by Jeb! and his legislative cronies.

Speaking of healthcare...

Krugman

First, America's traditional private health insurance system, in which workers get coverage through their employers, is unraveling. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that in 2004 there were at least five million fewer jobs with health insurance than in 2001. And health care costs have become a major burden on those businesses that continue to provide insurance coverage: General Motors now spends about $1,500 on health care for every car it produces.

Second, rising Medicare spending may be a sign of progress, but it still must be paid for - and right now few politicians are willing to talk about the tax increases that will be needed if the program is to make medical advances available to all older Americans.

Finally, the U.S. health care system is wildly inefficient. Americans tend to believe that we have the best health care system in the world. (I've encountered members of the journalistic elite who flatly refuse to believe that France ranks much better on most measures of health care quality than the United States.) But it isn't true. We spend far more per person on health care than any other country - 75 percent more than Canada or France - yet rank near the bottom among industrial countries in indicators from life expectancy to infant mortality.

This last point is, in a way, good news. In the long run, medical progress may force us to make a harsh choice: if we don't want to become a society in which the rich get life-saving medical treatment and the rest of us don't, we'll have to pay much higher taxes. The vast waste in our current system means, however, that effective reform could both improve quality and cut costs, postponing the day of reckoning.

To get effective reform, however, we'll need to shed some preconceptions - in particular, the ideologically driven belief that government is always the problem and market competition is always the solution.

The fact is that in health care, the private sector is often bloated and bureaucratic, while some government agencies - notably the Veterans Administration system - are lean and efficient. In health care, competition and personal choice can and do lead to higher costs and lower quality. The United States has the most privatized, competitive health system in the advanced world; it also has by far the highest costs, and close to the worst results.

Workers lose ground to inflation

W!'s economy continues to squeeze the working class while the rich get richer. LA Times:

For the first time in 14 years, the American workforce has in effect gotten an across-the-board pay cut.

The growth in wages in 2004 and the first two months of this year trailed inflation, compounding the squeeze from higher housing, energy and other costs.
......

This is the first time that salaries have increased more slowly than prices since the 1990-91 recession. Though salary growth has been relatively sluggish since the 2001 downturn, inflation also had stayed relatively subdued until last year, when the consumer price index rose 2.7%. But wages rose only 2.5%.

The effective 0.2-percentage-point erosion in workers' living standards occurred while the economy expanded at a healthy 4%, better than the 3% historical average.

Meanwhile, corporate profits hit record highs as companies got more productivity out of workers while keeping pay increases down.

Some see climbing profits and stagnant wages as not only unfair but also ultimately unsustainable. "Those that are baking the larger pie ought to see their slices expanding," said Jared Bernstein, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
......

The biggest factor is the slack employment market, which means there is little pressure on businesses to boost pay. "They take advantage of you because there's no work and anyone will work for anything," Romero said.

Although the unemployment rate has dropped to a relatively low 5.2%, that figure doesn't count the hundreds of thousands of jobless people who've given up their searches and dropped out of the labor market at a greater rate than anytime since 1988. At the same time, the cost of health premiums has skyrocketed, eating into the pool of corporate cash set aside for raises. Although pay rose only about 2.4% last year, benefit costs jumped almost 7%.

With benefits factored in, workers' total compensation did outpace inflation in 2004, even if they didn't see it in their paychecks. But employers also are requiring workers to pay a greater share of their premiums.

"Healthcare has eroded the wage base," said Janemarie Mulvey, chief economist with the Employment Policy Foundation, a business-funded think tank in Washington.

"In the long run, we can't continue like this. If healthcare keeps crowding out wages forever, something's got to give."

The squeeze is especially intense on the 47% of the workforce whose employers don't directly provide their health insurance. For lower-income workers, who are more likely to be uninsured, the falling value of their wages is even more serious because they're more likely to live paycheck to paycheck. And rising food and energy prices take a proportionately higher toll on the poor than on the rich.

How to Organize a Union in Your Workplace.

Health Care is a Human Right

Fight The Republican Low Wage Strategy.

Martinez feels the heat

It’s beat up on Mel Martinez day, with many of the state’s papers picking up on the observation that Mel’s “the buck stops somewhere down the hall” series of excuses is getting rather tired.

Florida Politics reminds us that

'Ole Mel keeps getting into trouble, yet skates by by blaming others. Mel, is he a poor, innocent dupe, an empty suit, or both?. Consider:

1. Campaign Contributions: Back in 2002, Builder groups were accused of wrongfully funneling money to candidates, including Martinez. Mel was out of the loop.

2. Ezzie Thomas: Martinez had Ezzie Thomas work for his local campaign, like Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. Dyer was indicted; Mel was promoted to Washington. Martinez has been strangely silent as to his dealings with Thomas. Let me guess: Mel had no idea what Ezie was doing.

And the news organizations are all over well known historical Martinez claims of innocence, with the SP Times, Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald, and others all weighing in with their own versions of the same story.

As well as an article, the SP Times has an editorial on Mel’s embarrassing lack of responsibility.

Remember when the campaign treated reporters to a conference call that branded an opponent's political consultant as a homosexual? Martinez said the activists weren't speaking for him. Remember when the campaign mailed a slick brochure depicting his primary opponent, former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, as backing "the radical homosexual lobby"? Martinez said "those words were spoken by others." Remember when his office sent e-mails to Miami radio stations depicting federal agents in the 2000 Elian Gonzalez ordeal as "armed thugs"? Martinez blamed "someone who was writing for the campaign."

The unsigned Schiavo memo was the subject of intense speculation over the past few weeks, but Martinez said he saw no reason, prior to questions being raised by Washington newspapers, to ask his own staff. That's odd, since one of the eight talking points - "this legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy" - was almost the same as the headline on his own press release announcing the bill two weeks earlier.

Martinez's claim that the memo just "at some point along the way came into" his grasp will no doubt keep the late-night comics busy. But he does himself no favors even among those who will take him at his word. To believe his story is to accept that he can't keep up with his own staff, what they write or what someone sticks in his coat pocket.

The PB Post goes further, pointing out some ties between the purported author of the memo and Tom Delay:

The aide who wrote the memo has links to a lobbying group that works for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Before joining Martinez's staff, Darling was a partner in the Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying firm whose leaders include several former staffers of DeLay. Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff for DeLay, is a founding partner in the firm and helped arrange a 2001 trip by DeLay to South Korea that has raised questions in the House.

The trip was financed by a business group registered as a foreign agent, which is prohibited by House rules.

According to lobbying reports filed with the House, one of Darling's clients was Universal Bearing Inc., which is linked to the group that paid for DeLay's trip. The Korea-U.S. Exchange Council is the foreign agent that paid for the trip, and it was created to promote Seung Youn Kim, chairman of Universal Bearing's parent company, the Hanwha Group, according to The New York Times.

Darling, who resigned from Martinez's staff late Wednesday, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Finally, from Herald.com:

The campaign ads were bitterly divisive, even by the standards of a bare-knuckle primary, accusing the opponent of then Republican senatorial hopeful Mel Martinez of playing to the ``radical homosexual lobby.''

Martinez blamed the ads on ''young Turks'' in his campaign and apologized to his GOP rival. Weeks later Martinez found himself again blaming a staff member after a press release from his campaign likened U.S. immigration agents to ''armed thugs'' for seizing Elián González from his Miami home in 2000.

Now, for the third time, Martinez finds himself under fire -- and blaming an aide for the conflagration. This time, Martinez said he has accepted the resignation of a staff member in his Senate office for penning the now-infamous political memo that suggested Republicans in Washington could use the plight of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo to bash Democrats, singling out Martinez's fellow Florida senator, Democrat Bill Nelson.

Supporters of Martinez, including Gov. Jeb Bush, rallied Thursday to his side, but some Republicans anguished privately that the latest and most high-profile misstep marks a major debacle for the freshman senator.

The memo and Martinez's handling of it, those supporters said, could damage his relationship with other senators and portray him as driven more by political partisanship than conviction. It also could lead to questions about his level of oversight of his staff and raise doubts about his attention to detail, as Martinez acknowledged that ''unbeknownst'' to him, he handed the explosive memo to Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa.

POOR IMAGE

None of the images of Martinez, supporters say, are particularly attractive.

Martinez sought to blunt some of the criticism, saying in a statement released late Wednesday that he was ''ultimately responsible for the work of my staff'' and that he took ''full responsibility'' for the situation.

But one supporter suggested: ``You can only blame staff so many times before people come back and look at you.''

Ding Dong...

Munchkins scheme to one day wear the ruby slippers.

Sorry, but this vision popped into my head as soon as I first laid eyes on the original AP photo with the fabulous red slippers so prominently displayed.

And, yes: this rakishly dressed homophobe was a wicked bitch. More here and here and here and lots of other places - I mostly just wanted to get the picture up.

Baxley spreads malicious lies to support bias claims

Yesterday's SP Times article is titled “Lawmaker aims to squelch political bias in college classes”. Huh? The headline seems to imply that said political bias exists and that it is a problem, and the article helpfully provides some examples right off the bat.

Conservative-minded students sit in silence because they are afraid to express their views.

Students get F's if they don't write that President Bush should be charged as a war criminal.

And professors are told to leave academia because their right- wing views are unacceptable.

These examples, according to state Rep. Dennis Baxley, are far too common on college campuses these days.

"If you think those things don't happen," Baxley said at hearing in the Florida House on Tuesday, "you are either very naive, or you haven't talked to the students or faculty who live through subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle persecution every day."

Actually, if you think these things don't happen, then you must be paying attention, because Dennis Baxley is full of shit.

First, as noted by Media Matters, the legend of the student who got an F for not calling Bush a war criminal has been positively refuted: it never happened.

Horowitz and his group Students for Academic Freedom had alleged that when asked on a midterm essay exam to explain "why President Bush was a war criminal," a student in "[a] criminology class at a Colorado university" received a failing grade for explaining instead why Saddam Hussein was a war criminal. Horowitz and SAF claimed that this incident constituted anti-conservative bias. Questions were raised repeatedly about the veracity of the story -- first by Mano Singham, the director of Case Western Reserve University's Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education, who questioned the Colorado story March 4 in a Cleveland Plain Dealer op-ed; then by Media Matters; then, on March 15, InsideHigherEd.com refuted nearly all of the claims Horowitz and his SAF group had made about the alleged UNC incident, quoting a UNC spokeswoman as saying that "the test question was not the one described by Horowitz, the grade was not an F, and there were clearly non-political reasons for whatever grade was given."

And it turns out that a story from closer to home may be suspect as well. Baxley cites the example of Elie Lahesa who

said a history professor at Tallahassee Community College told the class that America deserved the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It happened in a Western civilization class the day after Sept. 11, 2001, she said.

When Lahesa, a former Marine dressed in uniform, objected, she said the professor told her, "You have no right to talk. You are just a baby killer."

Afterward, she said, students spat on her.

When she went to the dean's office, Lahesa said she was told the dean didn't have time to talk to her.

Well, this incident never happened either.

College student Elle Lahesa described a humiliating experience in her history class the day after Sept. 11, 2001.

At a news conference with reporters this week, Lahesa said professor Donald Barry told a class at Tallahassee Community College that America deserved the terrorist attacks - "every bit of it."

State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who stood beside Lahesa, cited the story as the type of radicalism he hopes to quell with a bill intended to protect conservatives on college campuses.

It was a chilling story, except that the professor says it's not true.

"I absolutely deny that," Barry said Wednesday. "If she was under oath, then she committed perjury."

Barry said he wants to appear under oath before Baxley's House Education Council to rebut the allegations.

College administrators on Wednesday called other students in the class to ask what happened. One student agreed to speak with reporters.

"He didn't say anything like that," said Onome Edukore, 22, who was in Barry's Western civilization class the days after Sept. 11.

Barry did talk about the Sept. 11 attacks, he said.

"The worst thing he could have said that day was that this was a wakeup for America, as far as beefing up security," Edukore said. "He was always down for an argument. He probably did seem liberal."

At the news conference, Lahesa, a former Marine, said she was dressed in her Marine uniform. She said she challenged the professor's remarks but was quickly silenced.

She said Barry told her, "You have no right to talk. You are just a baby killer."

Lahesa, who also claimed students spat on her after class, stood by her story on Wednesday.

"He either (a) forgot it; or (b) is afraid of losing his job," she said.

Lahesa, who now attends Florida State University, said she didn't know any of her community college classmates and, hence, couldn't call any of them to corroborate her story.

Barry called the student's accusations "disgusting."
......

Baxley's academic freedom bill (HB 837) would give students the right to object if professors repeatedly discuss controversial issues irrelevant to a class. They would have the right to be graded and taught without political bias and to have access to "a broad range of serious scholarly opinion" on any subject.

The bill would require student fees to be spent on a "viewpoint-neutral basis," but it does not explain what that means.

State Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat, said he never believed the wild examples of liberal bias that Baxley said permeates Florida's universities.

"I think these folks are stretching to find a justification for a horrible idea," Gelber said. "I would call this thing a dog-and-pony show, except I have too much respect for dogs and ponies."

Baxley could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

At a hearing Tuesday, he said examples such as Lahesa's of liberal bias on campus are very real.

"I find it almost humorous that we are pretending that our universities are not bastions of leftist thought when they are - obviously," Baxley said. "People know this. And all you have to do is talk to a conservative student who has been on campus, and he's experienced it. And he has to go underground."

Well, if said student is running to the media spreading libelous rumors about professors because he doesn't like a grade, then, yeah, he might have to go underground, but only to avoid a subpena.

Troxler has more.

To be sure, plenty of professors have expressed opinions, and yes indeedy, some of those opinions were liberal. I also have heard professors require that students back up their own opinions with supporting evidence and intelligent argument. That's a professor's job.

Maybe that's the reason some people feel "attacked." We live in an age when nobody needs any facts. In this modern day, you can believe any old thing you want, and if the facts get in the way, ignore 'em.

This brings us to House Bill 837 in the current session of the Legislature, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala. His proposal would create a "bill of rights" for students and faculty alike.

Baxley says conservative students and faculty are persecuted. His bill says that students are entitled to hear a wide array of viewpoints, and that neither students nor professors should be punished for their beliefs. (I wonder if he means to protect Commies and atheists too.)

So, what evidence do supporters of this bill cite? One example was that the University of Florida spent student fees to hear the liberal filmmaker Michael Moore. The horror! But it turns out the students also got former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. Sounds like a good mix to me.
......

Really, you know the big target here?

Evolution.

Evolution, as the Baxleys of the world like to say, is "just a theory," no more valid than the story of creation in Genesis. (Does anybody besides me believe they both pretty much describe the same thing?)

Just a theory! Of course, so is gravity. In fact, you might be surprised to know, they are still kinda working on that one.

A "theory" is a model of the universe, based on evidence. When the evidence contradicts the theory, we revise the theory - we don't deny the evidence.

Which is exactly the point I made last week. See the BlogWood archives for more.

Get your gun

The Wild West Gun Bill just passed the House. Jeb! Can't wait to sign it .

Gov. Jeb Bush said he will soon sign into law the so-called "Castle Doctrine" bill — giving Floridians more discretion to shoot would-be attackers in their homes, vehicles and public places — after the state House approved it overwhelmingly Tuesday. The Senate had passed the bill unanimously. Having moved through the legislature like a rifle shot, the NRA-backed bill, which some say will create a Wild West, shoot-first mentality in Florida, could end up being the first substantive bill signed into law this session. That unchecked momentum stems in part, Democrats acknowledge, from their losses in the 2004 election and their perceptions about why they lost. The measure (SB 436) not only garnered every Republican vote in both chambers but also had the support of all 14 Senate Democrats and 13 of 36 House Democrats. It passed 94-20 in the House, with three Republicans and three Democrats not voting. ......

The top priority of the National Rifle Association in Florida this year, the measure makes it clear in state law what courts have generally ruled in Florida: There's no duty to retreat before fighting back if you're in your home, workplace or car.
But it also extends the right outside the home, saying that "a person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be, has no duty to retreat."
The bill says that person has "the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so, to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another."
The bill would make shooters in such situations immune from criminal prosecution and civil action.
The idea will legalize shootouts in the streets, opponents say.
"This bill creates a Wild, Wild West out there," said Rep. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood.
......
A number of Democrats, some of whom call themselves Mainstream Democrats, also saw the bill as a way to continue redefining the party as one that values principles that Republicans have made their own, until recently: agendas that also include personal responsibility, efficient government and so-called moral values.
Although the bill "may go a little too far, it sends a message that Democrats believe in those same core values," said Rep. Will Kendrick, D-Carrabelle, a co-sponsor of the House version. "The majority of Democrats have gotten away from basic principles. They've realized they were way out in left field. I think some of them voted for this one in attempt to get back to a balance."
......

And still others believe that the issues of Mainstream Democrats and redefining the party and refocusing the minds of voters had nothing to do with the rapid success of the bill.
"The NRA is a very powerful lobby and a lot of members don't want to cross it," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, who opposed the bill.

When are these idiots gonna learn to stand for something, anything, that is not a feeble attempt to appear more Republican? I mean, a Democrat is saying that the majority in his party are out in left field? Maybe he'd feel more comfortable in the GOP.

Welcome to Florida

The moon was in the sign of Scorpio
The sun was at my back
I didn't know how far the train would go
Until the law would find my track
I saw the brakeman and the engineer
Drinking wine and eating brie
I asked 'em who would brake and who would steer
They started pointing back at me

So I shot 'em down
One by one
Then I left 'em 'long the rails
I use my gun
Whenever kindness fails

I only have a moment to explain
Just a chance to let you know
When it's time for you to board the train
There are two ways you can go
You can ride the wheels into the sun
Feel the wind upon your face
Or you can laugh into a loaded gun
And you'll likely loose your place

So I shot 'em down
One by one
Then I left 'em 'long the rails
I use my gun
Whenever kindness fails

Martinez admits authorship of Schiavo memo, denies all responsibility

WaPo

The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.

Brian Darling, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.

Martinez said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."

Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, other Senate aides gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.
......

The mystery of the memo's origin had roiled the Capitol, with Republicans accusing Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick, and Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to duck responsibility for exploiting the dying days of a brain-damaged woman.

Conservative Web logs have challenged the authenticity of the memo, in some cases likening it to the discredited documents about Bush's National Guard service that CBS News reported last fall.
......

The unsigned memo -- which initially misspells Schiavo's first name and gives the wrong number for the pending bill -- includes eight talking points in support of the legislation and calls the controversy "a great political issue."

"This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy," the memo concludes.

It asserts that the case would appeal to the party's core supporters, saying: "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."

At the time, other Senate Republican aides claimed to be familiar with the memo but declined to discuss it on the record and gave no information about its origin.

In a statement issued last night, Martinez said that Harkin asked him for background information on the bill and that he gave him what he thought was a routine one-page staff memo on the legislation. "Unbeknownst to me, instead of my one page on the bill, I had given him a copy of the now infamous memo that at some point along the way came into my possession," the statement said.
......

"It was intended to be a working draft," Martinez said. "He doesn't really know how I got it."
Efforts to reach Darling last night were unsuccessful.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), a member of the Rules and Administration Committee, wrote to the panel's leaders last week to ask for an investigation into the "document, its source, and how it came to be distributed."
......

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in an interview Friday that he considered it "ludicrous" to suggest that his party created the document and said Republicans were using such talk to divert responsibility.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said he believed that the memo originated with the GOP because it is "totally consistent" with how the Republicans have operated for the past four years. "They just shouldn't lose their memos," he said.

AP

"This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue," said the memo, which was described at the time as being circulated among Senate Republicans.

Martinez said in a statement that he discovered Wednesday that the memo had been written by an aide in his office. "It is with profound disappointment and regret that I learned today that a senior member of my staff was unilaterally responsible for this document," Martinez said.

He said he accepted the resignation of the staffer who drafted and circulated the memo. "This type of behavior and sentiment will not be tolerated in my office," he said. Martinez did not identify the aide, but The Washington Post said he was the senator's legal counsel, Brian Darling.

"Until this afternoon, I had never seen it and had no idea a copy of it had ever been in my possession," Martinez said. He had previously denied knowing anything about the memo and condemned its sentiments.

The memo was produced and distributed from his office, but he knows less than nothing. In fact, the memo miraculously appeared in his hands, no doubt placed there by God, who must have misinterpreted Mel's prayers for a miracle in the Schiavo case.

Much more at AMERICAblog, where you'll also find the memo itself:

Storms 'n Norman

In Florida, once you’re convicted of a crime, you’re considered a second class citizen for life - not allowed to vote or hold office or even work in dozens of occupations that require a professional license, even after you’ve served your time and repaid your debt to society.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman wants to add healthcare to the list of banned activities. Norman has proposed that the county indigent health plan be allowed to turn away anyone with three criminal convictions.

This means that a homeless person busted for trespassing for sleeping or loitering in the wrong place who has the wherewithal to seek out medical care for his tuberculan cough will be denied care. If there’s any justice in the world, that person will run into Mr. Norman at a red light and unintentionally spew mucus and sputum all over the commissioner’s suit jacket while begging for change, but we can’t count on that scenario actually coming to pass.

So, in real life, said homeless wretch will show up at an emergency room, which will be forced to bear the cost of his treatment, thus saving the county a few precious dollars.

Elsewhere on the commission, Ronda Storms feels that if she can crawl across glass on her elbows then you and I can damn well pay good money to rent second rate Hollywood movies at Blockbuster, because providing patrons a popular and well received service just isn’t what a public library is supposed to be doing.

Ronda feels that the library, rather than offering popular movies on DVD, should instead be focusing on children’s materials, including “educational” videos, because encouraging adults to use the library’s resources might just lead to clamoring for more government services like, uh, healthcare for poor people or some other such nonsense.

Campus thought police

Florida is a battleground in the campus thought police movement.

Krugman follows up

Consider the statements of Dennis Baxley, a Florida legislator who has sponsored a bill that - like similar bills introduced in almost a dozen states - would give students who think that their conservative views aren't respected the right to sue their professors. Mr. Baxley says that he is taking on "leftists" struggling against "mainstream society," professors who act as "dictators" and turn the classroom into a "totalitarian niche." His prime example of academic totalitarianism? When professors say that evolution is a fact.

In its April Fools' Day issue, Scientific American published a spoof editorial in which it apologized for endorsing the theory of evolution just because it's "the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time," saying that "as editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence." And it conceded that it had succumbed "to the easy mistake of thinking that scientists understand their fields better than, say, U.S. senators or best-selling novelists do."

The editorial was titled "O.K., We Give Up." But it could just as well have been called "Why So Few Scientists Are Republicans These Days." Thirty years ago, attacks on science came mostly from the left; these days, they come overwhelmingly from the right, and have the backing of leading Republicans.

Scientific American may think that evolution is supported by mountains of evidence, but President Bush declares that "the jury is still out." Senator James Inhofe dismisses the vast body of research supporting the scientific consensus on climate change as a "gigantic hoax." And conservative pundits like George Will write approvingly about Michael Crichton's anti-environmentalist fantasies.

Think of the message this sends: today's Republican Party - increasingly dominated by people who believe truth should be determined by revelation, not research - doesn't respect science, or scholarship in general. It shouldn't be surprising that scholars have returned the favor by losing respect for the Republican Party.

American Taliban continue to threaten judges

From the SP Times

After Terri Schiavo's death, U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay went into another rage against the judiciary. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," he warned, referring to the judges who had refused to order Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted.

DeLay's threat of retribution aside, what is called for now is "a deep breath and (a) step back," as Florida Senate President Tom Lee suggests. Gov. Jeb Bush also had it right when he said there is a lot of "raw emotion" following Schiavo's passing and it might be "appropriate to wait" before pushing legislative changes in laws covering the end-of-life decisions.

The worst possible legacy for Schiavo would be if Congress and state legislatures across the country made it more difficult for people to have their end-of-life wishes respected. Yet some of the proposals batted about in Florida and in Congress would do just that.
......

There is no reason to rush passage of any new laws. Time and reflection are warranted, just as our governor and Senate president suggest.

All well and good, except that these wingers aren’t after a simple changes in the law - their goal is the death of the judiciary, or at least the death of a few more judges.

"I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. . . . And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence. Certainly without any justification, but a concern that I have."

Keeping us safe from terrorist smokes

Two years ago, Florida lawmakers de-funded the highly lauded tobacco control program. Announced with much fanfare after Florida settled a lawsuit with tobacco companies, and funded by the settlement, the program was known for its creative commercials and innovative ideas and actually seemed to be working, as teen smoking rates started to drop.

Now, the state spends a miserly pittance on the program, because it just wouldn’t be right to put the health and welfare of our youth ahead of the rights of international conglomerates to profit by creating new addicts for a mediocre drug.

So, cigarette companies are free to market their product with no balancing message of caution, but that still isn’t enough for them. See, if we don’t act now, the terrorists are gonna win. The terrorists are gonna steal profits from cigarette makers, and the terrorists are gonna use that ill gotten cash to do evil things, such as turning teenagers into addicts of off-brand smokes.

``There are indications that terrorist group involvement in illicit cigarette trafficking, as well as the relationship between criminal groups and terrorist groups, will grow in the future because of the large profits that can be made,'' the report said. ......

``The total tax losses to this activity to the United States are estimated to exceed a billion a year. At the same time cigarette smuggling creates incredible profits for criminal organizations. It's an easy money making venture and where does that money go?'' Boyd said. ``It's lining the pockets of criminal organizations or, God forbid, going to terrorist organizations.''

In Florida, Rep. Thad Altman and Sen. Mike Haridopolos, both Republicans from Melbourne, are sponsoring bills to try to stop counterfeit and contraband cigarettes. Each (SB 816 and HB 205) has one more committee stop before reaching the vote of their full chambers. The bills also make possession of counterfeit cigarettes a felony that carries up to five years in prison.

Similar bills died in the Legislature last year, most likely because some House members were afraid an unrelated cigarette tax bill would be attached to it.

``It was just a mistake. It helped terrorists. We've had a year of imported [counterfeit] cigarettes that slipped through that we may have caught,'' Altman said.

Keep terrorist tumors out of your lungs: smoke American - the costlier tobacco will make you strong and smart!

Sharing the rod?

Federally funded, faith-based youth justice program launched

Some Florida juvenile offenders will be able to opt into the nation's first federally funded faith-based mentor program for young criminals, Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings announced Thursday.

Participation will require the consent of the youth and his or her parents. Children and volunteer mentors of any faith can sign up, but the administration will be Christian-based.

''If we can get good results, what we want is to then make the model available to other states,'' said Robert Flores, an administrator with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is funding the program.
......

An advocate of church and state separation questioned whether the program would be legal.

''Some of the aggressive fundamentalist groups that proselytize can take advantage of programs like that,'' said Robert Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. ``If the program promotes religion with taxpayer dollars, there's a good chance it would be declared unconstitutional.''

But organizers said the voluntary nature of the program makes it legal, and said that religious mentors are ideally suited to help juvenile offenders rebuild their lives.

And after the, uh, religious mentors are done with those little punks, we’ll send in the Boy Scouts...

The chosen wans

Time it took President Bush to issue a public statement on the shooting

in which a 16-year-old (American Indian) boy killed nine people and then himself on a Minnesota Indian reservation. Monday's rampage by Jeff Weise was the worst U.S. school shooting since 15 people died in the 1999 Columbine massacre.

Time it took President Bush to issue a public statement on the death of Terri Schiavo -

Two hours and thirty minutes.

...I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected...

Of course, by “all Americans,” he meant “some Americans, namely pale Christian death cultists, and certainly no foreigners.”

Good poor black child

Good brown foreigner