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Insults 2004, Insults 2002

December 2003

Here's the latest on the St Joe / Panama City Airport boondoggle being foisted on Florida:

Bay County voters to have say on airport (reports AP)
(But according to the 12/17/03  Panhandle Citizen's Coalition press release, the referendum is scheduled after the fact - St Joe's stock up $1.72 on the news and CEO Rummell's shares scores him $1.7million - see press release here)

On the Medicare Prescription Bill:

Fine print reveals real costs of Medicare prescription-drug plan
President Bush signed this largest expansion of the giant entitlement program into law with much fanfare, even though it won't come into effect until 2006, at the halfway mark of his second and final term if he wins re-election next year. It is probably a good thing that there is some time between his signature and implementation, because what you see now is most likely not going to be what you actually get
Sign now, pay later
President Bush signed the Medicare prescription drug bill into law Monday, calling it "the greatest advance in health care coverage for America's seniors since the founding of Medicare." As details of the law emerge, however, that grandiose claim may not ring true with most Medicare recipients.
Santa stuffs stockings with debt, high costs
 Daddy! Daddy! Tell us a Christmas story!"
"All right, children. Settle down and I'll tell you about how Santa brought all the grandmothers and granddaddys the gift of Medicare prescription drug coverage."
AARP moving to center, resisting ties to one party, leader says
Elderly voters typically favor Democrats, but the group is taking a more centrist stance, leader says.  (See Killing Medicare for more on AARP's cave in...)

October 2003

I saw JEB on Chris Matthews the other night,  basking in the national spotlight, smiling as he praised Florida's economy.  I wondered how these politicians do that - how they lie with such a straight face.  He really seemed to believe what he was saying... strange... how they can do that...  but I'm sure he must know how fucked we really are in Florida -his tax cuts helped get us here.

Analysis: Report shows hard times ahead for state budgets -
"... Lav said the new cuts that will confront state legislatures when they convene next year will be some of the most painful yet because most of the easy reductions have been approved. " (Sound like Florida???)

"States likely will enact further cuts in basic services such as health care and education and/or impose new tax burdens particularly on low- and middle-income families," she said. (This sounds familiar too...)

Some analysts say the states' financial woes are likely to have an extended run.
Donald Boyd, director of fiscal studies at the Nelson Rockefeller Institute of Government, said state budgets "will be constrained quite tightly over the next several years, even if the economy recovers nicely from the recession."

Boyd said growth in both income and sales taxes is likely to be slower than normal while expenditures, especially health-related costs, will continue to rise sharply.
Despite the relatively mild recession that occurred in the first half of 2001, state governments were hit especially hard. The 7.4 percent revenue decline that occurred in 1992 -- influenced heavily by stock market losses -- was more than twice as severe as the drop that accompanied that 1990-91 recession, according to Boyd.
Initially, states reacted by dipping into their rainy-day funds (Did we ever!!) and making  other mild adjustments. But as the deficit projections persisted and rose, legislatures increasingly were forced into difficult cuts. (Apparently not difficult enough for our fat-cat administration and legislature - How many of them use any of the services that were cut? )

Last year 18 states reduced eligibility for public health insurance programs, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. At least 32 have trimmed child-care subsidies. This year many states targeted education for cuts, raising tuition by an average 14 percent at public colleges and universities.

After the latest round of cuts, many states issued economic projections that suggested their budget-cutting ordeal was at an end. But in most cases their financial assumptions proved to be too optimistic, prompting still another budget showdown.
States such as California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Virginia already project significant deficits for their 2005 budget years, according to Lav's report, and more states are expected to join the list. "

In contrast to the series of tax cuts engineered by President Bush at the federal level, governors and legislatures in 29 states have raised taxes in the last three years amounting to $22.4 billion per year. Still, those are outweighed by the states' 1990s tax-cutting spree that amounts to about $40 billion a year, according to the center....

"Many gap-closing actions were only temporary solutions or actually worsened the budget situation for future years," he said." (Like here in Florida after last year's raids on the trust funds; funding ongoing programs with non-recurrent monies)

People tell me "politicians lie" - so does it just stop with a nod of our heads?  Is there no accountability?  Ultimately each one of us is responsible for this - for letting the lies continue unchallenged.

... quixote, 10/26/03 (Bold and Italics are mine)

Watch out, California

Gov. Bush's hatchet woman will help plug California's huge budget hole
TALLAHASSEE -- Most Floridians don't know Donna Arduin, but they have her to thank for their lower taxes, smaller state government and balanced budget.
She's the budgetary hatchet woman who has, during nearly five years as Gov. Jeb Bush's budget director, worked behind the scenes voraciously promoting tax cuts while slashing spending and jobs. Republicans love her, Democrats at least admire her skill.
But now she's on loan to California, where newly-elected Arnold Schwarzenegger needs that kind of help. As he prepares to become governor, California is looking at a gaping $10 billion hole in a nearly $100 billion budget. Over the next several weeks, Arduin will use paid vacation leave from Florida to help audit California's books and ferret out waste. 10/18/03  (more...)

In whose interest?

Florida's $369-million secret?
Critics say Scripps Research Institute will have wide discretion in what it reveals as it spends taxpayers' money.
TALLAHASSEE - Florida taxpayers could have a hard time keeping track of how their money will be spent to bring the world's largest private research center to Florida. Legislation to spend $369-million in tax money on a Florida branch of the Scripps Research Institute gives the company broad discretion in what it discloses, open government advocates say.Democrats initially opposed exemptions to the public records law, but wound up supporting them in exchange for millions of dollars in pet projects. The money was later killed, but the exemptions stand... 10/25/03

Huge incentives lure research group to Fla.
The deal brokered by Gov. Jeb Bush to entice the Scripps Research Institute to expand is expected to cost taxpayers at least $400-million.
Gov. Bush: California research center will expand in Florida
Orange loses bid for biotech giant
"We stand at the threshold of unprecedented opportunity to forever change the destiny of our state," Bush said in announcing Scripps' move.
FAU, top biotech group to team
Scripps Research Institute could create a science magnet.
Research facility boon for the state
Bush sets special session to establish development fund
Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday he is calling a special legislative session Oct. 20 to set up a $500 million economic-development fund to attract high-tech jobs to Florida - starting with a mammoth biomedical laboratory in Palm Beach County.

Study: Deal would generate $1.8-billion
Building a biotech research institute in Palm Beach County would have a profound impact on Florida's economy, according to a study commissioned by Gov. Jeb Bush. ... But the study's suggestion that Scripps is the primary reason 500 biotech companies have set up shop in San Diego is "probably an exaggeration," said Julie Meier Wright, president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. ...

Who did this study?
The study was conducted by the Washington Economics Group (WEG), headed by a past director of Governor Jeb Bush's Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development of Florida.
Here is a quote from a May 10,2002 WEG press release entitled "FLORIDA ECONOMY POISED FOR RECOVERY"... 

"...Speaking to CEOs of top Florida corporations at the Annual Meeting of the Florida Council of 100 in Naples, the noted economist stressed that Florida’s fundamentally sound economy is due primarily to a number of critical factors. Among these factors are:
• An improving business climate under Governor Jeb Bush, including tax relief, streamlining of regulations and emphasis since 1999 on educational system improvements, workforce development and investments in “smart” infrastructure that link producers with the end-use marketplace.
“There is a no-nonsense and pro-economic development Chief Executive in Tallahassee. This creates growing confidence in the future of the State,” Villamil said to the Florida executives gathered at the meeting...."   More

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/local/6942100.htm 
"The state pension fund plans to sink $182 million into Edison Schools Inc., which operates 150 schools in 23 states. In addition to buying up more than 96 percent of Edison's stock, the money would pay off the company's debts and create a line of credit for operating expenses."  (Outrageous! Using teacher's pension funds to bailout the largest school privatization companies in US)

Edison Schools buyout links Florida to a loser
Pension fund trustees should 'interfere.'

September 2003

"Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink" - coming soon to your neighborhood:

This is going on NOW!!!

Statewide water board proposed
The possibility of a piping water to from rural North Florida to populated South Florida took a step closer to reality today with recommendations from a business group with close ties to Gov. Jeb Bush.
Stop the flow of bad water ideas
Recently, an elite business group (Council of 100) made known its intentions to convince the Legislature and Gov. Bush to radically alter Florida water law so that limited drinking water supplies in Central and South Florida don't impede future growth and development there. A different perspective, which puts people and the environment first, is the preferred approach if we want to maintain the environment and quality of life now and in the future. Here's why. (see also Bad Idea for Florida's Water Supply)
FLORIDA COUNCIL OF 100 TASK-FORCE MEMBERS 9/26

And in India and many other places (not just in the "third world") business interests are buying up the water - can we even imagine what this is doing to these people?
Here's only one example:
Firstly, the Cola companies mine water for their bottling plants, robbing the poor of their very fundamental right to drinking water.
Secondly, the bottling plants are a source of toxic waste, which threatens the environment and public health.
Finally, the soft drinks themselves are a toxic brew known to be hazardous to health. For more than a year, tribal women in Plachimada in Palaghat district have been sitting in protest against Coca-Cola because the company has drained their aquifers dry. Wells and tanks have dried up with the water table dropping from 10 ft. to 100 ft. As Virender Kumar of Mathrubhumi has written, "People are bringing headloads of potable water from afar, while truck loads of soft drinks are leaving the Coke Plant."
The plant draws more than 1 million litres a day, forcing women to walk 5-6 kms to bring headloads of potable water. 8.5 truckloads leave the plant daily, loaded with soft drinks. Each litre of coke wastes 9 litres of potable water (Virendra Kumar, Open letter to Chief Minister 10.8.03)  (more...)

Here's another: actually just one of many segments from Bill Moyer's NOW on PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/now/science/bolivia.html -- Search his sight for other pieces on water

Council of 100
The rumblings were correct. A Florida business group is following through with plans to privatize drinking water supplies. Though the Council of 100 says it is planning ahead for growth and trying to avert water wars among Florida's supplier and consumer regions, the agenda boils down to seizing a public resource. 10/3/03

Task force leader defends water shifts
Water management officials are wary of plans for a statewide panel to oversee diversion from areas of plenty to high development locales.
TAMPA - Facing a skeptical crowd of water managers Friday, the head of a business group studying the state's water supply defended a proposal to create a statewide commission that could route water from rural counties to booming areas. 10/4/03

Sea of voices urge no water rerouting
At a public hearing on the Council of 100's report, a lone supporter from Pinellas is heard.
LAKELAND - Farmers, politicians and utility executives turned out Wednesday to argue against several proposed changes in the way Florida's water supply is divvied up.
In the first of five public hearings, about 100 people crowded into Lakeland City Hall to tell five state senators what they thought about a report recently unveiled by the Council of 100, a group of business leaders who advise Gov. Jeb Bush. 10/9/03

More on the water rerouting...

August 2003

Why not rescind some of Bush's tax cuts that put us in this financial bind?  How come everything else is always on the table for reconsideration?

House Speaker supports plan to put class size back on ballot
TALLAHASSEE — House Speaker Johnnie Byrd is supporting a ballot item that would ask voters to limit the class size proposal they approved last year in exchange for legislative commitment to improve teacher salaries and recruitment. Byrd wants voters to approve a measure that would limit the state's obligation to lower class sizes from all grades to kindergarten through third grade only, saying the cost to reduce class sizes at every grade level would prevent the state from improving other areas of education.  8/29/03

Panel: Florida needs water commission
TALLAHASSEE — An influential business group has recommended wide-ranging changes to Florida water laws, including creation of a statewide commission to route water from rural to booming areas and encourage private water development on state land.
The proposals, developed in private meetings over the past year by a task force of the Council of 100, were forwarded to Gov. Jeb Bush and may come up during a special session of the Legislature as soon as October, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
A spokeswoman for Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said water is a possible topic for the special session, but no decision has been made on whether the recommendations would be part of such a discussion.  8/20/03
... See also "Bad ideas for Florida's water supply"

Power Outage Traced To Dim Bulb In White House --
The Tale Of The Brits Who Swiped 800 Jobs From New York, Carted Off $90 Million, Then Tonight, Turned Off Our Lights

I can tell you all about the ne're-do-wells that put out our lights tonight. I came up against these characters -- the Niagara Mohawk Power Company -- some years back. You see, before I was a journalist, I worked for a living, as an investigator of corporate racketeers. In the 1980s, "NiMo" built a nuclear plant, Nine Mile Point, a brutally costly piece of hot junk for which NiMo and its partner companies charged billions to New York State's electricity ratepayers.

To pull off this grand theft by kilowatt, the NiMo-led consortium fabricated cost and schedule reports, then performed a Harry Potter job on the account books. In 1988, I showed a jury a memo from an executive from one partner, Long Island Lighting, giving a lesson to a NiMo honcho on how to lie to government regulators. The jury ordered LILCO to pay $4.3 billion and, ultimately, put them out of business.

And that's why, if you're in the Northeast, you're reading this by candlelight tonight. Here's what happened. After LILCO was hammered by the law, after government regulators slammed Niagara Mohawk and dozens of other book-cooking, document-doctoring utility companies all over America with fines and penalties totaling in the tens of billions of dollars, the industry leaders got together to swear never to break the regulations again. Their plan was not to follow the rules, but to ELIMINATE the rules. They called it "deregulation."

It was like a committee of bank robbers figuring out how to make safecracking legal... (more)

June 2003

"No elected official is more important than any other public servant."

House votes to delay pay raise
TALLAHASSEE — The House voted unanimously Wednesday to delay its annual pay raise until December, which would bring lawmakers in line with other state workers.
During the regular legislative session lawmakers voted to give themselves a pay raise starting July 1, five months before other state employees, who are set to get the same raise Dec. 1.
The measure (HB 3B) passed Wednesday would delay the raise for state legislators. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it's future is uncertain. The Legislature is meeting in a special session mainly to consider a measure related to medical malpractice. But lawmakers have voted to take up some other matters as well.
"It was inappropriate, given the tough times that Floridians are facing, for us to reward ourselves with higher pay before we take care of those who work for us and those who pay our bills," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Ron Greenstein, D-Coconut Creek. "No elected official is more important than any other public servant."  6/21/03

State's tech office to be privatized
"Up to 150 jobs in the State Technology Office will be privatized in an "alliance" with two computer giants to improve service and cut the costs of running an increasingly automated government.  ..."  (This BC puff press release has another side that hasn't been told ... and an old one that's being forgotten: i.e.. the State Technology draft audit... what happened to all the unaccounted $$?  Are these some of the same players?  It was a bad idea before, and it's a worse one now.  The question of the day: How safe is this new building? Stay tuned... )

FCC decision: There goes one more piece of freedom
This is a gross scandal. The Center for Public Integrity has a stunning study out on the concentration of ownership in telecommunications. The even more stunning news is that the Federal Communications Commission, which theoretically represents you and me, is about to make all of it even worse. And behind this betrayal of the public trust is nothing but rotten, old-fashioned corruption. It's the old free-trip-to-Vegas ploy, on a grand scale.

May 2003

Bush signs bill that could raise basic phone rates
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Friday that could raise basic phone rates, saying it will increase competition and ultimately give the public access to new technology and greater choice of telephone companies.
The bill (SB 654) would allow phone companies to raise rates for basic services by $3 to $7.25 over the next four years while reducing long-distance charges. It was opposed by Florida AARP and Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports.
The opponents said the increases would hurt customers, particularly those who make few long-distance calls, while failing to guarantee competition.
"It's going to be disastrous to the citizens of the state," said Mike Twomey, a utility consumer activist who heads Florida Utility Watch. "What it can do is result in, by far, the largest rate increase in the history of the state."  5/27/03

What would the fired DEP Ombudsman have to say about this?

State, feds, St. Joe plan to protect Panhandle wetlands
"PANAMA CITY — The state's largest private land owner, The St. Joe Co., is working with state and federal regulators on a massive plan to reduce and offset wetland losses as the company develops vast holdings in the Florida Panhandle.
The plan would cover about 60,000 acres in western Bay and southeastern Walton counties where St. Joe owns about half the land. St. Joe would set aside eight conservation areas, totaling about 9,300 acres, and two mitigation areas, covering 9,000 acres, where wetlands would be restored, enhanced or artificially built to make up for losses elsewhere.
It would take the largest general permit ever granted by the Army Corps of Engineers in Florida and an ecosystem management agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection to put the plan into effect. Public hearings will be held before either agency adopts the plan.
The draft plan is designed to provide heightened environmental protection as well as predictability to government regulators and St. Joe, said Marie Burns, chief of the North Permits Branch for the Corps of Engineers' Jacksonville District.
She said the government benefits from the conservation and mitigation areas, while St. Joe benefits from knowing that permitting for individual projects would be streamlined.
The state agreement would be atypical in that it would be legally binding and function as a permit. Other landowners within the permit area could develop under the general permit, but would not be required to do so.
The general permit area borders the 73,000 acres that make up the West Bay Sector Plan, a 100-year blueprint for development in that area, including 4,000 acres set aside for an airport. Permitting for sector plan developments would be independent of the general permit although conservation areas in both are linked."
.... (more on the Ombudsman) 5/17/03

It doesn't matter what the people want...

Governor hears from public on pending legislation
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush said he plans to sign legislation delaying the deadline for Everglades cleanup and enabling telephone companies to increase basic rates, but opponents are still trying to change his mind.
The bills are among hundreds passed in the legislative session that come before the governor for a signature in the next few weeks, but only a few are the subject of intense lobbying for him to sign or veto.
Aides to Bush said there have been thousands of letters, phone calls and e-mails on the phone-rate and Everglades issues, but the numbers were typical for high-profile legislation. They were unable to provide a breakdown of calls for and against.
A newspaper poll released Sunday, however, said 84 percent of those surveyed wanted Bush to veto the phone-rate bill and 56 percent wanted the Everglades bill vetoed. 5/14/03  More on the Glades ripoff...

Prescription for Corporate Control of Elections:

Big Media Consolidation (watch for June 2,2003 FCC deregulation decision)

Unlimited Campaign funds allowed to flood TV with campaign propaganda right up to election time

Most money wins...

Bend over workers... here they come again...

Travel reimbursement bill sent to governor
A bill increasing travel reimbursements for the Legislature, local governments, school boards and state courts was sent to the governor today, with supporters of state agency employees asking lawmakers to add them back to the bill during a special session on the budget.
State workers left out of bill on travel-expense payments
Employees of local governments, school boards and state courts could get more relief from expenses incurred while traveling on government business - but state employees would not - under a bill advanced by the House on Tuesday.

LEGISLATURE WANTS TO JACK UP STATE GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE
Despite our cautions, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed out SB 1006 State Employee Health Insurance by Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, which would create a third, more expensive level of coverage along with a new four-tier premium designation and would undo the state’s percentage share of coverage. The bill goes to the Senate floor calendar. In the House, HB 1881 by Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Lauderdale, is in House Appropriations. (more)
 

April 2003

Bush wants to muzzle and kick OPPAGA watchdog for barking

Legislation is rolling in the Capitol to abolish the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) and merge its duties and staff back into the Auditor General's Office, where it was as the "Performance Audit Division" until 1994. The Legislature wanted stronger and clearer recommendations in 1994 for eliminating ineffective programs and couldn't get anything responsive and actionable from the Auditor General. So the performance audit division was taken out, OPPAGA was formed and it has done its job admirably for eight years.

But the Governor fears and loathes OPPAGA. The Governor's Budget Director, Donna Arduin, gets visibly ill when OPPAGA is mentioned.

KAPOW! On Monday, March 31 Rep. Ray Sansom (R) and Senator Jeff Atwater (R) introduced a bill to keep the Auditor General basically as it is, abolish OPPAGA and make its function a policy analysis division headed by a deputy auditor who could be more easily fired. Atwater and Sansom are chair and vice chair of the Legislative Auditing Committee, which oversees OPPAGA. Atwater is a rising star in the Senate who has been uncharacteristically fooled by Bush and his budget director, Arduin; numerous lobbyists who want OPPAGA "gone;" and Rep. Sansom who has an ulterior motive.

Sansom requested and received an appointment to the audit committee, which is not considered a plum appointment. Why? OPPAGA recently offended Sansom's boss, Okaloosa School Superintendent Donald Gaetz (R), by recommending elimination of a costly data processing service contract that Gaetz personally negotiated. So, Gaetz boasted that he was going to "get OPPAGA." Rep. Sansom is Gaetz's Director of Community Affairs--a phony job that allows Sansom to be Gaetz's flack while making speeches to the public, campaign for his state representative job, and lobby for Gaetz Tallahassee. Why hire a lobbyist when you have a legislator on your payroll. This should be impossible for taxpayers to stomach. Where is the outrage?

Don't believe that this OPPAGA/OAG merger will save money. Sen. Atwater was quoted in a Tallahassee Democrat article on April 15, "This isn't a cost savings exercise." The administration and some duped legislators want to muffle OPPAGA by burying it and putting it under control of shy and retiring, exacting and ethical, but not bold or brave management. The current OPPAGA Director can only be removed now by a majority vote of both the House and Senate and is required to be independent in every way.
... anonymous, 4/20/03

The shame of Florida’s leadership
Inch by inch, forest by forest, Florida is being eaten up by development -- and no one has a more voracious appetite for Florida's open land and water than the state Legislature.
Gov. Jeb Bush leads the way, of course. His big environmental proposal this year? To take money set aside by taxpayers to preserve and protect the environment and use it to pay for everything from education to out tax breaks. The ultimate effect? The death of Florida Forever, the state's landmark land-buying program. ... (more)

Only in Amerika? I read an email today about a budget proposal that would offer state workers a choice of either paying their entire health insurance premium for an HMO, or have a $1,000 - $2,000 deductible on the state plan.  If JEB wants to clear out the state workers, this'll do it...  take away our insurance benefits, and there's not much reason for a lot of us to keep working here...  Anybody know more on this... 4/5/03
.... quixote, 4/5/03

March 2003

They're still doing it... they still don't care about anything but the big money... this house legislature sucks...  Rudy, 3/31/03

Local efforts fail in House budget
State Library, Black Caucus amendments come up short
House budget writers on Friday rejected Leon County lawmakers' efforts to keep the State Library intact and expand some programs aimed at an "endangered species" of young black men.
Driven by Byrd, House may end up in the ditch
The Florida House of Representatives is becoming an island that talks only to itself.
Swept away by a lobbyist's wave of influence
Every now and then in Tallahassee, a small sleazy moment occurs that exemplifies the disdain of some lawmakers for the citizens they're supposed to represent.
Recently, a bill was submitted that would repeal a law allowing the state to reserve groundwater for enhancing the environment. Though the measure is almost never used, builders and developers fear that it might someday limit their extravagant ambitions.
Enter one Baxter Troutman. Though his name sounds like it belongs in a Kurt Vonnegut novel, Troutman is a freshman Republican legislator from Winter Park...
On March 19, Rep. Troutman presented his repeal of the groundwater bill to a House committee for preliminary approval. Though the outcome was never in doubt, fellow lawmakers went through the drill of asking a few simple questions.
Not simple enough for Troutman, apparently.
Right away it was obvious that he knew next to nothing about his own legislation. According to The St. Petersburg Times, his most frequent response was: ``I'll have to defer to Jim Garner.''
There was an excellent reason why Jim Garner knew more about Troutman's bill than Troutman did. Garner wrote it. He is a Fort Myers lawyer and a big-shot lobbyist for home builders and golf-course developers. He's also an expert on the politics of water, having once served on the South Florida Water Management District while simultaneously offering legal services to sugar barons, citrus farmers and other thirsty interests....
etc. etc. etc...

You say it can't happen here?  You say Saddam is evil, Bush is good?  Wait and see.  Remember what Bush said during the 2000 campaign - "It would be easier if I was dictator..." - well... maybe he wasn't kidding

A disturbing Cuban roundup
Sentinel's position: Cuba's arrest of dissidents is an outrage that deserves strong rebuke.
Hundreds arrested at 'die-in'
NEW YORK -- About 215 protesters were arrested Thursday after they lay down on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, blocking traffic in the latest of a series of demonstrations against the war.
Most of those arrested at the "die-in" face charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration, police said.
The President's Real goal in Iraq  (Atlanta Constitution article published  9/29/02)
"....This war, should it come, is intended to mark the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole responsibility and authority as planetary policeman. It would be the culmination of a plan 10 years or more in the making, carried out by those who believe the United States must seize the opportunity for global domination, even if it means becoming the "American imperialists" that our enemies always claimed we were... (Think this is just conspiracy theory?  Read the article and the linked documents contained within - and wonder why this didn't make headlines around the country)

Breaking Point is the new name for the company (KPMG) frequently mentioned in the State Technology Office Draft Audit re: contract innomalities.  Check it out.  I thought the plan to privatize STO and the MyFlorida website was cancelled last year after the administration finally realized it wouldn't be cheaper or better ...
.... quixote, 3/16/03

Tech office up for grabs
Company may take over state facility
A private company may be allowed to tend to its own clients from the state's central computer facility - and eventually be given the multimillion-dollar operation - under a plan being considered to save the state money on computer support.
The State Technology Office had tentatively accepted just such a deal from BearingPoint Inc. but suddenly withdrew it Friday amid protests from four losing bidders. State Technology Office spokeswoman Carla Gaskin said the state is just delaying, not killing, the deal. (Tallahassee Democrat 3/16/03)

Here's an example of how we get treated by our "Royal Legislators"

Just thought I'd pass along these two emails from Mr. Szabo from the Florida
Library Association, and from Ms. Colvin, a state librarian. Yesterday's Tallahassee Democrat also had a good letter, FINALLY pointing out that the move of the circulating collection to UNACCREDITED Nova University violates Florida Statutes. Didn't Jeb promise to uphold Florida's constitution, or did he have his fingers crossed when he took the oath of office?
Best regards, GailA Tallahassee, Florida 3/7/03

From Mr. Szabo: 3/6/03

Today, it was nasty...as Gloria Colvin's message below shows. The Secretary of State's office requested this issue be put on the agenda at the last minute with no notice--more than one legislator was disturbed by this. Those who were present to speak in favor of keeping the State Library intact and in Tallahassee were ignored by the chair and not given equal opportunity to share their position. Two legislators apologized for their colleagues.

The Administration is trying to make the entire State Library issue--cutting 55 FTEs, cutting valuable services, moving the circulating collection to a private university--ALL ABOUT John Grisham novels and old books that may not have circulated in while. That's the picture they're painting and there are major signs that some legislators are buying it!...

.-----Original Message----- 
From: Gloria Colvin  
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:49 PM 
To: Florida Library Association Subject: [fla] Report on TED meeting

Jody Fitzgerald (FLA's legislative advocate), Lawrence Webster, and I attended this morning's meeting of the House Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee meeting. We learned of the meeting yesterday on very short notice.

The chair of the committee, Leslie Waters, had asked the Department of State to present information to the committee. She allowed Secretary of State Glenda Hood, Assistant Secretary of State Dave Mann, and State Librarian Judi Ring as much time as they wanted to talk. Secretary Hood began by talking about the "misinformation" that has surrounded this issue and said that she wished she could "turn back the clock." Most of their presentation dealt with the State Library's circulating collection and the transfer of that collection to Nova. They brought out several books they'd selected from the collection, a couple of John Grisham novels, a book that had never been checked out, and a book that hadn't been checked out since the 70s, to illustrate their claims that the collection is a public library collection and not used in its current location. Chairman Waters asked a number of leading questions so that they could make their points and made comments that were reflective of their point of view.

Jody, Lawrence, and I were allowed to speak, although Chairman Waters challenged Lawrence and me because we had spoken to the committee on an earlier occasion. We were limited to 3 minutes each, interrupted to remind us of how much time we had left, and cut off from completing our remarks. Rep. Waters got up from her seat and went to talk with someone while I tried to speak about the Nova transfer.

A number of the committee members asked good questions of the Department of State staff, particularly about the Nova deal. They were not given an opportunity to ask us questions. After our aborted testimony, several of the committee members apologized to us about the way we had been treated.

Gloria Colvin 

Constitution is "stupid"?
When my child first began rebelling against house rules and the natural consequences of breaking them, he angrily stomped his feet and said, "That rule is stupid."
When Jeb Bush was asked about the state constitutional requirement of holding a special election in order for the people to determine a new lieutenant governor, Bush said, just as my 4-year-old did, "It's stupid."
As if this remark was not appalling enough, what was even more disgusting is that members of Bush's office laughed (not very surprising) and Toni Jennings laughed as well. How much more of this pompousness do we have to take before we throw him out on his silver-plated backside?
JACOB LERNER, 3/5/03

February 2003

JEB and the Florida State Library - read all about it...

Bush goes all out for war - see the full page on this

January 2003

I ran across this little item in your archives about the State Library (about much  more than just literacy - go thru the slide show and see) that JEB wants to bury: 

Florida delays decision on preserving 2000 presidential ballots
Florida has postponed a decision on whether to preserve its 2000 presidential ballots, notorious hanging chads included, for future study of the bitter election that put George W. Bush in the White House. Florida's Division of Library and Information Services, which oversees which state records get retained and for how long, has told elections supervisors of the state's 67 counties to hold onto all materials related to the November 2000 election until July 1. Ballots in Florida normally can be destroyed 22 months after an election.

Let's see, what else does he want to shut down?  OPPAGA, the legislative arm of the legislature, you know the office that keeps coming up with reports showing privatization isn't such a great idea.  And, oh yes,  cut back more of the regulatory authority of Dept of Community Affairs the agency that oversees the growth plans... and the Inspector General and...

Well, no surprise here ... 
... quixote, 2/3/03

Uh, Oh...

Jeb Bush enters powerful term
By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Political Editor
When Gov. Jeb Bush takes the oath of office Tuesday, he will be the most powerful governor Florida has ever had... 
Jeb is in a position to make the Bushes a true dynasty
Despite the ostensibly modest symbolism of a barbecue and a blue-jeans ball to celebrate the inauguration of Gov. Jeb Bush's second term, Tuesday's swearing-in carries grand implications for a governor who is more than ever one of the Republican Party's most important national leaders...
Another suspect deal, another Bush brother in the mix
The new year begs for a fresh start. But business accusations of international bribery, nefarious investors and a Bush brother awkwardly involved in a troubled company all have a too-familiar ring.
Here's the latest Robert Ludlum-style financial spat.
Former investors in South Florida's Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. recently filed a $60-million lawsuit accusing...  ( more family history here...)

Some of the Best of 2002

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