Posts in the category Democrats
Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 3-12-10 Go! Go! Ru-bi-o! By Beach Blogger Pensacola Beach Blog State representative Stephen Precourt (R-Orlando) has proposed using state tax dollars to promote the production of "family-friendly" movies and television productions. If Congress is banning earmarks, why should voters re-elect Bill Young? By Peter Schorsch St. Petersblog 2.0 Anyone else get the feeling that the race for Florida Congressional District 10 just got a whole lot more interesting now that House Democratic leaders on Wednesday banned budget earmarks to private industry, ending a practice that has steered billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to companies and set off corruption scandals. The Rubiolution will be televised By Joy Reid The Reid Report March sure is early to be going on television for a primary in August…which tells me Team Rubio is at least somewhat concerned that AMEXgate and the $134 back wax might begin to stick. Coincidentally enough, Florida is the state with both the highest rate of identity theft, and with a governor suffering through the most prolonged identity crisis in recent political history.
Charlie Crist’s “Man In The Mirror” confusion was in full view during the 2010 State of the State speech, when he launched his third 180-degree turn since becoming governor in 2006 - this time trying desperately to swing back towards what was a winning identity for him back then. That Crist was posing as a Republican centrist eager to appeal to moderates of all affiliations. He was going to help protect the environment, help Floridians with housing and health care, things that sounded downright…Democratic. But he didn’t help with any of that, focusing instead on building his campaign war chest and appeasing the entrenched special interests that dominate Florida's economic and political landscapes. Read More » Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 3-5-10 Bilked: another story from South Florida For Florida, A Time for Leadership Lying to Our Kids St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler, cites my favorite Florida politician, former Gov. Reubin Askew, as evidence of leadership that worked out well for Florida:
A new governor named Reubin Askew — sometimes with the help of the Legislature, and sometimes despite it — led Florida in an unprecedented program of modernization and reform, including: Troxler goes on to bemoan the lack of "leadership" that exists with the current regime in Tallahassee. And goes on to propose a set of ideas that have mostly been embraced by progressives and Democrats: Above all else, fix Florida's tax structure. Get rid of the loopholes and tax breaks — and if you're worried that's a "tax increase," then you should lower the overall rate on everybody else who's been paying all along. The first item, reforming Florida's antiquated and regressive tax structure that harms working families and lets the wealthy get away with quite a bit is correctly put at the top of the list. Progress Florida's "Stop The Cuts" petition effort, which we launched yesterday, is a first step to move momentum for reform out of the think tanks and newspaper columns and into the grassroots. But here's the thing about Troxler's otherwise great column: the regime that occupies Tallahassee believes they are leading. The problem is, as we know, that their reactionary "leadership" has hurt our state immensely for the roughly 12 years the Republicans have controlled the legislature and Governor's mansion. And no, any attempt by the press to do their typical "both sides are at fault" meme is just silly. The Dems haven't been in charge of any house of the legislature since 1996 and the Governor's mansion since 1998. Gerrymandering has kept them out, and the minority party is powerless to do very much. Until there's a change of leadership and focus in Tallahassee, it will be very hard to accomplish much of anything that will benefit working people rather than just special interests who can bundle $500 checks. However, leadership is also required from everyday Floridians, too. We can't just leave it to the politicians to solve our problems. Grassroots oriented, progressive/pro public interest groups will be needed to apply external pressure for progress regardless of who's in power. While I'm obviously biased, I think Progress Florida is a great example of such a group. Others I think also do this well include Worst to First and Fund Education Now, both of which employ organic grassroots strength to tackle major problems Florida faces. Howard Dean is still right: "You have the power." Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 2-19-10 Note to Florida Voters: throw out the vultures and speculators By R.S. Pienta Leave a Comment A teacher I met via Facebook recently vented her frustration about the No Child Left Behind policy and how it is implemented via rules about FCAT in the state of Florida. Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 2-12-10 I Suspect This Is Where We're Going By Gimleteye Eye on Miami In a 2 PM press conference, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson will announce that she will not run for re-election. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and Democracy for America (DFA) released a poll yesterday which shows voters in selected freshmen Democratic districts supporting progressive views. In addition, voters are ready to punish Democratic members of Congress that go conservative and corporate. One of the districts polled was Suzanne Kosmas' 24th district (North Brevard, most of Volusia, west Seminole, west and north Orange counties.) Here are the poll findings from Kosmas' district: 1.) Are Democrats in Washington more on the side of the lobbyists and special interests or on the side of people like you? Lobbyists: 45% 2.) Are Democrats in Washington doing too much to fight corporate America or should they do more to fight big corporations? Do More: 51% 3.) What comes closer to the lesson you think Democrats should learn from the recent Senate election in Massachusetts, where the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy was won by a Republican: Voters want Democrats to slow down and try to do less, OR Voters are upset about the slow pace of change – and will hold Democrats accountable if they refuse to use their power to fight special interests on behalf of regular people? More Change: 39% 4.) Generally speaking do you think Barack Obama and Democrats in Washington, DC are delivering enough on the change Obama promised to bring to America during the campaign? No: 56% 5.) Is the issue of national health care reform very important, somewhat important, or not important when deciding how to vote in congressional elections? Very + Somewhat: 65% Very: 30% 6.) Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans? Favor: 64% 7.) Would you be more likely to vote for the re-election of your local Democratic member of Congress if they worked to kill the current health care reform effort in Congress or if they worked to add a public health insurance option that competes head-to-head with private insurance? Public Option: 42% 8.) Would you be more likely to vote for the re-election of your local Democratic House member if they worked to pass the Senate’s version of health care reform with minimal changes, if any – OR if they worked to add a public health insurance option to the bill that competes head-to-head with private insurance? Public Option: 33% 9.) If Congress does not pass a public health insurance option as part of health care reform, will that make you more likely or less likely to vote for Democrats in the 2010 general election or would it have no real effect on your vote? More: 14% 10.) If Congress does not pass a public option as part of health care reform, will that make you more likely or less likely to vote in the 2010 general election, or no effect? More: 12% 11.) [DEMOCRATS ONLY] If a Democratic member of Congress does not work to pass a public health insurance option that competes head-to-head with private insurance, would you want a more progressive candidate to run against them in a Democratic primary? Yes: 56% Most of these numbers are scary for Kosmas. She voted against the health care reform package last year, but voted for the financial reform bill. Her record is mixed. It's also worth noting that of all the freshmen Democratic districts polled, Kosmas' district often had the most conservative-leaning results. So numbers elsewhere are just as significant or more so. These numbers paint, imo, a clear picture for the Congresswoman: vote against health care, don't work for a public option, or just passing the Senate health care bill as is would be a disaster. A third of Democrats and overall voters will be less inclined to vote. Kosmas' districts is an R+4 district according to Charlie Cook's Partisan Voting Index (PVI), so Kosmas needs as many Democrats and favorable independents as possible. Being weak by not taking on the health insurance companies and greedy corporations will endanger Kosmas (and plenty of other Democrats) in the 2010 midterm elections. Be bold and progressive, or go home. With fundraising totals for 2009 now having been reported, let's examine how the major candidates for statewide office fundraising efforts compare with their internet and social networking footprints entering 2010 (a similar earlier comparison courtesy Progress Florida’s summer 2009 intern Joe Eagleton may be found here). In addition to providing a snapshot of the internet presence for the leading 2010 candidates, this post provides links to easily find and follow their web and social networking activity. Feel free to comment with your own thoughts or analysis. Notes on the below information: Gubernatorial race First things first: Unlike 24 other states across America that limit “independent” organizational advertising and media spending in support of, or in opposition to political candidates’ and issues advocacy campaigns at the state level - note that Florida has no limits on such spending.
So the Supreme Court ruling handed down in a contentious 5-4 vote (Thank Bush for the conservative majority), an ideologically extremist vote overturning long-standing limits on special interest campaign spending on U.S. congressional and presidential campaigns, will not have any impact on Florida’s 2010 state-level campaigns. That’s the “good” news. The bad news is, the bottomless pit of special interest money that has been used so many times in Florida to defeat local candidates and state initiatives that dare tamper with freewheeling corporate profits and business practices at the local and state levels (see Florida’s insurance, real estate development, and financial industries, for starters) has now been unleashed for use on federal campaigns as well. Read More » Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 1-22-10 Representative Janet Long pushes bill for stronger early-education Standards By Steve Schale Steve Schale Earlier this week, I took a look at macro-level Florida voter registration trends, which showed that despite a difficult political climate, Democrats are continuing to grow their advantage over Republicans in statewide voter registration. Want to know where Paula Dockery, Bill McCollum, and Alex Sink stand on major issues facing Florida: education, health care, the environment? Good luck.
Take a look at any of the major candidate websites, and you'll find that Dockery and McCollum have no issue page. Alex Sink, to her credit, has an issues page, but only addresses issues she's tackled as CFO, not what she would do as governor. I'm sure issue stances will be added in the future, we're more than 9 months away from the election, but our state faces huge challenges right now. As people who want to lead the fourth largest state in the country, it would be great to know how they would deal with our state's $3 billion budget deficit, woefully underfunded education system, broken health care system, threatened environment, and the overpowering influence of corporate special interests. Furthermore, I'm really surprised the press hasn't caught this. Yes, they have been trying to corner the candidates on some issue questions (particularly Alex Sink on health care lately), but that's it. The press should call the major party candidates on the fact none of them have any kind of significant issue stances. I'm not asking for or expecting vast policy tracts on every conceivable issue Florida faces. For now, at least a few cogent sentences on a handful of key issues would be nice. Is that really too much to ask? Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 1-15-10 Thinking about Kendrick Meek, the Myth of Sisyphus and whether Dan Gelber regrets dropping out of the US Senate race By Steve Schale Steve Schale This is the first of many posts I am going to write about the state of the battlefield in Florida and the forward trajectory of the state's politics.Rigged-bid county government By Beach Blogger Pensacola Beach Blog It's bad enough that promises Escambia County Government made to beach residents decades ago are intentionally broken by county commissioners. From early Spring of 2009 right through to the last days of the year, Florida's Attorney General and Republican candidate for governor, Bill McCollum, has been nothing - and I do mean nothing - if not consistent in peddling his self-serving, short-sighted, downright deceitful brand of politics. (Bill Mccollum pushing edge of the envelope of political distortion) Back in March, as he was preparing to abandon his current job and make a run for Governor, the state's leading law enforcement official doled out almost one-and-a-half million of our tax dollars to a former consultant-crony, to produce “public service” ads warning about online sexual predators - ads starring Bill McCollum as the heroic supposed protector of Florida's vulnerable children and endangered teens. Forget about the ethical questions surrounding awarding of the contract itself. Forget about the fact that the ads were shameless self-promotion (including a $550 taxpayer tab for his makeup!). Forget about the fact that the actual severity of the problem of online sexual predators was so exaggerated by McCollum in the ad and in related publicity efforts. Well, don't really forget any of that, not when election time rolls around. Rather, keep it in mind, then put it all aside for a moment and ask yourself: What kind of politician - what kind of a man - would claim to be fighting to protect the health and well-being of our children in the Spring, only to spend much of this Autumn and Winter trying to derail health reform efforts, efforts that would for the first time give hundreds of thousands of Florida's uninsured, at-risk children the kind of health care coverage and care they should have had all along? In September, McCollum joined the Republican drumbeat of deceit and disinformation about health reform, attacking the public option plan still on the table, lying about the importance and potential impact of medical malpractice reform on health care costs, and claiming his answer to health reform as governor would be creation of an advisory council. In October, we had to suffer through the following divisive, borderline Joe McCarthy-esque attack by McCollum on health reform, cloaked even more dishonorably in a personal attack on his Democratic rival in the governor's race, Florida's Chief Financial officer, Alex Sink: "Sink is siding with the unions and their bosses – they know where she stands. On government-run health care Sink is with the left wing unions.". Not long after that, McCollum went after health reform and Sink some more, challenging the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who was attending a health care town hall in Florida, to call out his competitor Sink on her health reform positions. But McCollum has saved his personal best of the worst for these last days of the year. This do-nothing Attorney General - the guy who has been in power, yet seemingly powerless during this infamous period of Florida political corruption and legislative lawlessness, during this period when so many Floridians have been bilked and duped and disowned by insurance companies and mortgage lenders and banks - this week, this servant of only the rich and powerful has announced that he is directing his staff to explore whether they can file a lawsuit declaring any new health reform bill that gets passed by the U.S. Congress as unconstitutional. The McCollum cover story this time, the pretext for killing health reform, is that there ought not to be any requirement that uninsured people have to get health insurance. It would be like a tax - Boo! - and just unfair, doggone it. Forget that these uninsured, at-risk people, if they have difficulty affording insurance, would get subsidized under a new reform bill. Forget that without such a mandate, all of us taxpayers will end up paying for their health care, at the most expensive levels, when they finally show up at emergency rooms seeking medical attention. Forget that such a mandate, even as part of this very imperfect health reform bill now being finalized, will still help to quickly, finally provide proper health care access and coverage for nearly 800,000 uninsured children in Florida - the children McCollum claimed to be looking out for way back in...the Spring. Forget that as Attorney General, Wild Bill is defending the state in efforts to maintain Medicaid reimbursement levels that are so low that poor, uninsured children can't find doctors who will treat them. Forget that McCollum's extremist anti-government, anti-entitlement views were in evidence during his years in the U.S. Congress, when he voted time and again to cut Medicare and Social Security. Forget that McCollum's extremist anti-government, anti-entitlement views not only pander shamelessly to, but in fact prey on some people's fear and ignorance, cultivating selfishness and inhumanity, rather than selflessness and humanity. NO. Do not forget any of the above, not when election time rolls around. Keep it all uppermost in your mind, in fact, as you listen to and watch McCollum peddling his politics of hypocrisy and heartlessness, divisiveness and duplicity, throughout this 2010 gubernatorial campaign. He will cloak it all the while in the guise of being some kind of moderate conservative who's trying to keep big government out of your life. He will be lying to and trying to deceive and distract you. The facts are the facts. The record is the record. You can look it up. Ask yourself. What kind of politician - what kind of human being - do you want as Florida's next governor? Our Editorial Cartoon of the Week feature is part of Progress Florida's popular FREE Daily Clips service:
Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 12-18-09 Pensacola: "Don't Go Near the Water" By Tobias Progress Florida By a vote of 4 to 3, the Hillsborough County Commission today failed to extend non-discrimination protections to their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees. The Big Oil roundup: news and information about Big Oil’s push to rig Florida’s coastline for the week ending 12-11-09: As focus centers on the current struggle over health reform in Washington, many are unaware of a critical set of reforms undergoing debate this week in the House of Representatives that could have just as much impact on everyday Americans, particularly Floridians.
The “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” (H.R. 4173) represents an opportunity to restore accountability to our financial system by ensuring banks, lenders and Wall Street titans no longer treat the economy like a casino. Although numerous amendments – some designed to strengthen the bill, others to weaken it – are being introduced and considered, the most important piece of this legislation would be the formation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) that would police banks and crack down on predatory lending practices that have pushed our economy to the brink of collapse. Florida already has some of the highest rates of home foreclosure in the country, yet with more than 2 million Florida homeowners currently ‘underwater’ on their mortgage, the Center for Responsible Lending projects that there will be 1.5 million additional foreclosures in our state through 2012. The wave of foreclosures and resulting fall in property values has crippled Florida’s economy, but rather than supporting efforts to ensure fair lending practices and stabilize our financial system, Big Banks (led by the American Bankers Association and industry groups like the US Chamber of Commerce) are fighting tooth and nail to preserve the status quo. The irony of course is that taxpayers literally spent trillions of dollars bailing out the banks after they played Russian roulette with the economy – and now in return the banks are spending millions lobbying against reforms necessary to protect consumers and prevent another economic collapse. One Florida lawmaker who could be pivotal in all of this is Orlando-area Democratic Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee. In Kosmas’ district alone there are nearly 10,000 delinquent mortgages, and more than 15 percent of the houses in her district sit vacant. Yet according to the Orlando Sentinel, Rep. Kosmas received more than $20,000 from banks and financial service companies last fundraising quarter alone. Kosmas’ situation represents a microcosm of the challenge to lawmakers: will she stand with voters in her district and support reforms to protect Main Street from unfair Wall Street business practices, or side with big business lobbyists that are spending thousands on her next political campaign? Hopefully Kosmas’ recent vote against health care reform, where she sided with health insurance lobbyists, will not foreshadow her position on reforming our banking and financial system.  For too long the banks and financial institutions have been able to write their own rules, and the result has been the worst economic disaster of our lifetimes. The need for a strong CFPA to defend consumers from lending abuses has never been clearer. Rep. Kosmas, are you listening? To learn more about the need for strong financial reform, including how a CFPA would help ensure a safe, fair marketplace, visit http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/. Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 11-20-09 On health care reform, letter writing, and form letter responses to constituents…Senator Nelson’s office = fail. By Progress Florida Daily Kos Activists today delivered a letter signed by more than 200 constituents urging Rep. Suzanne Kosmas to stand up to special interest lobbyists by supporting strong, comprehensive financial reform.St. Petersburg should move its elections back to the Spring, but when exactly? By Peter Schorsch St. Petersblog 2.0 The numbers do not lie: in March of 2001, more than 34% of voters turnout to choose the Mayor of St. Petersburg. Republican political opportunism. That, in a nutshell, is the Sunshine State’s worst and not so well hidden tax burden. Two stories that broke in recent days help highlight the shameful mess that the Florida GOP has made of both the state’s economy, and its tax code. Some will object to such finger pointing, claiming it’s the national economic crisis that put Florida in the financial pickle it’s in. That would constitute a half-truth, at very generous best – as would any attempt to argue that the Democrats are equally responsible for the state’s unfair, dysfunctional tax system and the havoc it has created for working and unemployed families. Read More »Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 11-13-09 Congressman Bill Young lies about, err, misremembers President Obama telling his opponents to "Shut up!" Worst To First: One Million Steps (video) Charlie Crist's Coast-to-Coast Charter Fla Repugs Keepin’ It Entertaining Posts By Month
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