Florida

(cross-posted at Liza's suggestion, from Cocking a Snook!)

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

—Voltaire

Whether or not you ever watched his game show, if you're a Thinking Parent you probably know that the anti-science, anti-human sophistry of Ben Stein is now a movie called "Expelled", on its tightly controlled private propaganda tour prior to its actual "public" opening in the US April 18. [THAT'S DAY AFTER TOMORROW, folks!] My Sunshine State's whole [bible-thumpin'] legislature was invited [to the sneaky preview] but not reporters.

Jacksonville: Tracing Our Ancestors the DNA Way--An Anthropological Adventure
Start Date and Time: 2008-02-06 11:00

Activities:
Dr. Connie J. Mulligan, an internationally-recognized anthropologist and geneticist from the University of Florida, will speak on using molecular technology to trace our human origins in the Americas and Africa.

Address:
Florida Community College at Jacksonville-North Campus, 4501 Capper RD
Jacksonville, FL UNITED STATES
Sponsor: Natural Sciences and Student Engagement
Contact: Paula Thompson, PhD, pthompso@fccj.edu, 904-766-6530

2008 Black Caucus Convention
The Democratic Black Caucus of Florida will host its 23rd Annual Convention May 15-17, 2008. Invited Guests: Presidential Candidates, National and State Elected Officials.

Time: Thursday, May 15 at 9:00 AM
Duration: 3 days
Host: Democratic Black Caucus of Florida
Contact Phone: 941-773-9177
Location:
Hyatt Hotel & Resorts (Sarasota, FL)
1000 BLVD of the ARTS
Sarasota, FL 34236

Rollins College Youth Forum
This will be an event based around educating our youth voters on the issues that will comprise this next election. They are hoping to have speakers/representatives from both the Democratic and Republican Parties (even more specifically on certain candidates) to showcase their party's stance on each issue. The forum will be taking place at the beginning of March.

Time: Saturday, March 15 at 6:00 PM
Duration: 2 hours
Host: Brittany Fornof
Location:
Rollins College (Winter Park, FL)
1000 Holt Ave
Winter Park, FL 32789

House Party for Christine Jennings in Bradenton
Mar 13 2008 - 10:00am - Mar 13 2008 - 11:30am
Bradenton, FL

Christine Jennings arguably won her Congressional seat in 2006...but voting "irregularities" lost thousands of votes in predominantly Democratic areas, leading to her narrowly losing. She is up for a rematch and has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, United Auto Workers, American Federation of Teachers, SEIU and many others. You can read about my impressions of meeting her in 2006 here.

Please join Christine Jennings for a fundraising event in Bradenton.

Call our Campaign HQ at 941/366-8121 for more information.

Tomorrow the primaries/caucuses begin with Iowa. For the Democrats, Iowa and New Hampshire maintain their place as the kick off states for the primaries. The Republicans have thumbed their noses at New Hampshire by intercalating Wyoming after Iowa and before New Hampshire. So be it. Some argue that this whole circus and the prominent places for Iowa and New Hampshire are a dumb way to conduct a primary. I have started to feel that the tradition of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary as leading the way has some merit, though I might add in another state or two within that first week. The reason I like these early testing grounds is that they really are the ONLY time where face-to-face time between candidates and voters is more important than TV spots, and so money may matter just a bit less in the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary than it would in major states like Florida or California. Hire a bus and shake hands and make your case in person seems to be the norm in these two states, and having the first votes come in such an environment may well be a good thing. Let TV advertising take full control after individual voters, poking and prodding the candidates in person have had a shot I say. So maybe I am getting old fashioned, but I think Iowa and New Hampshire are good first testing grounds.

So what does the next month mean for determining our next President. Well, we all know it is probably going to all be over Feb. 5th when a whole slew of states, the biggies included, vote. Anything after that is likely to make little difference...with the caveat that as of now neither the Dem nor the Rep field is clear enough that we are guaranteed clear front runners even after Feb. 5th. But what happens between now and Feb 5th is VERY likely to pare things down to clear frontrunners for each party.

Corruption is one of the issues I focus on the most. On Daily Gotham I focus a lot on problems within the Democratic party in Brooklyn, NY. But nationally I find than generally it is Republican corruption that is most prevalent and damaging to America.

Right now, I want to focus on a particularly vile, corrupt Republican Congressman, Tom Feeney (FL-24). This is a man closely connected with the Abramoff scandal that Republicans want you to forget but you and I know is still playing out. But Feeney is also majorly involved in voter fraud. In fact, Feeney should be the poster boy for the most un-American attack on democracy America has seen in recent years.

Feeney is a sitting Congressman, but let's start out by realizing that Tom Feeney has already been fined by the House ethics committee for his Abramoff connections. He has already been found to be corrupt by the House Ethics Committee, yet is still a "respected" member of the Republican Party and has not resigned from Congress.

But there is probably more coming...it seems that the FBI is investigating Tom Feeney further for those Abramoff connections. Gee, and the Republicans wanted us to think the Abramoff scandal had blown over.

But perhaps the worst Feeney has done is active participation in voting fraud. Yes, I say ACTIVE PARTICIPATION in voter fraud. Tom Feeney has been accused of recruiting computer programmers to write software that could alter vote totals on touch-screen voting machines in Florida. From the Seminole Chronicle:

What would you do if your Congressman came to you personally to ask for your help? What if the help he asked you for was to help design a program to rig an election?

If you're Clint Curtis you go public with the scandal and run for Congress against him.

Clint Curtis grew up Republican in Illinois and Florida. It took the recent Republican scandals and the realization that his Republican Congressman wanted to rig elections to bring Clint Curtis to the realization that the Party that calls itself Republican had long ago abandoned the values it once professed. In this Clint is coming to the same realization that Jim Jeffords came to when to switched to Independent, that Arianna Huffington came to after watching her idol, Newt Gingrich, show his true colors, and that Pete McClosky came to when he switched his party affiliation to Democrat...after a lifetime of being a Republican including a candidate for President in a primary against Nixon. Clint describes his own change this way:

In September of 2000, Clint’s life took a course that he never could have imagined. It was then that Clint was first introduced to Tom Feeney the incoming Speaker of the Florida House. Clint was a programmer at Yang Enterprises, a company whose owner was an associate and confidant of Mr. Feeney. Initially Clint was impressed. He expected that Mr Feeney shared the values of the Republicans he knew growing up in Illinois. Clint identified with the Republican values at the time - conservative and based on ethics and integrity. It was always the Democrats under Mayor Daley that were engaged in corrupt behavior. Clint expected that Mr. Feeney would share those values. Clint soon learned he did not.

Crossposted here because:
a) Michael and Nance *said* they wanted more,
and
b) Favorite Daughter hangs on moiv's posts and wanted to do her part, contribute to the conversation here. JJ

"A SUGGESTION FROM THE LIBERAL LION"

I don't try to be brilliant, it just comes to me.

So I wasn't surprised when, without even trying, I came up with the most innovative sarcastic social experiment since Swift's A Modest Proposal.

I've been thinking a lot about abortion and gay rights recently, as the Liberal Lion within me wakes up, indulges in a long, huge yawn, and takes stock of the current political climate. Though up and roaring through the Terri Schiavo debacle of 2005, he was soon lulled into a deceptively peaceful sleep by the conservative talk radio I've listened to of late.

But as I said, the Lion is now awake, and pontificating about politics in that annoying way Liberal Lions will.

"McCain is compromised by his base, not to be trusted." He growls. "And you can't trust a damn thing you see on television. Liberal media my tail -- I'd like to see one of them not in the administration's pocket. Obama is the Manchurian Candidate, can't be trusted either. Johnny Damon is the True Antichrist." (The Lion is decisive in his thoughts, and liberal to an almost paranoid degree. Also a rabid Red Sox fan.)

If they systematically hit their own small, weak children, mortify their flesh when they have an independent thought or expression on their baby faces,and call that godly and good government of the private sphere, what do you think they'll use the power of real government to do to you and YOUR kids if you don't slap on a smile and fall into line?

Yesterday was National Spank Out Day 2007, which I'll say more about in a minute and you can read about it here too. But more urgently, I just learned today is National Loyalty Day and Thursday is National Prayer Day. I learned this not in the public marketplace of ideas but in a dark corner of ritualistic beliefs and practices -- from homeschool parents who pray (and urge each other to whack their kids early and often.)

I cross-posted the following at Snook this morning and I've been getting strong reactions all day. Read on down for an update at the end of the post and please do comment here or there, or both. The time has come to at least talk openly about it:

RANT WARNING!

I grew up here in Florida and know the stories, speak the native languages.

Not Spanish. I mean idiomatic dialects like Goldwater Republican. Metaphorical Methodist. Southern Democrat. Spring Break Speak. Hiassen. Government in the Sunshine. Even PublicSchool Speak.

For a while our National Tourism slogan was "Florida-- the rules are different here!"
It encouraged folks to dream of our white-sugar beaches and sunshine as the Promised Land, to plan idyllic pilgrimages here with faith they would be welcome as if to heaven, however they got here and however long they wanted to stay and live it up.

But the rules here aren't so different anymore.

Not sure when it happened, that the Trinity of God, Government and Guns took over again. I have been slow to notice, with all this gentle, loving, respectful and mannerly pretense that religious education is a private non-governmental realm of the spirit, not the State.

National Day of Prayer State Capitol Rally Thursday, May 3, 2007 Homeschoolers are invited to take part in this important day of prayer for our state and nation and participate in the children's prayer walk. If older youth would like to help stamp prayer passports, please email -- Volunteer time is from 10:30 am - Noon, report to the tent in the courtyard