WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 1865 (FNS)-The Civil War ended yesterday with the surrender of General Lee's Confederate Forces to Ulysses S. Grant, the Union Commander, at Appomattox.
Although most observers are generally happy with the surrender, many of President Obama's most loyal supporters are livid with the Commander-in-Chief because of the concessions he made in order to obtain the future support of the Southern Senators who will rejoin the body when the next Session begins.
At a media event this morning, Press Secretary Dick Timoneous expressed the President's hope that the formerly Confederate Members of Congress are looking forward to changing the political culture and steering the Nation in a better direction:
"It's time for the opposition to realize that what really matters is putting America first. The President is certain that by offering some concessions now, Southern Senators will look beyond their own parochial interests and do their part to move this process forward."
We are back, just a bit late, to wrap up the discussion we began about the pair of rulings issued in Boston by Federal District Judge Joseph Tauro this week that declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.
I don't usually tell you the end of the story at the beginning, but this time I will: there are a lot of happy Plaintiffs this week, and the Federal Government, as Defendant (whom I will refer to as "the Feds" from time to time), is not so happy at the moment.
As with last time, there's a lot of ground to cover, and the sooner we get to it, the better.
I have to work fast over the next two days to get you this story, but it is a good one.
We are all aware of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), championed by former Congressman Bob "I'm A Libertarian If It Doesn't Involve Your Penis Or Vagina" Barr; we now have two rulings, released on the same day by the same Federal judge, that will render the Act moot, if they're either upheld throughout the appeals process...or if the Obama Administration decides to end that appeals process right now.
There's a lot of ground to cover, and time is short.
It's been a while since we had to have a real heart-to-heart, the Obama Administration and I, and last time it was because Rahm Emanuel had been a bit snippy toward those of us who are carrying the water for this Administration.
We need to have another one of those conversations today; this time the circumstances are a lot more positive-in fact, if the Administration follows my suggestions here, we have a real chance to put the Democrats on the road to victory, not just this November, but also in 2012.
What I'm proposing will create hundreds of thousands, if not millions of jobs, and it will stimulate millions more as we create a national source of discount electrical power that can be used by business and consumers alike.
Here's the best part: it's no "pie in the sky" promotion I'm offering here; we've already done the same thing before, it's been working out well for almost three quarters of a century...and even better than all that...my idea first pays for itself, and then...it actually makes the Federal Government a profit, forever after.
We have already seen some impressive efforts in this campaign season to do a bit of résumé padding, particularly as it regards things military; so far Illinois' Mark Kirk has managed to turn himself into a kind of camouflage Austin Powers, while Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal's trying to catch up with some "Vietnam" service of his own that no one else in the theater of operations exactly knew about.
But now, in the race for Alabama Governor, we may have seen something that takes us to a whole new level of "inflation": the Republican candidate is running an ad that not only suggests that he served in Vietnam...it seems to imply that he actually died there, and has now come back to save the State.
Which is some serious irony indeed, considering that the candidate is actually a medical doctor.
And with that, let me introduce you to the either living...or undead...Dr. Robert J. Bentley.
While we've all been busy watching the "oil spill live cam", a similar uncontrolled discharge has been taking place in Washington, DC
In this case, however, it's lobbyists that are spilling all over the landscape as the House and Senate attempt to merge their two visions of financial reform.
They're trying desperately to influence the outcome of the conference in which House and Senate negotiators have been engaged; this to craft the exact language of the reconciled legislation.
There's an additional element of drama hovering over the events as eight House members, including one of the most vocal of the Republican negotiators, face ethics questions related to this very bill.
The best part: if you're enough of a political geek, you can actually watch the events unfold, unedited and unfiltered, from the comfort of your very own computer.
So far, it's been amazing political theater, and if you follow along I'll tell you how you can get in on the fun, too.
Honestly, I am absolutely sick of commercial air travel these days. Just dealing with security is bad enough, but then there's the airlines, and...hey, all you really need to know here is that there has to be a pretty good reason for me to fly cross-country.
Well, I had one Saturday night, which is how I came to be in the Colonnade Room of the Fairmount Hotel, Washington DC with about 250 of my closest friends, in a classic shawl-collar tuxedo, attending one of the most exclusive "passing of the torch" ceremonies in recent Washington memory.
And when it was all over, Douglas Feith was a happy man.
It's part two of our "Netroots Nation Goes To Vegas Piano Bar Extravaganza", and in keeping with tradition that means we are again taking a story request.
This time we won't be talking about energy security or "climate security"; instead, we'll discuss retirement security, keeping your money for yourself instead of paying it out in "mystery fees", and how one of the "usual suspects" is at it again.
I just wanted to take a minute to say hello and to see how things have been for you lately, and to maybe bring you up to date on a bit of news from here.
Well, right off the bat, we hear you have a new Conservative Prime Minister and that his Party and Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems are in partnership, which I'm sure will be interesting; you probably heard that us Colonials are again having Tea Parties, which has also been very interesting.
I have a Godson who's getting married this September, so we're all talking about that, and I hear Graham Norton was even better than last year at hosting Eurovision, despite the fact that it's...frankly, it's Eurovision.
Oh, yeah...we also had a bit of an oil spill recently that you may have heard about-and hoo, boy; you should see how the Company that spilled the oil has been acting.
For an URL laff, check out "www.GOP2012Tampa.com" (go here for some background). Our digest of, and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows.
Budget "deadline day"
"Today is the deadline for Gov. Charlie Crist to sign the $70.4 billion state budget, and he is expected to use his veto pen vigorously." "Today is deadline for Crist to sign budget".
"When he signs the state budget on Friday, Gov. Charlie Crist will be waiting for just one major piece of legislation from the 2010 session: a highly controversial abortion bill."
The measure, which would require pregnant women in Florida to view a sonogram of the fetus, sits in a file drawer in the desk of House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, whose spokeswoman said there's no specific reason why it hasn't been sent to Crist.
Opponents speculate that House leaders are deliberately delaying to give bill supporters the most possible time to flood the governor's office with calls and e-mails.
Todd Reid, staff director of the House Republican caucus, said the House is holding the bill "to give pro-life folks time to get their act together and contact the governor.'' ...
Crist has repeatedly voiced strong reservations about the bill and he is expected to veto it.
By passing HB 1143, the same legislators who claim to oppose government forcing its will upon the citizens and government interfering in the doctor-patient relationship have approved legislation to do just that. During what passed for debate on the ultrasound amendment, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, tried to dismiss any comparison by saying that abortion is "elective." Tell that to a woman whose life or health is threatened by a pregnancy.
HB 1143 is about politics, not health care. If there's no good policy reason for Gov. Crist to sign HB 1143, there's also no good political reason. Voters who most support HB 1143 favored Marco Rubio long before Gov. Crist quit the GOP. Having failed to get the endorsement of the AFL-CIO and having received only a partial endorsement from the Florida Teachers Association in his pitch for Democratic support, there's only upside for the governor in a veto. Indeed, he might also get support from Republicans who worry that their party is placing ideology so far above policy.
Scott Maxwell: "The Republicans are stacked up seven-deep, trying to boot the outspoken Democrat Alan Grayson out of office." Maxwell went to listen to these geniuses the other day, and found some of it
compelling [thereby demonstrating to his readers that he is fair and balanced]. Some of it is nuttier than a Snickers bar. Very little of it is moderate.
Maxwell continues:
•Kurt Kelly. ... loves name-calling. In the space of about 90 seconds, he called Grayson a "disgrace," an "embarrassment" and simply "a bad guy." (The crowd liked that.)
•Dan Webster. The former House speaker likes to reminisce about the good ol' days when Republicans ended the Democrats' reign of terror and turned Tallahassee into a Camelot of good government. The problem with that selling point is that, to believe it, you also have to believe Tallahassee actually is an example of good government and distinguished statesmanship. And that requires heavy doses of either distortion or medication. Webster's main attribute, as a 30-year veteran of the political scene, may also be his detriment. Career politicians aren't exactly en vogue nowadays.
•Dan Fanelli. If you think ethnic humor is funny — and that white people can't be terrorists — Dan's your man!
•Patricia Sullivan. If you're a Tea-Partyer at heart, then Sullivan may fill your cup.
•Ross Bieling. If you're convinced we have a Marxist in the White House, you and Bieling are kindred spirits.
•Bruce O'Donoghue didn't make Wednesday night's forum, sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition of Florida. But he is a businessman backed by Mel Martinez and Toni Jennings who has thrown a wrench in what might have otherwise been an establishment coronation for Webster. If you really dislike gay rights, O'Donoghue might be your guy. He has helped lead the Family Policy Council, the group that has worked hard to make sure gays don't get the same rights as straight folks.
•Todd Long ... Since losing two years ago, Todd has gotten himself a radio show and moved where many AM radio hosts go — even further to the right. Todd wants to abolish, well, most of the federal government.
The Orlando Sentinel editorial board: "They're kidding, right? With the federal government running trillion-dollar deficits, with red ink gushing in Washington, D.C. like oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the three U.S. House Democrats who represent Central Florida are asking for more than a half-billion dollars worth of pet projects." "Shameless spenders".
Meek consistent
"With the Gulf oil spill threatening Florida's pristine beaches and public support for offshore oil drilling waning, Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek of Miami has accused his rivals of backing oil drilling at one time or another, and says he's the only candidate to consistently oppose expanded offshore exploration." "Meek consistent in oil drilling opposition".
"The state House's top legislator on criminal justice issues says he wants to see legislation to mirror Arizona's controversial illegal immigration crackdown."
"I would absolutely, 100 percent, unequivocally support an Arizona law," said Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, a former police officer and chairman of the Criminal and Civil Justice Committee. The state has its own sovereignty and we have a right to participate in federal efforts to stop illegal immigration. I'm not at all opposed to introducing that bill it's something I'm considering." ...
Efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, such as a bill two years ago to deport some state prisoners here illegally, have have been bottled up in committees.
That might be changing. Upstart Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott, a Naples multimillionaire, has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. In his latest TV ad, Scott pledges to bring the Arizona law to Florida and attacks his GOP primary opponent, frontrunner Attorney General Bill McCollum, for not wanting to do the same. (McCollum supports the Arizona law but says it's not needed in Florida). ...
Well more than half 58 percent of Floridians support the law, according to a poll earlier this month for several media outlets, including the Herald/Times.
"No one would have expected a Republican from Fort Myers to jump into the battle over illegal immigration in Arizona. Yet there was U.S. Rep. Connie Mack blasting 'frontier justice' and comparing the state's new law to Nazi Germany."
"This is not the America I grew up in and believe in," he said on April 29. As the words hit the Drudge Report, criticism washed in from across the country. Mack was called weak, a Democrat.
"The easy thing," he said in an interview Wednesday, "would have been to do nothing. That's precisely why I think it's important for people who are elected to take a stand."
But for others in Florida, taking a stand has been a struggle.
Joel Engelhardt writes that "there's one vast revenue source that politicians won't tap. In fact, state legislators prefer to make it easier, not harder, to get away with this tax dodge."
Every big landowner knows about the agricultural tax exemption. Run a few cows on a piece of land and qualify for a 90 percent property tax break. Far fewer know about the "three times rule." It says that if a buyer pays more than three times the farm value of land, it creates a "presumption" that the land wasn't bought for "bona fide agricultural purposes." So the buyer doesn't automatically qualify for the agricultural tax exemption.
The Saint Petersburg Times editorial board: "Florida voters will not have a fighting chance against an onslaught of attack ads this campaign season if shadowy third-party political groups that spend unlimited amounts of money can avoid disclosing before the election who is financing their attacks. Gov. Charlie Crist needs to sign into law HB 131, which would force the groups back into to the sunshine."
Under the bill, special interest groups seeking to influence state and local elections would have to file regular financial disclosure reports throughout the election season, just like political parties, candidates and other political committees. Under current law, the so-called 527 groups, named after a section of the federal tax code, are only required to file federal disclosures after an election. But transparency during a campaign is essential, particularly since many of these faceless groups have such innocuous names that no voter can determine their motivations.
Daniel Ruth: "Let's see if we have this straight. U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy, who ruined untold innocent lives as a besotted red-baiting vigilante, was a peach of a fellow. Check. The words of the treasonous Jefferson Davis should be held in the same esteem as Abraham Lincoln's. Got it. And Thomas Jefferson, one of the fathers of the country in more ways than one, couldn't hold Ronald Reagan's teleprompter. 10-4."
No, you haven't entered some surreal parallel universe of 10-gallon Mad Hatters, just the tea-swilling, bloomer-wadded, Bible-thumping wonderland of the Texas public school system, which seems hell-bent on turning out illiterate students of history at a faster rate than the BP oil rig gusher. ...
To be sure, if the state of Texas desires to create a student body that is more delusional about their country's history than North Korea's Kim Jong Il, then the public who elected these ayatollahs of history pretty much get what they deserve.
However, with nearly 5 million students, textbook decisions made by the Texas board on ideological purity ultimately impact the textbook decisions of other states.
Or put another way, because Texas is opting to impose demagoguery over reality upon its students, it is possible Florida parents could well have little Timmy coming home from school and observing: "Mummy, did you know the Civil War was fought because those big meanies in the North wouldn't let the South sing Dixie?" ...
This doesn't even rise to the level of revisionist history. It's a smarmy insult to the citizens and students of Texas (and possibly the rest of the country) that suggests a gaggle of fundamentalist neoconservatives don't trust the public they serve to make discerning judgments based on historical facts written by responsible scholars.
I was reading an article talking about the difference between building wealth and stealing, and it got me thinking about the concept of "investing." To many Republicans, investing is something that only the private sector does. However, strangely no one else seems to see it that way. In fact when the rubber hits the road of course their constituents want the government to "invest" in America as well.
You didn't see George LeMieux voting against the jobs bill -- Why? Because even all his Republican constituents who are big advocates of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps are in favor of help when the help is for them. Unlike all those lazy people who need help from the government, they actually suffered an unforseen problem and deserve a leg up.
In 5 years when unemployment is back down they'll of course be telling us that investing in the stock market is the only kind of investing again. It's only reasonable to give people help when they are in trouble.
The health reform vote is coming in the House. Representative Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24) needs to listen to us, not the insurance companies.
In Kosmas' district, the House's improvements to the Senate health reform bill will [pdf]:
Improve coverage for 463,000 residents with health insurance.
Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 176,000 families and 19,800 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
Improve Medicare for 122,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
Extend coverage to 85,000 uninsured residents.
Guarantee that 16,600 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
Protect 1,400 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
Allow 60,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents' insurance plans.
Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 4 community health centers.
Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $7 million annually.
A vote for health reform is a vote to stand with these people. A vote against health reform is a vote for the status quo, where insurance companies make record profits by raising rates by double digits (14% in Florida in the last few months) and dropping millions of customers from their rolls.
The House may vote on health reform as early as this weekend. When the vote comes, Representative Kosmas has a chance to show us that she's on our side.
Many obstacles and stumbling blocks remain in the way of health care reform. The House and Senate bills will have to be merged, and then the House and Senate both will vote on the final bill. We don't yet know what will be in the final bill, or if the final bill will be passed into law. Passage will be especially difficult in the Senate, where it will need 60 votes to pass. It is still possible that after all this angst, just one grandstanding senator could kill the whole thing.
But just for fun, let’s look at what conventional wisdom says will be in the final bill and see if there is anything in it that will be an immediate benefit to people with mesothelioma cancer and other asbestos-related disease.
It is likely that the final bill will provide additional funding for state high-risk insurance pools. Currently more than 30 states run such pools, which are nonprofit, state-sponsored health insurance plans for people who can’t buy insurance because of pre-existing conditions. The biggest problem with such pools is that, often, the insurance they offer is too expensive for many who might need it. Both the Senate and House bills provide $5 billion in subsidies for state high-risk pools to make the insurance more affordable.
Under the Senate bill, beginning in 2014, private companies would no longer be able to deny coverage to adults with pre-existing conditions, nor could they charge higher premiums for people with pre-existing conditions. Until then, the state high-risk pools could provide some help.
Closing the Medicare Part D coverage gap — also called the “doughnut hole” — is another potential provision that could help some patients with asbestos-related disease. The “doughnut hole” is the gap between the coverage for yearly out-of-pocket expenses provided by Medicare Part D and Medicare’s “catastrophic coverage” threshold.
For example, in 2009 Medicare Part D paid at least 75 percent of what patients paid for prescription drugs up to $2,700. After that, patients must pay for all of their prescription medications until what they have paid exceeds $6,154. At that point, the catastrophic coverage takes over, and Medicare pays for all but 5 percent of the patient’s drug bills. The final health care reform bill probably will provide for paying at least 50 percent of out-of-pocket costs in the doughnut hole.
You may have heard the bills include budget cuts to the Medicare program, and this has been a big concern to many people. Proponents of the bill insist that savings can be found to pay for the cuts, and that people who depend on Medicare won’t face reduced services. But this is a complex issue that I want to address in a later post.
The long-term provisions probably will include many other provisions that would benefit patients with asbestos-related disease, including increased funding for medical research. Although there are many complaints about the bill coming from all parts of the political spectrum, on the whole it would be a huge benefit to many people.
The 75 percent or more of Americans who support health reform with a public option have more to worry about than the Health Insurance and Drug companies, the lobbyists, politicians and "advocacy organizations" fronting for them, and the frightened, misinformed citizens manipulated into being anti-reform protesters.
Turns out that doctors may be having more of an impact on this whole national debate than we realize. Here in Florida, as is true around the country, many physicians who oppose President Obama’s vision of health reform with a public option are taking their case directly to their own patients -- often right in the middle of examinations and consultations.
You know how it goes, probably something like, "Okay, Mary, it’s just a mild Flu, so take two aspirin, drink plenty of liquids, and tell Congress to say No to Obamacare".
“Cockamamie” -- That’s what the Republican governor of Florida - a state where four out of eighteen million residents have no health insurance - has publicly called President Obama’s efforts to use the power and best experience of our federal government to provide coverage for the state's massive uninured population - third highest in America - and for nearly all of the more than forty-three million other uninsured Americans.
According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, cockamamie is an adjective with two meanings:
1. having very little importance or meaning 2. having little or nothing to do with reality
The irony here is as obvious as the shameless demagoguery exhibited by Governor turned U.S. Senate candidate, Charlie Crist, the ultimate political opportunist. In fact, only one side in the health reform debate has relied on relentless factual distortion and outright disinformation. It’s clear to anyone willing to do even a little digging that the opponents of health reform have largely made their case based on arguments having “little or nothing to do with reality”. And just how much “importance or meaning” this kind of opposition will have in the long run remains to be seen.
So Governor Crist, in an attack mode effort to throw oratorical red meat at a hungry partisan crowd and offer them an easy, nasty label for the President's health reform efforts, chose the very word that best describes most of the “opposition” to national health reform. Thanks, Charlie.
I have never entered a diary here before. Earlier this morning I wrote a letter to my congressman Ron Klein regarding Healthcare.
I understand the Rep. Klein has not come out in support of a Public Option as part of the proposed overhaul of our health Insurance system.
At this point in time, I am not sure such a system would benefit the nation as much as a Single Payer system.
I wish to address healthcare in a more global manner for the consideration of the inpact that continuing to remain as the largest, if not the only, Commercial Health Insurance market remaining on the planet.
Simple fact is there is no Free Market remaining as the USA is the last remaining pool of potential unlimited profit left in existance.
We are the world's healthcare Dodo bird, to big, slow, and unresponsive to escape our predators.
While 2010 will be chock-full of exciting races at all levels of government. In 2009, though, there will be two marquee races across the country: the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. Republicans are favored in both races, but both races should come down to the wire, and Democrats can hold both seats - with your help.
In Virginia, Democratic State Senator Creigh Deeds won an impressive, come-from-behind victory for the nomination this past Tuesday, demonstrating a strong ground game. The Republican nominee will be far-right-winger Bob McDonnell. The best description for McDonnell's brand of Republicanism is that he is a Pat Robertson disciple. You can learn more about McDonnell at TheRealBobMcDonnell.com. Deeds and McDonnell have tangled before, in the 2005 Virginia Attorney General race, where McDonnell barely edged Deeds by 323 votes (yes, just 323 votes - that's not a typo with zeroes missing) out of over 1.94 million votes counted. This race will be exceptionally close, so every single dollar contributed and every single hour spent volunteering will make a real difference. A bit of good news is that the first poll taken after Tuesday's primary, by Rasmussen Reports, shows Deeds with a 47-41 lead over McDonnell, but this could just be due to a primary bump. Rasmussen's last poll showed McDonnell leading Deeds 45-30. Your support will help Deeds sustain his new lead.
In New Jersey, Democratic incumbent Governor Jon Corzine will square off against Republican former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie. Christie is very much at home in the Republican Culture of Corruption. Republican Christie has faced scandals involving no-bid contracts, abuse of the state pension system, pay-to-play, and even allegedly cutting a deal to get his younger brother's sentence reduced after being implicated for fraudulent trading practices on Wall Street. Despite Christie's mountain of scandal, New Jersey's lagging economy has hurt Governor Corzine's poll numbers. Recent polling gives Christie a 7 to 13 point lead over Corzine. Research 2000, May 25-27: Christie 46, Corzine 39; Rasmussen Reports, June 4: Christie 51, Corzine 38; and, Quinnipiac, June 10: Christie 50, Corzine 40. In other words, Christie has an edge, but the fundamentals of the race moving forward favor Governor Corzine. As the economy gradually picks up over the coming months and voters learn more about Christie's corrupt background, New Jersey's blue state status will shine through and Governor Corzine should tighten the race back up. Your support will help Governor Corzine tighten the race up even faster.
Below are the links to how you can connect with the gubernatorial campaigns (and - please - contribute anything you can to these campaigns, and spread the word!). Republicans are expecting (and expected) to win both of these races. However, after being upset in the NY-20 special U.S. House election and losing a U.S. Senator to a Party switch, the GOP is reeling. Losing either (or both!) VA-Gov or/and NJ-Gov would be a major body blow and simply crush Republicans heading into the 2010 calendar year. If Democrats across the country are able to support these Democratic campaigns, we can flush the conventional wisdom down the toilet and deliver two more embarrassments to the Rush-Newt-Cheney Republican Party and two more losses to the Michael Steele RNC.
While writing about the Florida flavor of politics for the last couple of months, I've been watching as battle lines get drawn over Obama administration initiatives meant to fix some of the more badly broken pieces of The American Dream - the healthcare system, the environment, the working middle class, for starters.
And I want to get in the game. While I'll keep covering Sunshine State doings, I'm also going to start writing more about these core national issues, and the related legislative reform efforts so necessary to restore -- and create anew - some semblance of socioeconomic equilibrium in our American Democracy.
But first, I need to get some Big Picture context off my chest - hanging a frame, if you will, in which the canvas of those and related stories can then be methodically mounted for maximum cumulative impact.
Because, if taken individually and out of their larger context, each of the aforementioned political battles now raging - and those yet to come -- may seem to some Americans to be just another round of partisan political bickering and business as usual BS - which is just what cynical Conservative and Republican politicians and pundits want people thinking.
When Florida ACORN member Tamecka Pierce first got her employer-provided health insurance, she was ecstatic. No more dealing with the limitations and bureaucracy of the Medicaid system, which had been her sole option as an unemployed single mother with three children.
That joy was short lived. Just after she was accepted into the Blue Cross/Blue Shield program, she was diagnosed with lupus, an auto-immune disease in which the body slowly eats away at itself. The treatment is complex, ever-shifting, and life-long as there is no cure.
Predictably, Blue Cross/Blue Shield spent months fighting not to cover Tamecka. When she finally won, her problems didn’t end. As the sole breadwinner, money is always an issue. On a monthly basis, Tamecka found herself choosing between medications and visits to specialist, or between health care and other bills.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Follow me over the flip to find out the solution.
Hi Rey, Today I went to Immokalee to get from Jonathan the list of voters I need to call. While I was there an elderly Haitian lady, Lucia Noel, came in asking for help to vote for Obama. I took her to the early voting place and Lucia successfully voted for Obama and Joe Garcia.
While I was at the voting venue helping Lucia I noticed that one of the scanners had failed earlier in the day and had to be replaced. The second scanner had a paper jam while we were there, and we saw the Clerk (election poll manager) on her hands and knees working out the paper jam. This, of course, requires the opening of the box at the bottom of the scanner where all completed votes are stored, while the spoiled ballot that caused the paper jam is removed. All this needs to happen under the watchful eye of impartial observers.
The possibility of scanners failing at a peak hour in the voting location is, in my opinion, a weak link in the logistics of voting...
As of 7/16/10: An old friend resurfaces as BlogWood 2.0. Please check out the prolific Rantings from Florida and a new site, "Current news updates"
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The campaign web sites of select candidates; click on "FB" to check them out on FaceBook, "T" to follow them on twitter, and "$" to donate. These are not paid ads.
- At "After All, He Is Black", we look at the inability of Florida "conservatives" to deal with racial issues.
- "Take this job ..." is a compendium of some of the things Florida employers are permitted to do to their employees.
Please leave comments or e-mail us with additional material for these projects.
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