23 Stories to Read

by: quinnelk

Fri Feb 22, 2008 at 00:22:34 AM EST

2. Fidel Castro's Resignation: Bark Bark Woof Woof - Fidel Quits, Tallahassee Leaders Forum - Fidel Resigns, Raoul Takes Over, A Grand Illusion - Castro retires, Miami-Dade Dems - Joe Garcia on Castro, Eye on Miami (Genius of Despair) - Fidel Castro Yesterday and Today, Blast Off! - BREAKING: Castro resigns, irony shoots out of McStagger's nose, Incertus (Amy) - Fidel, litbrit - To Those Who Muse About "Spreading Democracy" on This Day of Fidel Castro's Retirement, Talk To Me - Castro, Miami-Dade Dems - Castro resigns -- early coverage not satisfactory, Interstate4Jamming2 - Fidel Pulls An LBJ; Reaction Is Ho-Hum...So What Do We Do?, Draft Joe Garcia - Fidel Castro Resigns, Draft Joe Garcia - Joe Garcia Statement on the Resignation of Fidel Castro, Bark Bark Woof Woof - Blogging from Cuba, MyDD - Cuba: Differences in Approach, AMERICAblog - Castro quitting as President of Cuba, and Shakesville - We Won't Have Fidel Castro to Kick Around Anymore.

3. Pushing Rope - What Is the Academic Freedom Amendment?: "One thing social conservatives can't be faulted on his their predictibility. They use the same playbook over and over again. Opponents of teaching evoltion in public schools pushed for a academic freedom amendment. The Orwellian-sounding term was created by professional education hater David Howowitz. Essentially, social conservatives want to erode teachers' abilities to teach things they disagree with. Which makes it all the more hysterical for evolution opponents to call the teaching of science dogmatic."

4. Pushing Rope - Education Commissioner Maybe Elected Post Again: "Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt supports making the Education Commissor an elected post."

5. BeThink - School Shootings; Standards Kill Students and Society: "School shootings are in the news.  Throughout America, adults express concern.  Are the children safe when in a classroom.  Repeated rounds of ammunition affirm, they are not.  Some say times have changed.  There seems to be a consensus; we must secure our campuses,  Solutions are standard.  Society must protect the young.  Few think it possible to prevent another occurrence or attack. Let us examine the whole situation, the whole of our children.  Perchance, the problem is not as it appears."

6. Pushing Rope - Open Thread: How to Raise a Child to be a Feminist: "A reader of Feministe posed the question, 'How does a father teach his daughter about feminism?' Here is my answer..."

7. Incertus (Brian) - This is why Social Security is so important: "Dry subject, I know, but the inordinate amount of interest I continue to see from the right wing, especially among young people, in privatizing Social Security concerns me, because it's clear that these young people don't really understand the purpose of the program."

8. Eye On Miami (Genius of Despair) - Lobbyist Fees: We are all in the wrong business: "This is such a colossal waste of money unless, of course, some of it were going in my pocket."

9. Blast Off! - Democrats ? Charlie Crist: "You know, I've got mixed feelings about this Crist fella. He sure sounds like a Democrat sometimes, and he definitely has a lot of Democratic fans..." and Why Now? - Someone Want To Explain This: "Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida, seems to be proposing a better health care plan than leading unDemocratic¹ Party Presidential candidates. He even acknowledges problems with dental care."

10. Tally - Is the FDP Ready for an Obama Candidacy?: "Much of the hierarchy of the Florida Democratic Party and our Democratic congressional delegation have clearly hooked their wagon to Hillary Clinton's rapidly falling star. I would like to propose that the party begin to deal with its denial and start preparing for how to run with an Obama presidential candidacy here in Florida."

11. Aikane Leo - Democrats cannot unring the bell: "That statement by the DNC chairman symbolized the political wisdom of Democratic Party insiders and the liberal blogosphere back in the good old days of 2007, when Democrats were giddy at their prospects of wresting the White House from Republican hands. Florida lawmakers had jumped the gun by scheduling an early primary election, making the Florida voter an easy whipping boy for party bosses who showed no restraint with the big sticks and crack of whips. Little forethought was given to the unforeseen consequences of the party's draconian punishment."

12. Eye On Miami (gimleteye) - Palm Beach activists act up, why not Miami Dade and Broward?: "Why are citizens acting up in Palm Beach, but not in Miami-Dade? Is it a matter of geography, or, of leadership? In part, it's the landscape. In Broward, successive county commissions made sure that communities would be separated by terrible transit infrastructure, making it impossible for people to get from one side of the county to the other. It's not much different in Miami-Dade. If you can't move, you can't meet."

13. Miami-Dade Dems - The Economist takes note of our three Congressional races: "It took Castro's resignation, but the august British weekly The Economist has taken approving note of our three congressional challengers here in South Florida. We figured we could get national attention in the United States with three strong candidates, but it's heartening to receive attention from the European press when the election is still eight months away."

14. Eye on Miami (Genius of Despair) - Our Miami Dade Cities: Where is the Miami Herald?: "North Miami is experiencing a crime wave and there is fighting over the mega-development, Biscayne Landing. There are charges by the Mayor that affordable housing has been mishandled. And now the Mayor recants?? Why? "

15. Blast Off! - BC Bowl: DUI program director arrested for ... DUI: "You know, I hate to pile on to racymind in the Batshit Crazy Bowl (Florida vs. Texas for the title of Batshit Craziest State in America), but there has been a tremendous uptick -- even a surge -- of craziness in Florida, the batshit craziest state in America (yes, racy, even more batshit crazy than Texas). I had my pick of a couple of excellent examples of batshit craziness from America's Wang™ this morning, including the pantsless patron of a Dunkin Donuts in Lake Mary, but I think the one I'm featuring really exemplifies why Florida is a truly insane state. You would think that someone in charge of a program that serves people on probation for DUI would, you know, not drink and drive. But, after all, this is Florida..."

16. Pushing Rope - I Feel Your Pain: "Shorter Peer Review: I hate John McCain, but I'm going to vote for him since I hate Democrats even more."

17. Miami-Dade Dems - Next Wednesday elect one of the 3 B's: "Mark your calendars, please. We will elect a new chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party next Wednesday to replace Joe Garcia, who resigned to run for Congress."

18. Incertus (Brian) - Sometimes I just don't know: "A Florida legislator from Miami, Sen. Larcenia Bullard, has introduced a bill in the state house that would make hanging a noose to intimidate others illegal. It's being pushed in response to, among other things, the incident last year in Jena, LA, which I and my co-bloggers wrote about here. The devil is, of course, in the details."

19. John Dicks For Congress - Congress Feasts on Pork Barrel Spending!: "The good news is that this year's budget contained 23% less pork than the all time high year for Congressional earmarks back in 2005. Regardless, Conress continues to bleed red with spending including 12,881 earmarks, totalling $18.3 billion."

20. Blast Off! - Pass the salt...: "...'cause I'm gonna need more than just a grain of it after reading the latest Rasmussen poll of Florida voters."

21. Here are the sites in our Candidate Watch Network that have been updated: Florida House Watch, The Lincoln Observer, Eye on Ileana and Say No to Mario.

22. Also check out CG Radio and The Tampa Pirate.

23. For more, as always, go to the FLA Politics daily round-up and Political Newsclippings from The Spencerian.