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Did you publish every single solicited Regulation AA comment on the Internet – complete with name, address and e-mail address – or just a few?

Your solicitation said that my information would be made available on your website and elsewhere in paper form. That’s hardly the same as publishing it as an individual Internet document.

Few participate in government; in commenting, I consented only to sharing my information with those few.

You removed the protection of being among thousands named Susan Chandler, including one locally. I’ll have to move, change e-mail addresses, and pay for an unlisted phone.

Phlame on y’all.


From: Susan Chandler studio8@infionline.net on 06/12/2008 10:45:09 AM

Subject: Regulation AA

Jun 12, 2008

Federal Reserve Board Email comments

Dear Email comments,

This law doesn't go far enough to protect Americans from predatory lending practices. Interest on interest is usurious; interest on late fees is, too.

Chase sued me for non-payment knowing full well that my ability to pay rested on the whim of a judge notorious for his prosecutorial and judicial whimsy, John Dean Moxley, Jr. Chase won through yet more judicial whimsy, but of course was not paid one day ahead of my other, more ethical lenders -- on the day that Moxley's whimsy allowed.

If credit card companies cannot profit at a capped 18% interest on principal only, they're not really businesses to begin with, just more needy, greedy incompetents that y'all have been catering to since Bush took the oath of office in every way imaginable -- cornered markets, bailouts, tax breaks, subsidies, no bid contracts, etc. all to hell and back.

Toughen up the laws. Stop catering to marketplace whores and let competitive capitalism be the driving force, not socialistic, morally bankrupt giveaways.

Sincerely,
Ms. Susan Chandler
1060 S US Highway 1
Vero Beach, FL 32962-5681

# www.federalreserve.gov/SECRS/2008/July/20080701/R-1314/R-1314_8764_​1.pdf
#
In honor of our country's Independence Day, I thought it would be appropriate to quote fully, the document which made July 4th such an important date. One thing is for sure: they don't write like this anymore:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America



When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 7-3-09
Note: the Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida's popular free Daily Clips service.

On Florida Hometown Democracy, For Four!
By Gimleteye
Eye On Miami
According to The Miami Herald, developer Jorge Perez has whittled down his debt to $1.2 billion from $1.5 billion but has stashed away enough net worth to consider investing in the Miami Dolphins football team.

Capitol Offense: Is Amendment 4 Being Proposed by the Underpants Gnomes
By Kenneth Quinnell
Florida Progressive Coalition
Okay, I know I’m going to catch some flack for this one, but I’m stating this as honestly and openly as I can.

Progressives Help Bring Substance to St. Pete Mayoral Race
By Ray Seaman
Progress Florida
If you've ever followed a local election, you often know they're fraught with personalities and process stories that turn off voters.

Florida Republicans On Message, Off Truth
By Buck Banks
Pensito Review
The leadership of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is many things (dumber than a sack of hammers comes to mind), but one thing they do know how to do is stay on message.

Hagan pulls a Johnson
By Mariella
Sticks of Fire
County Commissioner Ken Hagan is using the same tactic Buddy Johnson used to get his name out for the next election.

The name didnt ring a bell when I saw it in my local paper a few weeks ago. It announced that he was running for Governor on the Democratic ticket in 2010. I meant to cut the article out and google the guys name but the paper made it to the recycle bin before I got to it and remembering names isnt as easy as it used to be in my younger days.

Today, however I got a second chance. While perusing the columnist archives of Pamela Hasterok at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, I came across another column of hers in which his name was mentioned and promptly went to Google. Mr. Arth is quite popular on Google. And for good reason. His list of creds is impressive. Artist, author, home/landscape/urban designer, futurist, and now a developer of a pedestrian friendly Garden District in Deland, FL once referred to as Crack Town. Once completed he made a documentary about the project titled NEW URBAN COWBOY. A review of it may be found here: http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=17554&reviewer=392

While Mr. Arths chances of being elected doesnt stand a snowballs chance in hell, it wouldnt hurt for Progressives to talk him up. Its the least we can do for a fellow that is willing to walk the talk. And it proves that the New Urbanism concept, can and does work.

Another more familiar name for some of us, Eric Draper, has also popped up as a Democratic candidate. Mr. Draper, Deputy Director of Audubon of Florida, has announced his candidacy for State Agriculture Commissioner. According to Ms. Hasterok, Draper has an eight word platform, safe food, clean water, save land and green jobs. This candidacy is a can do if Progressives get behind him 100% and the benefit to the state would be enormous.

Nice story in the Naples News Thursday about how pleased Southwest Florida legislators are over this year's recent session. 

Good to know they're happy to give themselves a pat on the back for capping the amount Big Tobacco has to set aside for lawsuits; trying to loosen the class size amendment, eliminate public art funding, and open the eastern Gulf up to reckless drilling; and making it even easier for Big Developers to promote sprawl and wreck the environment.  All in all, apparently not a bad session's worth of work. 

Ah, but in comparison to other states, maybe Florida's session wasn't so bad.

"Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, said California and Illinois both started their fiscal years on July 1 without a balanced budget.  Florida did pass its budget, despite the fact that they were hit with a $6 billion deficit at the start of the session."

Yeah, and come to think of it, New York's legislature has grinded to a complete standstill recently.  So Florida's legislature looks pretty good in comparison, right?  Right?

Wrong.

Just because other state legislatures could possibly be more screwed up than Florida's doesn't mean we should all be happy about what we've got.  And what we've got is a legislature beholden to special interests, a governor who's bailing for D.C and selling out the state in the process, and a bunch of really bad new public policies.

So before we go hailing our legislative session as a success simply because it got a budget passed (late, by the way, costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of extra dollars), let's stop for a minute and think about what good really was done.

Then it's easy to wonder if what's happening in New York is really such a bad thing after all... 

 

If you've ever followed a local election, you often know they're fraught with personalities and process stories that turn off voters. You never seem to learn what they actually want to do if elected. It's one of the reasons why local, particularly city elections, are won by dozens or hundreds of votes - often a consequence of such a low turnout that would make the founding fathers want to cover their faces in embarrassment.

It's unclear how much voters care about the biggest political race in Florida in 2009: the race for the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida's 4th largest city. However, progressive groups including Progress Florida, SEIU's city workers union, Florida Consumer Action Network, Clean Water Action, and the Alliance for a Livable Pinellas sponsored a debate last night which attracted more people and fleshed out more substantive answers than anything previous. Imagine that!

Whatever the reason, the candidates for mayor engaged in their most substantial conversation about policy yet Tuesday, offering specific solutions to economic and environmental concerns during a debate hosted by local progressive groups. There were still a few silly jokes, some shallow answers. But, for the most part, the candidates offered new insight about how they would lead the city.


This is a testament to how progressives, when united, can both do a great service for the public and demonstrate the importance of our issues.
Florida Senate Bill 1126 and House Bill 483 match up to the legislation the AP reported that Governor Crist signed into law in Miami yesterday, with Attorney General McCollum present.

S1126 “Expands the jurisdiction of the Office of Statewide Prosecution to investigate and prosecute certain additional offenses,” and “Provides that certain actions constitute an immediate and serious danger to the public safety, health & welfare, etc.”

S1126 apparently originated in the House as H483 on January 20th.

Talk about a fast track.

And talk about off track.

Crist’s signature signaled that Florida officially places the preservation of wealth ahead of the preservation of life and liberties.

Bernie Madoff is indeed an awful man, but nowhere near as awful as the Brevard County prosecutors seeking to avoid accountability for far more grievous misdeeds.

When Brevard’s prosecutors used phony crime scene dog handler John Preston’s in dozens of trials nearly thirty years ago, they never dreamed that DNA would one day reveal that they framed innocents and left dangerous perpetrators free to do further harm.

Three are now free, after losing a combined 54 years of their lives. One apparently served time for one of Ottis Toole’s brutal homicides; no one has a clue who the other two served time for.

Toole’s rip-offs were far more ghastly than Madoff’s.

Toole liked to dismember his victims.

Texas apprehended Toole, Florida didn’t. And faced with a Brevard-like predecessors, Dallas County D.A. Craig Watkins is pulling out the stops to get innocents out and criminals in, keeping his constituents safe from people that enjoy dismembering other people.

Without intervention, Madoff victims stood to make partial recovery.

Without intervention, Brevard’s victims will die behind bars, their names forever sullied and their families inconsolable, while the actual perpetrators continue to commit crimes at will.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1120204.html#comment
http://www.flsenate.gov/session/index.cfm?

Mode=Bills&SubMenu=1&BI_Mode=ViewBillInfo&BillNum=1126
http://www.flsenate.gov/session/index.cfm?

Mode=Bills&Submenu=1&BI_Mode=ViewBillInfo&Billnum=0483&Year=2009
From a story reported on Truth Out

Essay by RW Spisak Jr.
for AveryVoice.com

 "For example, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, a Florida Republican, bought Citigroup stock valued between $1,001 and $15,000 on Oct. 2, the day before the House passed the financial rescue bill and President George W. Bush signed it into law, records show. She opposed the bill.

    Eleven days later, she bought $1,001 to $15,000 worth of Bank of America stock. It was on the same day that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told leading banks that he expected them to accept billions in bailout money to prevent a financial meltdown.

    Brown-Waite, who has since left the committee to join the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and her spokeswoman would not comment for this article. The precise value of her investments is not publicly known because financial disclosure reports provide only broad ranges, although some members include detailed brokerage reports."

The original article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer further states that "The transactions may not have been illegal or against congressional rules, but securities attorneys and congressional watchdog groups say they raise flags about the appearance of conflicts of interest."

How can you face your constituents and tell them you are carefully weighing banking policy or TAX POLICY when it seems that you took time away from overseeing the largest credit and banking crisis since The Great Depression to line your pockets? more

Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 6-26-09
Note: the Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida's popular free Daily Clips service.

"Cash For Gold": a not-so-quick scan of Florida
By Gimleteye
Eye On Miami
It's been 15 years since I've driven the length of the state at one time.

Capitol Offense: The AG Race on the Issues
By Kenneth Quinnell
Florida Progressive Coalition
In his column last week, Gary Fineout did Democratic primary voters a service that few journalists in Florida have done in recent years — he gave us actual substance to compare two candidates on.

Campaigning on Marriage Equality
By Ray Seaman
Progress Florida
Jon Corzine is the current Democratic Governor of New Jersey - and he's currently in a very tight race for reelection - so it's truly noteworthy that Corzine is using an issue that just a few years ago was radioactive to Democrats.

Mar-co! Mar-co! Mar-co!
By Brian
Incertus
If I had any confidence at all in the Florida Democratic Party, I would send Marco Rubio a few bucks and really try to help him beat Charlie Crist in the Republican primary, because if this really is indicative of how his mind works, then he ought to be easy pickings come next November.

Clueless Florida Republicans ‘Celebrate’ Juneteenth
By Buck Banks
Pensito Review
The Republican Party of Florida is at it again, showing its stupidity and insensitivity toward African Americans.

Sometimes it’s easy to tell when you’re dealing with someone that’s two complete suits shy of a full deck and harmless, despite threats.

That was the apparent judgment call made by a California bank manager who, after stalling, handed a robber just $250 although his note said he had a gun, and a bomb, and wanted $20,000 in large bills.

The banker got it right. Linroy Bottoson owned a gun, but if he remembered to bring it to the bank, he forgot to show it. He robbed the bank because God told him to. Bottoson was a diagnosed schizophrenic with suicidal and self-destructive tendencies, but not violent ones.

Former FBI Agent John Loughney’s testimony about the robbery conviction was used at Bottoson’s homicide trial as if he’d shown both a gun and a bomb and received $20,000 in large bills instead of $250 in small ones.

Florida executed Bottoson after a trial and appeals more typical of Brevard County than Orange.

Select Florida physicians declared Bottoson competent. Phony expert John Preston provided “scent evidence” testimony, as in the upset Brevard convictions of Juan Ramos, Wilton Dedge and Bill Dillon. Jailhouse informant Pertrell Kuniara swore falsely, too, just as James E. Gilmore testified against Ramos, Clarence Zacke testified against Dedge and Roger Dale Chapman testified against Dillon.

Kuniara recanted, saying he’d discussed church with Bottoson, not murder. And Preston’s been repeatedly discredited, including during Bottoson’s trial, which our Supreme Court Justices just can’t ever rightly remember.

My intuition – not voices – tells me that the crushing of the victim’s body was post mortem; occurring when Ernest showed Bottoson where the body was after Ernest returned the car he borrowed. Others’ intuitions perhaps agreed, making a requested exhumation unwise.

Knowing danger when he sees it, the California banker will likely never visit Florida.
Amendment 4, aka the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment, would take land use decisions away from county commissions and give them to voters via referendums. As I said in a previous blog post, the Chamber of Commerce and big developers are vehemently against voters crashing their lavish party.

You can expect the Chamber and their anti-Amendment 4 front group, the Orwellian-named "Floridians for Smarter Growth", to use every ridiculous argument under the sun to stop Amendment 4. Here's a foretaste of things to come:



The money quote from Florida Chamber of Commerce President Mark Wilson:

What the special interests behind Amendment 4 want is no jobs and no growth.


Exactly! I'm sure those are precise intentions of Amendment 4's backers - we don't need no stinking jobs!

Oh brother, it's going to be a long fight for Hometown Democracy backers. I hope Wilson's quote is played over and over as an example of just how embarrassingly desperate the supporters of the status quo are.

Hometown Democracy backers should still be careful - no matter how ridiculous the above talking point is - simplicity sticks. If Amendment 4 is successfully framed as "anti-jobs" - it's game over. However, if Amendment 4 can successfully be framed as "pro-sustainability" or even "pro-democracy" - then it may just have a chance. In addition, there's also the opportunity to frame the anti-Hometown Democracy folks as tools of the developers, a group of people who most Floridians look upon unfavorably.
A growing trend in American politics:

You can watch video of Governor Corzine campaigning at a gay pride event -- and making it very, very clear he supports marriage equality here. It's pretty clear that Corzine himself -- unprompted -- is the one making marriage an issue. He wants to talk about it. He's not coming up with convoluted excuses, like so many pols do. This is the future. And, more Democratic candidates need to stand up and be upfront about their support for what's right.

Importantly, Corzine isn't just talking about marriage in front of LGBT audiences. As the [Philadelphia] Inquirer piece noted, Corzine made a pro-marriage equality statement in his June 2nd primary night victory speech.


Jon Corzine is the current Democratic Governor of New Jersey - and he's currently in a very tight race for reelection - so it's truly noteworthy that Corzine is using an issue that just a few years ago was radioactive to Democrats.

Florida is not New Jersey - our state tends to be more conservative on this issue. On the other hand, we've never had a "mainstream" or high profile Democrat (or any state leader for that matter) declare vocally their support for marriage equality. If that happened, and opponents of equality were aggressively responded to, I have a feeling we would find out Florida is more progressive than the conventional wisdom dictates. As always when it comes to driving a progressive agenda, it comes down to that increasingly cliche term: leadership.

Even if timid Florida Democrats running for office don't want to embrace marriage equality right away, there are numerous other equality-related issues that demand leadership. There's the incredibly awful gay adoption ban, where our state is the only state along with Mississippi to keep this bigoted practice. A majority of Floridians want to get rid of the ban. There's also domestic partnerships and civil unions.

It would be truly great to see someone like Alex Sink, or even Dave Aronberg or Dan Gelber get out in front on these issues, not merely for their own political gain, but for the sake of advancing the rights of everyday Floridians.
The EPA recently showed signs of realizing that the letter “P” in their acronym stands for Protection, not Pandering, ending eight years of confusion that resulted in inappropriate actions.

The FBI’s similar acronym confusion appears to have existed for decades with no end in sight; they’re apparently still laboring under the misconception that “I” stands for Intrigue, which explains the difference between FBI Director Mueller’s recent testimony before Congress and reality. Priority four is purportedly public corruption, yet for nearly thirty years, no agents have investigated phony “scent evidence” expert John Preston’s nationwide perjuries.

Yesterday, Florida Today stopped pretending it didn’t know more about Brevard County’s wrongful convictions than what it already printed. The resulting story appears to be a trial balloon to test how callous Gov. Crist can remain without losing supporters (links below).

According to 411, the FBI still has a Brevard office on Wickham Road. What little Florida Today printed in 2004 about Wilton Dedge’s DNA exoneration clouding Gerald Stano’s execution should have sparked an investigation. Dillon’s December exoneration offered another opportunity. Still nothing.

The FBI is investigating one Brevard-related matter, the Christmas Day disappearance of Jennifer Ellis-Seitz from the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship. The media’s suicide focus was contradicted by a handful that share Ellis-Seitz enthusiasm for scuba and snorkel diving; they said they couldn’t get drunk and/or depressed enough to jump overboard, one said it would be exactly like a Marine using a Bee-Bee gun to take himself out.

Ellis-Seitz was a former Florida Today crime reporter. She left shortly before Wilton Dedge’s 2004 exoneration and was returning to newspaper work at another paper on the heels of Bill Dillon’s related December exoneration.

Preston testified against schizophrenic Linroy Bottoson in Orange County. Bottoson was executed. This hack knows, likely Ellis-Seitz did, too.


http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090621/OPINION/90619036/1006/NEWS01/Our+views++Crying+for+justice

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090621/NEWS01/906210319/1006/Dog+handler+led+to+bad+evidence

http://gannett.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/gannett-brevard-028-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=articleplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=playlist&maven_referralObject=1157948069
The healthcare debate reached a new level last week as the House and Senate released early proposals for comprehensive healthcare reform. The main bone of contention, as you might have expected, is the one item that determines whether this reform is truly reform or not: the inclusion of a public option for health coverage that competes with private insurance plans.

Politics is a funny thing. You see, Senate healthcare "leaders" like Max Baucus (D-MT) believe that we just have to have bipartisan support in order to pass meaningful healthcare reform. The House, on the other hand, has mostly left the notion of bipartisanship by the wayside, with Speaker Pelosi saying that there will be no healthcare vote in the House without a public option in the final reform package.

So, under the banner of "bipartisanship", Sen. Baucus and his cohorts in the Senate have proposed a healthcare plan without a public option. The House, obviously, has released a plan that does. So who turned out to be truly bipartisan in the sense of a broad coalition of individuals from both political parties and independents agreeing on a solution? Not the Senate - not by a long shot. Recent polling from NBC and The Wall Street Journal now shows 76% of Americans want a public option for healthcare:

76 percent of respondents said it was either "extremely" or "quite" important to "give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance."


Personally I take this as clear evidence people want some alternative to their often expensive, unhelpful, and unreliable private health insurance. A public option makes sense to Americans.

The Senate is practicing Washington DC's version of bipartisanship - feauxpartisanship - caving to the extreme right of American politics when things get tough.

There is such a thing as bipartisanship, and on healthcare, it's the center-left position of having a public option, not some far right idea cooked up at the Heritage Foundation and sauteed in corporate money.
After John Walsh’s son Adam was abducted and killed and police failed to find the perpetrator, Walsh became an avowed advocate for every victim of crime. He gave speeches nationwide, appeared before Congress and set up the Adam Walsh Foundation. Hosting FOX’s “America’s Most Wanted” made Walsh an international celebrity with bragging rights to a role in capturing over 1,000 escapees, fugitives and “persons of interest.”

In December, while admitting they had no new evidence, Florida law enforcement informed Walsh that serial killer Ottis Toole had killed Adam over 27 years ago.

There was a big problem with the announcement’s timing.

Days earlier, charges were dropped against Bill Dillon in Brevard County in light of DNA evidence implicating other(s). Dillon’s was the third upset conviction in the 18th Judicial Circuit that revealed the use of phony “scent evidence” expert John Preston, backed by coached jailhouse informant testimony; Juan Ramos earned his freedom in 1987, Wilton Dedge earned his in 2004. Altogether, the three spent 54 years behind bars for others’ crimes.

It’s likely that Ottis Toole committed the homicide that Dillon served 27 years for. The timeframe was the same as Adam’s slaying, so was the locale. The brutality and male rape were typical of Toole, and the crime scene, a hotspot of homosexual activity, fit Toole’s proclivities.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that John Preston probably testified in at least 60 Brevard felony trials, and that Governor Crist and A.G. McCollum aren’t interested in assisting Preston’s other victims.

Walsh didn’t call out Crist and McCollum for callousness, demand that the FBI investigate or vow to get to the bottom of Preston’s perjuries nationwide, beginning in Brevard, where Preston likely lied most often.

He instead endorsed Crist for the U.S. Senate and McCollum for Florida’s Governor.

AMW needs a new host.
A few weeks ago, Gov. Crist signed SB 360, a horrendous bill that significantly weakened Florida's growth management laws, inviting more urban sprawl in rural areas. Environmental groups, and Progress Florida, vehemently fought SB 360 for this reason. For more info, watch this great YouTube video:



We unfortunately lost that battle, but in the wider war against wasteful and destructive low-density urban sprawl, who is really going to win? That question has not been answered yet. While it seems that big developers won the day, they might have just shot themselves in the foot at the same time. You see, as the title of this blog post suggests, every time big developers and their allies in the Florida Chamber of Commerce push through another short-sighted bill that extends the already hated status quo, the more support builds for solutions like the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment. Some folks consider Hometown Democracy a very radical solution, taking land-use decisions away from county commissions and instead turning them into public referendums. This would undoubtedly slow down the rate at which farms are gobbled up and turned into golf courses and gated communities. Many Floridians think this would good thing, but developers obviously view it as a terrifying prospect.

When SB 360 passed, I heard the same refrain from several unconnected individuals - that this will make it easier for Hometown Democracy to pass. I think they're right. The passage of SB 360 will only harden local resistance to sprawl, and the seemingly impossible notion of attaining real growth management regulations from the state will only drive more moderate environmentalists and Floridians into the arms of Hometown Democracy.

I actually consider myself among the latter group. I have my qualms with Hometown Democracy, mainly because I think sprawl can be stopped and new urbanism promoted through stronger and more consistent community organizing at the county level (something that really doesn't exist right now throughout Florida.) However, I know that for the sake of our state's future, sprawl has to be stopped in the next few years. I'm willing to embrace Hometown Democracy if the developers, the Chambers of Commerce, and the Builders Associations keep pushing for the kind of nonsense "solutions" like SB 360 that merely advance their bottom line at the expense of everyone else.

Should Hometown Democracy make it onto the ballot (an increasingly likely prospect) and pass the necessary 60% mark, it will be due both to the hard work of the Hometown Democracy movement, and the developers' own short-sightedness and utter greed.

Good stuff you all should read from bloggers around the country... (Sorry this one is Open Left heavy, I accidentally left out my Open Left RSS feed the last time I did this round-up)

Open Left: A New Path To Progressive Power

Open Left: Please Play Hardball with Blue Dogs, Too

Progressive Historians: Obama, John Rawls, And A Defense Of The Unreasonable

Open Left: Healthcare Crisis Stifling Rural Independence

Open Left: Bogus Process Arguments

Open Left: The Fear Factor

Open Left: Obama and the Left, Part 432 (and counting)

Open Left: Pew Analysis Mostly Shows Obama Has Been A Successful President So Far

Open Left: Why Not A Progressive Foreign Policy? Part 2: The Whole Enchilada

Open Left: Why Not A Progressive Foreign Policy? Part 1: The Military

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