Tag: Florida

Columnists for the Orlando Sentinel outlined the perpetual piss-offedness of Gov. Jeb Bush, who this time is pissed at Common Cause for beating him at the Florida constitutional amendment game.

The governor then turned on Common Cause, saying he wasn’t satisfied that the organization had just disclosed top contributors to the $2.6 million Florida ballot campaign it has waged to have redistricting taken out of the hands of the Republican Legislature.

“I appreciate they gave up some of their donors. But what about the rest?” Bush said. “Where’s the outrage?”

Common Cause spokesperson Mary Boyle said, “the only secret squirrels we know about are hiding from Dick Cheney”

The list of 44 Common Cause contributors who gave $5,000 or more to the organization over the past year failed to include any big left-leaning donors such as George Soros, the financier who helped back the John Kerry presidential campaign.

Those major Common Cause contributors represented $1.3 million of the Florida campaign’s funding — with the remaining donations out of a pool averaging $50 each, the organization said.

But Bush isn’t satisfied. After earlier accusing Common Cause of raising “secret squirrel” money at “secret squirrel meetings,” he again raised the specter of the organization laundering its Florida contributions.

“What would happen if they gave a big transfer from the secret squirrel corporate headquarters in New York . . . down here for this?” Bush said.

“Common Cause of all people that tout themselves as being for good government and clean elections shouldn’t be participating in this. Where’s the outrage?” he said.

Common Cause spokesperson Mary Boyle called Bush’s allegations “ridiculous” and a “total diversionary tactic.”

“If the governor is still talking about ‘secret squirrels,’ ” she added, “the only secret squirrels we know about are hiding from Dick Cheney.”

Good one, Mary. Heh heh.

The hometown news has a little more colorful reporting about the U.S. Representative from Florida’s wife how got ousted from the State of Union address, along with Cindy Sheehan for wearing a t-shirt reminding people about the troops. St. Petersburg Times:

Young said she was sitting in the gallery’s front row, about six seats from first lady Laura Bush, when she was approached by someone from the Capitol Police or sergeant-at-arms office who told her she needed to leave the gallery.

She reluctantly agreed but argued with several officers in the hallway outside the House chamber.

“They said I was protesting,” she said in a telephone interview late Tuesday. “I said, “Read my shirt, it is not a protest.’ They said, “We consider that a protest.’ I said, “Then you are an idiot.”‘

Well, not really, Bev. Protesting is a crime in Washington, and if you thought for one minute you were exercising your right to free speech, it’s time to wake up and smell the facism.

They told her she was being treated the same as Cindy Sheehan, an antiwar protester who was ejected before the speech Tuesday night for wearing a T-shirt with an antiwar slogan and refusing to cover it up…

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police could not provide details about the incident but said, “She was not ejected from the gallery. She did leave on her own.”

No sense exaggerating, after all. It sounds like part of the problem is that Bev and her husband, The Honorable C.W. Bill, are used to ordering the hired help around since they have friends in high places.

Young’s husband, a Republican who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee on defense, was unaware she was removed until after the speech. He said he was furious about the incident.

“I just called for the chief of police and asked him to get his little tail over here,” Rep. Young said late Tuesday. “This is not acceptable.”

Beverly Young said, “Wait until the president finds out.”

Oh no, you didn’t say that.

What a way for Florida to begin Black History Month. The state has the dubious distinction of being No. 2 nationwide in number of organized hate groups. Orlando Sentinel:

The state famous for tourism and endless sunshine has a disturbing side. It is home to 43 so-called hate groups, second only to South Carolina, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Ala., organization that has tracked such groups for 25 years…

The center, the Anti-Defamation League and an FBI investigator who has monitored Florida extremist groups attribute the state’s prominence on the hate-group list to its booming population, shifting demographics and the vestiges of racism.

Today, about 19 percent of the state’s population is Hispanic, 15 percent is black and about 4 percent is Jewish. Extremists target all three groups. Florida has about 18 million people.

So I guess there are just more people to hate in Florida? In nearby Jacksonville, according to a graphic supplied with the article, there are two skinhead groups, one neo-Confederate, one neo-Nazi, and two groups classified as “other.” On the other hand, Jacksonville is home to the nation’s third largest Cambodian Buddhist temple as well as the newly launched Stetson Kennedy Foundation. Kennedy, who lives near my own St. Augustine, is the author of The Klan Unmasked, first published in the ‘50s to expose the Klan and a neo-Nazi hate group called the Columbians. Stetson didn’t do his undercover work in Florida but maybe he should have.

Though the total number is small, it’s unclear how many people join hate groups. Few organizations release membership numbers, and those that do likely inflate them.

Generally, experts say, local chapters include a handful to several dozen members. The National Socialist Movement reports about 50 members in Orlando.

“Central Florida,” said Bill White of the National Socialist Movement, “is our strongest growing area in the state.”

Like anybody needed another good reason not to visit DisneyWorld. Still, Tampa is no slouch.

Officials with the Tampa unit of the neo-Nazi National Vanguard would not discuss their activities, referring all questions to Vanguard headquarters in Virginia.

The Tampa group is one of the best organized in the state. It has produced compact discs, rented billboards and flown white-power banners over the Daytona 500. After Hurricane Katrina, members went to Mississippi to help “white families in need.”

Florida. Gotta love it.