Tag: Florida

A High School Named for a Klansman?

Trish
Grand Wizard Gen. Nathan B. Forrest

Boy, white people did some wacky stuff during the Civil Rights era. Here’s one example.

In 1959, after being compelled by the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education to stop maintaining separate “but equal” public schools, the Confederate Daughters of America (CDA) in Jacksonville, Fla. exacted revenge. They led a successful drive to name a public high school after none other than Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Spiteful and childish move, amirite? I bet you’re thinking it didn’t take long to correct that little work of malice. Well, you’d be wrong. Because to this day, students in Jacksonville continue to graduate from Forrest High.

Sure, over the years, there have been various attempts to have the name changed. After all, Forrest, a Tennessee native, had no relationship with Jacksonville. In fact, he never even visited the town. The CDA just looked around for the worst example of a white guy they could find, and there, like a shimmering star, was Nathan Bedford Forrest.

[…]

House Republicans Call Out Senate Republicans Over Government Shutdown Plan

Trish

Does Ted Cruz have a plan to get 41 votes? Does he have a strategy he’s executing on to get 41 votes? Not that I’m aware of. Has he ever come to the House leadership and said, ‘Here’s my plan to get 41 votes in the Senate, to hold the line so we can defund Obamacare?’ Never. No. He’s just on his twitter account attacking House Republicans.

A frustrated but anonymous “GOP leadership aide” to NBC News, criticizing tea party Republicans vying for the 2016 presidential race, like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who want to shut down the government (or at least pretend their goal isn’t to gain political advantage) in yet another attempt to derail the Affordable Care Act.

Zimmerman is the Gift that Keeps On Giving in Florida

Trish

$200,000 – $300,000

Amount George Zimmerman is asking the state of Florida to reimburse him for hiring expert witnesses, providing depositions, and other trial costs aside from attorney’s fees. Zimmerman was acquitted after he profiled, stalked, and finally shot and killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin last year. Since the trial, Zimmerman has been pulled over for speeding in Texas, and forced his lawyers to apologize after he was photographed taking a merry tour of the factory that made the gun he used to kill Martin.

It’s Not Just the Zimmerman Jury That’s Messed Up; It’s Also the Stand Your Ground Law

Trish

For the people out there wondering what the Zimmerman jury was smoking, I have a partial explanation, thanks to former Florida state Rep. Dan Gelber.

As Gelber explained on his blog, before the Stand Your Ground (SYG) law was passed, convicting Zimmerman would have been a slam-dunk.

Under Stand Your Ground, the George Zimmermans of the world can get themselves into all kinds of ridiculous messes and shoot their way out under no penalty of law

In 2005 the Florida Legislature fundamentally changed the analysis used by juries to assign blame in these cases. When the legislature passed the Stand Your Ground law it changed the rules of engagement. It eliminated the duty to avoid the danger and it eliminated any duty to retreat…

Here is the actual jury instruction read to Florida juries prior to the legislature’s enactment of Stand Your Ground.

“The defendant cannot justify the use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm unless he used every reasonable means within his power and consistent with his own safety to avoid the danger before resorting to that force.

“The fact that the defendant was wrongfully attacked cannot justify his use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm if by retreating he could have avoided the need to use that force.”

[…]

A Ten Point Loss Is Welcome News for Florida Gov. Rick Scott

Trish
Why is this man smiling?

The news was all good for Florida Gov. Rick Scott (Tea/GOP) in a recent Quinnipiac University poll…if you consider losing re-election to any competitor by at least six points to be good news.

In a match-up with former Gov. Charlie Crist (who is considering running against him as a Democrat), Scott would lose 47 – 37. But that’s six points lower than he would have lost in March, according to the poll.

If he were running against U.S. Sen Bill Nelson (D – Fla.), he would still lose, 48 – 38.

Against former state Sen. Nan Rich (D), Scott would lose less badly: 42 – 36 percent. Of course, 84 percent of those polled said they didn’t know enough about Rich to form an opinion on her.

Scott also earned the highest approval ratings he’s seen, showing that a PR charm offensive that included basically paying teachers off is working. A whopping 43 percent of those queried approved of his job performance.

Best of all, only 50 percent of voters say Scott does not deserve to be re-elected.

If you’re wondering why what might be seen by others as reason for a stiff, commiserating drink is making Scott so happy, Quinnipiac explains.

[…]

Town Where Once a Man Was Killed for Being Gay Now Shields Its Residents from Westboro Baptist Hate

Trish
Photo taken by Calvin Knight of the Lakeland Ledger

Somewhere, Ryan Skipper is smiling.

No, Ryan Skipper is laughing, high-fiving, and doing the chicken dance. Or maybe that’s just us, upon hearing the recent state of affairs in Lakeland, Fla.

One person who might not have gotten the anti-homophobia message is Sheriff Grady Judd

The same place where, in 2007, 25-year-old Ryan Skipper was bound and brutally stabbed, leaving his car so bloodied that the his murderers, who planned to steal it, drove it off a dock instead — all because, as they told investigators, Ryan was gay — the very same Lakeland citizenry has now massed together to fight off the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its nonsensical hate-mongering against homosexuals.

[…]

Candidate Claims She’s Endorsed by Jesus Christ

Buck Banks

It’s a spiritual endorsement. Why? Because everything I do I always get God involved.

— Anna Pierre, mayoral candidate in North Miami, Fla., explaining why her campaign posters say she was endorsed by Jesus Christ, WPLG-TV reports. Pierre said she prayed leading up to registering for her candidacy and received three signs that Jesus was her endorser. But when asked about those signs, she said, “Well, I’m going to keep them private.”

Florida’s Lt. Gov. Resigns After Questioning in Gambling Investigation

Trish

Carroll, in a public service announcement for the sham Allied Veterans group.

The ground is shifting under the feet of Florida Republicans, as Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll resigns after being questioned in a federal racketeering investigation.

The surprise isn’t that Carroll is resigning, it’s that she’s resigning over this

The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) was caught short by the news, after more successfully dodging another recent scandal bullet. On the very day former RPOF chief Jim Greer was set to begin trial for funny bookkeeping that would have spilled the beans on almost every Republican politician in Florida, including and especially Sen. Marco Rubio, Greer copped a plea.

But Carroll doesn’t look so lucky. Exhibit A in Gov. Rick Scott’s “big tent” GOP cabinet has had her share of ethics challenges since assuming office as the state’s second in command. The issue of her shifting net worth, which she never seems to have a handle on, has been a recurring problem.

Then there’s her recent trouble, which is hard to describe in polite terms. Let’s just say that she and Bill Clinton share at least one thing in common, and that would be ladies on their knees beneath the executives’ office desks. Carroll denied the allegations by explaining that women who look like her cannot be lesbians. Many were unconvinced.

[…]

Florida Eclipses Other States’ Paranoia Game

Trish

1 million

Number of concealed weapons permits Florida has handed out, as of Dec. 12, 2012, making it the number one gun-toting state — by far. The nearest contenders are Georgia, with 600,000 permits, Texas with 524,000, and Indiana with 420,000. Gun lobbyist Marion Hammer says the NRA and others will pressure the Florida legislature this session to pass “open carry” laws that will officially convert the state to the wild west by allowing the paranoid to walk around brandishing guns.

Look Out Liberals — Rubio Hydrates!

Trish

“Send the liberal detractors a message that not only does Marco Rubio inspire you…he hydrates you too.” — Nonsensical call to action from the Reclaim America PAC, Sen. Marco Rubio’s political action committee that raises money to elect conservatives to the Senate.

For a minimum donation of $25, Rubio’s supporters can buy a water bottle with his name on it and thereby scare thirsty liberals. As inexplicable as the message itself is the fact that the photo and caption have received over 71,000 “Likes” on Facebook (and counting).