An Antiwar Black President With An Arab-Sounding Name

Consider our present situation. Thanks to Iraq and water-boarding, Abu Ghraib and the "rendering" of terror suspects, we've achieved the moral status of a pariah nation. The seas are rising. The dollar is sinking. A growing proportion of Americans have no access to health care. Clinton can put forth all the policy proposals she likes--and many of them are admirable ones--but anyone can see that she's of the same generation and even one of the same families that got us into this checkmate situation in the first place. Whatever she does, the semiotics of her campaign boils down to two words--"same old."........here

USA 193

During the next week, a wayward U.S. spy satellite will make passes across North America and western Europe soon after sunset and should be easily visible to the unaided eye. That's if it doesn't get shot down first........here

David Gee And Brian Sterner

The Hillsborough County, Florida, sheriff on Wednesday offered a personal apology to a disabled man who was dumped onto the floor from his wheelchair while in deputies' custody.......here

"I am personally embarrassed and shocked by the horrific treatment Mr. Sterner received,"...... Sheriff David Gee

Cohones Found In The House of Representatives

Still, basic human nature -- if nothing else -- dictates that having finally liberated themselves, however fleetingly, from the truly moronic rule of the Ted "Osama-is-Celebrating" Poes of the world, and having seen that -- as McJoan put it -- "the Democrats stood up to Bush, and the world didn't end," Democrats will crave more of the sweet taste of dignity and autonomy.......here

A Florida Treasure

Representative Robert Wexler

Republican Grandstanding

Up and Running: Florida’s Largest Solar Array

Florida this week boosted its supply of renewable energy when its largest solar power array went online. The Sunshine Energy Solar Array was dedicated Monday by Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Power & Light (FPL) officials. The facility is located on a former landfill in Sarasota County........here

“The economic future of our state is linked to our maintaining its natural beauty, and this solar power facility is an excellent example that other communities can work to achieve,”......Charlie Crist

Worried Clinton Vows To Claim 'Phantom' Delegates

The Hillary Clinton campaign has served notice that it expects to claim delegates theoretically garnered in primary votes in Michigan and Florida even though the contests in both states were declared void by the Democratic leadership long before they were held.......here

Group Urges Florida To Reject State Funded Religion

Efforts to repeal a provision in the Florida Constitution that bars government funding of religious institutions should be rejected, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission is considering two proposed constitutional amendments that would allow Florida to use public funds to support religious schools and other faith-based ministries.......here

The efforts to amend the Florida Constitution are being led by former members of Gov. Jeb Bush's administration.

Gulf Stream Eyed As New Energy Source

Just 15 miles off Florida's coast, the world's most powerful sustained ocean current — the mighty Gulf Stream — rushes by at nearly 8.5 billion gallons per second. And it never stops. To scientists, it represents a tantalizing possibility: a new, plentiful and uninterrupted source of clean energy. Florida Atlantic University researchers say the current could someday be used to drive thousands of underwater turbines, produce as much energy as perhaps 10 nuclear plants and supply one-third of Florida's electricity.......here

Superdelegates

"The Democratic Party must be democratic. The superdelegates should let the voters decide between Clinton and Obama, then support the people's choice. Can you sign this petition to the superdelegates right away? Click here to add your name.

Bill Nelson's Total Disregard For The U. S. Constitution

The Senate overwhelming voted Tuesday evening to legalize President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program and grant amnesty to the phone companies that helped out with the domestic spying........here

Democrats voting for the bill: Evan Bayh (D-IN), Tom Carper (D-DE), Robert Casey (D-PA), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Jim Webb (D-VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Florida Is Looking For A Ned Lamont Or A Donna Edwards

Congratulations, Donna Edwards!

Donna Edwards, the insurgent candidate from Fort Washington, has defeated the odds and unseated an eight-term incumbent Rep. Albert Wynn in the Democratic primary in Maryland's 4th Congressional District. Edwards' message of change in Congress and Washington resonated with voters who came out overwhelmingly to support her, due to an unprecedented collaborative effort between the netroots and the progressive movement.........here

Amy Chats With Donna Edwards

You Were Wrong And Howard Dean Was Right

Did Big Sugar Step On The Miami International Film Festival

If you expected that Amy Serrano’s film, “The Sugar Babies: The Plight of the Children of Agricultural Workers in the Sugar Industry of the Dominican Republic” would be exhibited at the upcoming Miami International Film Festival, you would be wrong........here

Crist Seeks 'An Army Of Conservationists'

Surrounded by dozens of Cub, Boy and Girl Scouts in the state Capitol, Gov. Charlie Crist unveiled a new Serve to Preserve scout award Wednesday that was created in partnership with the youth organizations. Troops can earn an award insignia by completing programs that seek to protect the natural environment.........here

Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant

The nation’s first, large scale seawater desalination plant is delivering drinking water to more than two and a half million residents of the Tampa Bay area. It’s a timely solution as continued drought is forecast across the south eastern United States........here

Former Pinellas County Nuclear Workers Suffer Fatal Diseases

Hundreds of area residents who worked at a 97-acre highly classified General Electric facility in Largo that once manufactured atomic and hydrogen bomb components today suffer from cancer and other disorders, affecting the lungs, skin and internal organs........here

Raul TV

Sharpton: Don't Seat Fla., Mich.

Seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at the Democratic National Convention would be a grave injustice, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday in a break with prominent civil rights leaders. "I firmly believe that changing the rules now, and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic Party's rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice," Sharpton said in a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean........here

Baltimore Cop And The 14-Year-Old Skateboarder

You got that camera on if i find myself......

Online Tool Pinpoints Sand For Florida Beach Restoration

Florida today debuted the first database in the country that identifies sand sources for beach restoration and nourishment projects. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, has compiled a comprehensive on-line tool for identifying suitable sand sources from Florida's coastal waters........here

Evolution Under Siege In Florida

As the Florida state board of education prepared to consider a final draft of a new set of state science standards, Floridians offered their opinions at a last-minute meeting held in Orlando on February 11, 2008. Over eighty speakers addressed the state commissioner of education.......more

Florida Prison Drunken Orgies

Softball, drunken orgies and a prison system run like the mafia. That's what Florida's former prison secretary says he inherited when he took over one of the nation's largest prison systems two years ago. In fact, on his first day on the job, James McDonough says he walked into his office -- the same one his predecessor used -- and there was crime scene tape preventing anyone from entering. "Corruption had gone to an extreme," McDonough said, saying it all began at the top. "They seemed to be drunk half the time and had orgies the other half, when they weren't taking money and beating each other up."........here

Governor Jeb Bush has appointed me Secretary of the Department of Corrections. I am both honored and excited.........James Crosby

Hillsborough County Sheriff Deputies

Dump paralyzed man from wheelchair.

Ernesto And Barack

The right-wing noise machine has caught some volunteers for Barack Obama in Texas with a Cuban flag with Che Guevara on it, thus making a piece of dorm-room art from the 1960's the latest flash point in the campaign of the truly trivial talking points.........here

Florida's Superdelegates

Uncommitted:
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, Boca Raton
U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, Palm Beach Gardens
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, Tampa
U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, Monticello
Mitch Ceasar, Plantation
Diane Glasser, Tamarac
Karen Thurman, Tallahassee
Jon Ausman, Tallahassee
Andy Tobias, Tallahassee
Janee Murphy Tampa
Rudy Parker, Perry
Terrie Brady, Jacksonville
Hillary Clinton supporters:
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, Miami
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, Miramar
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Weston
U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, Jacksonville
Raul Martinez, Hialeah
Chuck Mohlke, Naples
Barack Obama supporters:
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler
State Rep. Joyce Cusack, DeLand
Allan Katz, Tallahassee

The Florida Democratic Party can be reached at 850-222-3411 or email@fladems.com

Woman Tasered At Daytona Beach Best Buy

McCain/Bush 2008

Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, added his name today to McCain's campaign endorsements. "John McCain is a patriot and devoted conservative leader," Jeb Bush said, in a statement distributed by the McCain campaign. "Like no other candidate in the field, John McCain has made tremendous sacrifices for this nation. "He is beholden to no interest other than that of the public good.''..........here

Four More Years

Sarasota's Vanished Votes

An Investigation into the Cause of Uncounted Votesin the 2006 Congressional District 13 Race in Sarasota County, Florida. What we uncovered in our investigation is shocking: The iVotronic votingsystem failed to count over 100,000 votes in various races across the state of Florida in the November 2006 election.......here

Yes We Can John McCain!

Superdelegates, Back Off!

If the superdelegates determine the party’s nominee before primary and caucus voters have rendered a clear verdict, Democrats risk losing the trust that we are building with voters today. The perception that the votes of ordinary people don’t count as much as those of the political insiders, who get to pick the nominee in some mythical back room, could hurt our party for decades to come.......here

Howard Dean On The Death Of Rep. Tom Lantos

"Our nation has lost a great public servant with the passing of Representative Tom Lantos. In serving his constituents and his country, Tom never forgot the Democratic Party's ideals of freedom, fairness, and opportunity for all. As Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he was an authority on foreign policy issues and a voice for the oppressed. The only Holocaust survivor in Congress, he was a forceful and passionate advocate for civil liberties and human rights. Today, I join with countless others across the country in offering my thoughts and prayers to Rep. Lantos' family and friends as we honor his life and legacy."

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

Joe Garcia For Congress

Joe Garcia, the chairman of Miami Dade's Democratic Party, plans to take on a five year U.S. Representative for his seat in Congress. This district faces severe economic problems. The prices of homes have never been higher, in the capacity of middle class families to afford them, Insurance rates are out of wack while our Congress rules against catastrophic funding for insurance.......here

Barack Obama Wins A Grammy

CNN announces that Barack Obama has won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Album Work after recording the audiobook of "The Audacity of Hope"

Annette Taddeo For Congress

Annette Taddeo plans to run against Illeana Ros-Lehtinen for the District 18 U.S. House seat.......here

Florida's Democrats Once Again Too Wily For Own Good

Being a Democrat in Florida is like being the coyote in a Road Runner cartoon. Things start out so promising, but in the end you just screw up everything in a comical way. And so, when America wakes up on Nov. 5 with another Republican president on his way to the White House, Florida Democrats will get the blame again. Beep, beep.........here

Republicans Losing Grip On Miami Cuban Vote

An anti-communist militant who fired a bazooka at a Polish freighter walked free with impunity in this sultry subtropical U.S. city, and Cuban Americans favouring closer ties with their homeland could once expect to be firebombed here. But Miami has changed and the sometimes violent scenes of Cuban exile passion appear to be in the past. That could spell trouble for President George W. Bush's Republican Party in November's general election........here

Florida Turtle Hospital Worth A Visit

You could call it Sunny's finest hour, finally going home - wherever home might be. The send-off was to be nothing short of one befitting a celebrity. It was a cool, almost cold, January day recently in this resort community. Even with a cloudless sky and a blazing sun, a stiff northeast wind left little chance for any warming rays to challenge the chill.......here

The Loggerhead Marinelife Center

Florida's Own Civil Rights Martyr

He has been called America's first civil rights martyr, yet his name rarely arises with those of Medgar Evers or Martin Luther King Jr. Even in Florida, where his quest to bring full equality to blacks led to his untimely and violent end, Harry T. Moore remains unknown to many. Bob Devin Jones is doing what he can to rectify that fact. Jones, a St. Petersburg dramatist, will bring his portrayal of Moore to Bartow Public Library Tuesday evening........here

T. Rex's Quote of the Day

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." - Elmer Davis

Stogie's Quote of Forever

The stakes in November are high. This is an important election. Prosperity and peace are in the balance.".......G.W.Bush

G.W. BUSH IS NOT THE WORST WORLD LEADER EVER........here

A Letter From Barack Obama

We Are The Change We Have Been Waiting For

We just learned that we won all three contests today -- in Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington State. We've now won 18 out of 28 states, with New Mexico still in the balance. What's more, we also estimate that we at least doubled our delegate lead today. Our momentum is strong, but another round of tough contests is about to begin. Tomorrow, Democrats will caucus in Maine. And on Tuesday, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia will have their turn........here
To win, we need to bring as many people into the process as possible. We're pushing towards 500,000 donors this year by March 4th, when Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont vote.

Florida Atheists Celebrate Darwin Day

A godless minority will gather Saturday to celebrate the birthday of Charles Darwin and promote unconstrained scientific inquiry. More than 200 atheists are expected at Fern Forest Nature Preserve in Coconut Creek for Darwin Day, an international festival that celebrates the importance of scientific inquiry and the accomplishments of Darwin, who brainstormed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1838........here

Mike Gravel - Corruption

What Do We Do If Hillary Wins?

I feel bad for Howard Dean. Really, I do. The man just has a politician's version of Tourette's syndrome. I'm sure when he said that he wanted to bring "the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement" in order to create unity at the DNC. Will Progressives sacrifice the pureness of their consciences for the sake of backing the only Democratic candidate left standing? Or let's say Barack takes the nomination: will Hillary's people rush to support him? Michael Moore says he is morally prohibited from voting for Hillary Clinton, and I agree with him........here

Highwaymen Provide Students Double-Dose Of Florida History

From the early 1950s through the 1980s, a group of African-American artists who came to be known as the Florida Highwaymen painted utopian scenes of Florida's landscape. No people or sailboats, condos or theme parks. Just sunsets and sunrises, palm trees and lagoons, beaches and oceans, birds watching from overhead, all in bright, clean colors.........here

Weeki Wachee To Become Florida State Park

The famous mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs will become state employees on Nov. 1.
That's when the venerable roadside attraction will become a state park. The Southwest Florida Water Management District, which owns the land and spring, approved the deal Jan. 29.......here

Psychic FOX News Anchors

Terrorists In Ybor City?

Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee stood before City Council members Thursday clutching a report from the Department of Homeland Security he said detailed all the dangers that could befall his operations center in Ybor City. But he wouldn't tell them what it said. Instead, he asked the council to let him close off 20th Street, which borders the center, from Palm to Eighth avenues. In the end, the council voted 5-1 to let him gate it off........here

Even council member Mary Mulhern, who is opposed to closing off streets, made an exception: "There are so many other areas that have been closed off for less important things. This is a necessary thing to do." The only dissenter was Linda Saul-Sena.

Sheriff Should Vacate Ybor City

You Wanna Be a Republican?

Trade with Cuba is wrong because Cuba is a communist country. Trade with China and Vietnam is vital to both international harmony and buying cheap baby-killing toys at Wal-Mart........here

Bush Rallies Conservatives "Four More Years"

Bush spoke to a boisterous crowd shortly after 7 a.m. EST. The ballroom erupted in cheers when someone shouted "Are there conservatives in the house?" When the president walked on stage, they clapped and chanted "Four more years! Four more years!".........here

Who Are These People?

"The stakes in November are high. This is an important election. Prosperity and peace are in the balance.".......G.W.Bush

One On One With Congresswoman Castor

2:00pm - 4:00pm, Monday, February 11, 2008, At The College Hill Library
2607 East Martin Luther King Boulevard, Tampa

Representative Kathy Castor

A Chorus of Millions

Conservatism Is Running On Empty

With his preemptive war and seemingly permanent occupation in Iraq, and his attempt to privatize Social Security, George W. Bush pushed American conservatism past the point where the American people were willing to go -- pushed them, in fact, to the point where they recoiled at the conservative project. And with that, American conservatism shuddered to a halt.........here

Florida Orders Sex Offenders From Bridge

The state is trying to dissolve a community of sex offenders living under a bridge that includes a makeshift gym, kitchen, living room and numerous pets. The men have lived under the Julia Tuttle Causeway for more than a year. They say limited money and strict local ordinances make it nearly impossible for them to live anywhere else. But state officials are telling them to leave.......here

Miami Beach Is Running Out Of Sand

It's midmorning in Miami Beach. The sun is shining, the waves are lapping - and the bulldozer is roaring. Orange netting ropes off sections of the shore as heavy equipment moves in to replenish one of the world's most famous beaches. The Atlantic Ocean lies no more than 20 feet away along some stretches, the result of incessant wind and water erosion, not global warming and rising seas. Grain by grain, Miami Beach is losing the fine, bone-white sand that helps draw tourists.........here

Sheriff Should Vacate Ybor City

The sheriff's operations center is actually three parcels of land, which include an auto maintenance facility and several parking lots. The main facility, which occupies about two square blocks, sits on top of sections of 9th and 8th avenues. Not only does the building disrupt Ybor's street grid pattern, but also the sheriff's office provides little benefit to the historic district. The sheriff has no jurisdiction in Ybor; policing the area is the responsibility of the Tampa Police Department........here

Critical Habitat Proposed To Protect Florida’s Disappearing Corals

Today the federal government proposed designating almost 5,000 square miles of reef area off the coasts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act for the threatened staghorn and elkhorn corals.......here

Confused Florida Voters Wanted To Vote On Super Tuesday

Millions of Americans in 24 states turned out to vote in Super Tuesday presidential primaries from Georgia to Alaska. Some dedicated if confused Florida voters tried to as well.Elections offices across the state reported hundreds of calls from voters wanting to know where they could vote Tuesday........here

Floridians almost single-handedly did in 2000 what two World Wars and Adolf Hitler couldn't: Bring democracy to a screeching halt. If they're voting on the wrong day and some are trying to vote twice, maybe it's time to cut Florida loose. The whole state is just dangling off the side of the country anyway. Get some movers, save Disneyworld, and push the rest of Florida into the Atlantic Ocean.......Jeff Girod

Ginny Brown-Waite Invokes The Ire Of The Puerto Rican Community

And what did this fine solar-baked Caucasian Congresswoman from the Sunshine State do to deserve that dubious recognition? She argued that any tax breaks provided through the economic stimulus package should be denied to “residents” of Puerto Rico because they are “foreign citizens … who do not pay federal income taxes.” And for good measure, she threw in the good people of Guam as well.......here

Alabama, Florida Declare Victory In Water War With Georgia

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today ruled that a secret settlement agreement entered into between Georgia, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Atlanta-area water users is illegal under federal law. The agreement, which was signed in 2003, would have allocated nearly 25 percent of Lake Lanier, a federal reservoir on the Chattahoochee River in northern Georgia, to supply Atlanta's 470,000 residents with water........here