Notes For Saturday, January 25, 2003
FLORIDA NEWSPAPERS SUCKERED BY "ASTROTURF". Florida Blog has a number of entries (scroll down to get them all) on various Florida newspapers being suckered into printing fake letters to the editor praising the brother of Florida's Gov. The phenom is apparently called "astroturf" (to wit: falsely giving the impression of some sort of "grass roots" support). 7:06 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]STAY THERE. "Gov. Bush goes to Washington". 6:56 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]
WHAT WOULD MOMMY BUSH SAY? "TALLAHASSEE. "Bush, who [like is mommy] has proclaimed reading a top priority . . . has proposed closing the 150-year-old State Library in Tallahassee". 6:42 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]
BUSH APPOINTS REPUBLICAN OF BUDDYFREDDY "FAME" TO REPLACE ELECTIONS OFFICIAL. "Buddy Johnson, a Republican who represented Plant City in the state House and co-founded the first two BuddyFreddy's restaurants, will take over the duties starting Monday." 6:38 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]
HEY, YOU VOTED FOR HIM. "Top Manatee County officials blasted Gov. Jeb Bush's proposed state budget Friday, saying it appears to cost the county government at least $2.6 million in a combination of higher costs and less income. Bush's budget, if adopted by the Florida Legislature, could cause a property tax increase in Manatee County, delay expansion of county services or both starting as early as Oct. 1, the officials said during a rare news conference.
'This is the worst I've seen,' County Administrator Ernie Padgett said. 'It's dumping things on us.' 6:35 AM
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BUDGET DIRECTOR GRILLED. Steve Bousquet writes:
"Even House Republicans, nominally Bush's strongest allies in the Capitol, were grilling Bush's budget director Wednesday."
"Why, one asked, must appeal courts get by with fewer judicial assistants? Why does Bush want to pass on the pretrial detention costs for juveniles to counties? Why is a $4-million aquaculture program being privatized? Why does Bush want to lower the reimbursement rates to hospitals? Why does he want to merge and cut by half the budgets of two state agencies that watch how state money is spent and often suggest ways to save money?"
"The answers are obvious."
"Bush is the antigovernment governor. In his Jan. 7 inaugural, he dreamed out loud about a capital where all state buildings were emptied of government workers." 6:33 AM
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PANHANDLE LIKES BUSH'S CLASS SIZE APPROACH. "Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to reduce class sizes gets a favorable reaction from most legislators, whether because it mirrors their own philosophy or because it doesn't sell them out to the sprawling problems of South Florida." 6:26 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]
THE DEATH PENALTY WORKS JUST FINE. "Holton is the 23rd inmate in Florida to walk away from a death sentence since 1973 -- and his is the fourth case in the past three years in which new evidence has either exonerated an inmate or raised reasonable doubt as to his guilt, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. 6:23 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]