Tag: Florida

J’Ville Church ‘Outs’ Gay-Marriage Haters

Buck Banks

Naming names: Christ Church of Peace, a nondenominational church in Jacksonville, Fla., has published on the Internet the names of 400,000 Floridians in 60 counties who signed a petition supporting a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. While publishing the names violates no privacy law, wingnut supporters of the amendment are predictably crying foul, according to the Miami Herald.

”It’s a gross invasion of people’s privacy,” said John Stemberger, president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council, an offshoot of James Dobson’s national Christian conservative group Focus on the Family.

‘It’s time for another voice that is Christian to be heard.’
– Gary Debusk, pastor of Christ Church of Peace

Stemberger argued that, if Christian conservatives published the names and addresses of gay-rights activists, they would likely be condemned as hatemongers. ”A lot of people would be outraged and say it’s a hateful, un-Christian gesture,” he said.

Yes, John, it would be a hateful, un-Christian thing to do, much like the hateful, un-Christian act of signing a petition in support of a repressive, discriminatory constitutional amendment.

Gary Debusk, pastor of Christ Church of Peace, said the church began the ”Know Thy Neighbor” effort Monday to encourage dialogue and prevent voter-signature fraud. As the head of a congregation that supports same-sex marriage, Debusk said he also wanted to add a new perspective to a debate that he said has been dominated largely by religious conservatives. ”It’s time for another voice that is Christian to be heard,” he said.

The website, knowthy neighbor.org/florida, is linked to the church’s home page and contains a searchable database of names. The names on such petitions are part of the public record, according to the Florida Department of State.

I went on the site and searched for my last name, and out of four pages of names found that neither my mother nor my siblings had signed up. Checking under my mother’s maiden name, however, revealed an aunt in the town where I was born who did sign the petition. A page of folks with the same last name as Editor Trish who might or might not be related to her also signed up.

Are you a Floridian? Have relatives who live in Florida? Want to find out if they are intolerant, would-be discriminators and hatemongers? Go to the site at http://www.knowthyneighbor.org/florida/ and look them up. And then let us know what you discover.

Coulter Vote Fraud: Hateful Skank Wants Law Exemption, Based on Making Enemies as a Hateful Skank

Trish

Killer editorial in the Sunday Palm Beach Post. The Post is the Florida paper that broke the story about Ann Coulter joining the ranks of Republicans who can’t vote straight.

It was only last year that Bush puppetmaster Karl Rove was discovered cheating on his voter registration in order to cheat on his taxes in Texas.

Rather than admit her error, correct her registration and move on, Ms. Coulter has hired former U.S. Attorney Marco Jimenez to defend her from the indignity of having to follow the law…

…the self-appointed defender of American democracy and values is fighting allegations, which The Post’s Jose Lambiet first exposed in February, that rather than correct her address, she voted in the wrong precinct during the Feb. 7 Palm Beach election. Rather than admit her error, correct her registration and move on, Ms. Coulter has hired former U.S. Attorney Marco Jimenez to defend her from the indignity of having to follow the law…

During her Tuesday spewfest on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, Ms. Coulter made clear that she doesn’t want her home address to grace a public record, even if it is required for voting… “Should we get my stalkers on the line with my address and apartment number?”

Works for me.

But what I really want to know is why the hateful skank is allowed to pedal her wares on a book tour, instead of every interview being about the felony of which she stands accused.

Six Dead, Four Wounded Under New Florida/NRA Law

Trish

Less than a year since it took effect, Florida’s new “Stand Your Ground/Kill at Will” law has been used to justify killing at least six men and wounding at least four others. The good news is one of them was actually armed.

The Orlando Sentinel examined the fallout from the NRA-backed statute, which allows anyone who says they feel threatened to shoot to kill. The paper researched court records from five of the law’s eight months on the books.

Ten other states have followed Florida’s lead and adopted this wrong-headed law, and five more are considering it. And that suits the National Rifle Association just fine

The law is all about fear, and acting based upon it. In fact, without clear evidence of some other emotion being involved, specifically “anger, frustration, or malice,” police can only investigate -— not detain or arrest — the trigger-happy. But don’t get the wrong idea, says one of the gunmen.

“You’re not talking about freaks and geeks slinging guns around like Dirty Harry…” said [Michael] Brady, 43, of Winter Haven, who in April killed a stranger who was threatening him with his fist. “I do believe in Americans having a right to protect themselves, but strapping [pistols] on their hips and going back to Western days — absolutely not.”

The Sentinel’s main finding was that there is a huge variation in the way the law is applied and cases are handled from county to county and from suspect to suspect.

In one case, for instance, an off-duty Maitland police officer was arrested after shooting and wounding his host and another guest at a Jan. 15 party near Casselberry.

Despite claiming he feared for his life, Daniel Metevier was jailed by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office on two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.

The charges were dropped two months later…Metevier provided his medical records to prove he underwent knee surgery shortly before the shooting. He claimed he was unable to defend himself, partly because of the injury, without resorting to deadly force…

“I wasn’t so inebriated I didn’t know my name. I was thinking logically,” Metevier said.

Goes without saying. […]

Newspaper Sues to See 2008 Republican National Convention Bid

Trish

Update: The Tampa Tribune is now reporting that the cost of the convention will be $124 million, with about $85 million coming from public sources. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will be honorary chair.

The Tampa Tribune had to sue to see the city’s bid to host the 2008 Republican convention. And even though the city — which had outsourced the bid work to the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau — caved, they still didn’t exactly throw open the gates to the information.

The Tribune’s lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, states that Tampa delegated to the visitors bureau the governmental function of preparing the bid and, therefore, the bid is a public record.

Dianne Jacob, senior vice president of marketing for the bureau, said the bid is in a 2.5-inch-thick binder. The bureau will allow reporters to view the document but not photocopy it.

“That’s just our policy,” Jacob said.

What would there be to hide in the bid? If you answered, “Republicans trying to bill the taxpayers for another lavish party,” go to the head of the class. St. Petersburg Times:

According to supporting documents from the city, the convention would cost the city and other governments $12.7-million in direct expenses and in-kind services.

A majority of the expense would be for security, including $5.5-million for police and $3.7-million for barricades.

Tampa is competing with three other cities for this “honor” — Cleveland, Minneapolis, and New York. Tampa was first runner-up for the 2004 convention. New York’s smarm factor, however, was irresistible to Rove and the other 2004 puppet masters, who envisioned Bush wrapping himself in a flag atop smoldering World Trade Center rubble. But rarely are conventions held in the same city twice in a row, especially when New York is becoming more associated with Hillary Clinton.

Republicans stole the 2004 election with help from Ohio’s secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell, so Cleveland might well be rewarded this time.

“It comes down to Ohio and Florida because they’re the battleground states,” [chairman of the Ohio Republican Party Robert] Bennett said.

Florida’s got one thing Ohio doesn’t, though — hurricanes, especially in September, when the convention is set. And how would it look if Republicans had to evacuate, just as they’re practicing their speeches on the lack of proof of global warming?

Republican Consultant Needs to Consult Dictionary on Meaning of “Integrity”

Trish

File this under, “Too Good to Pass Up,” right next to, “Shots We Just Have to Take.”

A prominent Republican consultant is facing a huge $950,000 in fines for violating Florida election laws. He has admitted misusing an issues-oriented political organization — known under Florida law as an “electioneering communication organization — which is not allowed to ask for votes.

And the name of the sham grassroots group? The Committee to Restore Integrity in Politics. Miami Herald:

Rocky Pennington, chairman of the Committee to Restore Integrity in Politics…is well-known in political circles as both a campaign consultant for the Republican Party of Florida and Republican candidates as well as being the owner of a direct-mail firm in Clearwater…

Pennington’s committee spent more than $300,000 with Pennington’s direct-mail firm to send two fliers in October 2004 to nearly 500,000 voters urging them to vote against the amendment being pushed by South Florida dog and horse tracks…

The money for the committee’s effort came almost entirely from companies that offer cruises-to-nowhere that feature gambling, including $475,000 from Palm Beach Casino Line…

In a separate case against Pennington, the commission also ruled there is probable cause that the same committee broke the law when it also paid for fliers urging voters to defeat an amendment to the city charter of Fort Myers.

Hurricane Betting Taking Internet By Storm

Buck Banks

Crap shoot: On Hurricane Season Eve it’s appropriate to consider the important variables, like cold-water upwelling, wind sheer, strike probablilities and El Niño, as well as life’s more esoteric unpredictables like chance, fate, karma or divine retribution, whatever you want to call it.

Some might say that Editor Jon is gambling daily that the San Andreas fault won’t open up and swallow him and a couple hundred thousand of his fellow Los Angelitos. By the same token, folks could say that Editor Trish and I are playing the odds — perhaps long ones — that we won’t get blown to hell and gone by a hurricane during the next six months.

Granted, by choosing to live where we live we are figuratively placing a bet that the really big bad things won’t happen to us. Same with folks in the Midwest with tornadoes and folks in the Mississippi River Valley with floods. And you know what? That’s okay because we figure we know the odds and we hunker down and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

‘What’s sad about this is essentially people are placing bets on an issue that affects people’s lives.’
— National Weather Service’s Greg Romano

But, according to the Miami Herald, there is a class of individual out there who is gambling on my potential misfortune. These are people placing what are called “proposition bets” on Web sites, playing the odds and trying to predict whether Florida will get clobbered by a Category 3 or higher hurricane this season.

Weather forecasts, which are based on probability, lend themselves easily to oddsmaking. But professional forecasters, who view their job as a public service, say that’s not what they have in mind when they issue predictions.

”What’s sad about this is essentially people are placing bets on an issue that affects people’s lives. That’s kind of sad,” said National Weather Service spokesman Greg Romano.

”Forecasts are there for people to help protect themselves, their lives and their property,” he said.

But wait, before we write off the owners of these sites as a life form on the level of, say, slime mold, they claim to have feelings and standards.

Mickey Richardson, CEO of BetCris.com, a Costa-Rica based site offering several hurricane-related propositions, said the idea of betting on calamities seemed depraved at first. But customers demanded the wagers.

”We had to wrestle with it, some people view it as a morbid thing to offer,” he said of his site’s storm-season bets. “But we can’t stop hurricanes. There’s been a true interest in it from the public.”

Richardson, along with CEOs of other sites, including wagerweb.com, said they’ve refused to take bets on the amount of destruction or casualties.

Well that’s a relief. At least they’re not betting on whether I’ll be maimed or killed, just how badly my hair will be mussed.

Look, I don’t really care if these idiots are betting on whether we’ll get pasted this summer or autumn like we got pasted last year — I’m gambling, too. But I’m placing my bets on 3/4-inch plywood, Duracell batteries, Coleman camping gear and FEMA. Okay, not FEMA, but on having a plan and being prepared and making sure the liquor cabinet is stocked.

So I might get whumped again this year. There’s a 1 to 5 probability that I will. But if it happens, I can take some small comfort in knowing that the dolts who bet $5 that I would get whacked will only get a payout of $1. Small vengeance, perhaps, but on Hurricane Season Eve, we are grateful for any source of comfort, no matter how small.

God Sez: Charlie Crist Next Florida Governor

Trish

Dear Lord: First, thank you for all your blessings upon me and my family and friends. But can I ask you something? Why are you always giving the inside scoop to rightwing ministers like Pat Robertson and the Rev. O’Neal Dozier? You told Pat about hurricanes and now you’re tipping Jeb crony Rev. Dozier about Charlie Crist.

Lord, you know I live in Florida. I’d appreciate a little direct communication from time to time too. That’s all I’m saying. Southwest Florida Herald Tribune:

“The Lord Jesus spoke to me and he said ‘There’s something I want you to know. Charlie Crist will be the next governor of the state of Florida.'”

A reverend who introduced Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist during a breakfast with other pastors Monday said the Lord came to him in a dream two years ago and told him Crist would be the state’s next governor.

The Rev. O’Neal Dozier said that before the dream he did not know Crist, nor had Crist made known his plans to run for governor.

“The Lord Jesus spoke to me and he said ‘There’s something I want you to know,'” said Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach. “‘Charlie Crist will be the next governor of the state of Florida.'”…

“It’s the most amazing thing anyone’s every told me,” Crist said. “It’s beyond overwhelming, but the reverend has a very strong faith in his heart and he’s a good man. I’m very grateful for his help and his support and his belief.”

Gov. Jeb Bush, who appointed Dozier to a group that nominates judges in South Florida, didn’t directly respond to the remark, but praised Dozier.

“Far be it from me to judge about people’s faiths and what occurs because of it,” Bush said.

As you know, God, none of this has prevented some of your people from speculating that Crist will be undone once he’s exposed as a homosexual who, according to people like Rev. Dozier, you have condemned to hell. It also hasn’t stopped rightwingers who think Crist is too liberal from putting up cheesy anonymous web sites ridiculing him, like SorryCharlie.com

Two Candidates Challenge Harris, One Picked by Rove; Meanwhile Katherine Gets Her Gun

Trish

In literally the final hour before today’s qualifying deadline, two candidates surfaced to challenge U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) for the opportunity to beat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) this fall.

The president kept so far away from Harris, “it could have been a public-service announcement on bird-flu-greeting protocol.”

Jeb’s first choice, Speaker of the House Rep. Allan Bense (R), kept everyone guessing wrong until the last minute that he would decide to run. The seat is just too coveted — and the Bush brothers just too contemptuous of the woman who prostituted herself to put W. in power — to let it go without a fight.

Indeed, the president’s visit to Florida earlier this week should have provided Harris a photo opp to counter the governor’s constantly voiced doubts about her ability to beat Nelson. Instead, as Orlando Sentinel Columnist Mike Thomas put it, the president kept so far away from Harris, “it could have been a public-service announcement on bird-flu-greeting protocol.”

Today two dark horses appeared, one hand-picked by Karl Rove. According to the Lakeland Ledger, Harris’ hometown newspaper, they are William McBride, an Orlando personal injury lawyer, and Peter Monroe, a developer. McBride — a family friend — is Rove’s choice.

Meanwhile, Harris grabbed the spotlight back with her oddly timed announcement that she will spend the weekend in a class to renew her concealed weapons permit, lapsed after she first obtained it in the wake of death threats during the 2000 election theft.

“For me, I just want to have a permit in an overabundance of caution,” she said. “I want to go ahead with getting it for practical purposes.”

…The visit to the gun range will double as a photo op, with media invited to broadcast images of Harris that could play well with gun rights advocates.

The range is at the aptly named Hallelujahland Ranch, “owned by James F. Griffin III, a member of the local Republican Executive Committee.”

Don’t let Harris’ firepower scare you, boys. I doubt she’ll pull down on you unless it looks like you’re going to shoot first. Or win.

Florida GOP Pol Who Could Beat Katherine Harris Opts Not to Run

Buck Banks

Dodging the bullet: Florida House Speaker Allan Bense announced today that he would not run against Katherine Harris in the Republican primary to determine the challenger for Democrat Bill Nelson’s U.S. Senate seat from Florida. Many Republican leaders, including the hapless Jeb Bush (who can’t even get a pet bill passed in the Florida legislature, let alone influence a Senate race), have been trying for weeks to draft Bense into the race as Harris’ campaign stumbles, bumbles and fumbles toward almost certain, ignominious defeat.

In a statement published by the “St. Petersburg Times,” Bense gave the trusty and prosaic excuse of not wanting to be separated from his family for many years to serve in the Senate.

‘After much thought and prayer, I realized the answer to that question is “No.” ‘

While the challenge of running a successful campaign over the next several months was exciting, and while I am confident we would have been successful, ultimately my decision came down to the fundamental question of whether I was willing to spend the next six, 12 or possibly 18 years of my life away from my family and my home serving Florida in the U.S. Senate. After much thought and prayer, I realized the answer to that question is “No.”

I do think Bense would have been “successful” in a run against Harris, but Nelson looks almost unbeatable at this point. He’s got money, a moderate track record and is running a pretty clean campaign. Basically, all he has to do is sit back and watch Harris self-destruct.

Bense might have made a difference insofar as he could have hastened Harris’ exit from the political stage and maybe given Nelson a run for his money. But perhaps he was put off by the prospect of being drafted into a campaign by a party that didn’t necessarily want HIM, but absolutely doesn’t want HER. It would have been a politically weak position from which to campaign, and while the state’s rabid Repugs probably would have backed him in support of the party, Bill Nelson still would have won.

Common Cause Wants Justice Department to Investigate Katherine Harris

Trish

This shouldn’t take long.

Common Cause, pain-in-the-GOP-ass extraordinaire group that Jeb once referred to as a bunch of “secret squirrels” is at it again. This time, they’re going after beleaguered Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), asking the Justice Department to do its job and investigate the skanky ho bag.

“Bribery takes two…We know Mitchell Wade has been guilty of bribery. The question is, ‘Is Katherine Harris guilty?’

Common Cause wants to know whether Harris broke the law when she and Mitchell Wade met at an exclusive Georgetown restaurant in early 2005. At that dinner — which cost Wade up to $2,800 — Wade offered to hold a fundraiser for Harris and sought her help obtaining $10 million in federal money…

“Bribery takes two,” said [Common Cause Director of Ethics Campaign’s Mike] Surrusco. “We know Mitchell Wade has been guilty of bribery. The question is, ‘Is Katherine Harris guilty?’ “

It’s a violation of Congressional ethics codes to accept anything worth more than $50. Harris didn’t do too well recently explaining this whole $2,800 dinner deal to reporters. One can only imagine how she’ll hold up under Justice Department questioning.

In her interview Wednesday, Harris acknowledged for the first time that Wade had paid for the dinner at Citronelle, reversing a statement from her congressional spokeswoman earlier this year.

But in the interview, Harris also said her campaign had, at some point, “reimbursed” the restaurant.

When asked how she could have reimbursed a business that was owed no money — Wade paid the bill that evening — she abruptly ended the interview and walked off. […]