Are Mexican-Americans Next? In the 2000 "election", Katherine Harris used a company now owned by "ChoicePoint" of Atlanta to illegally purge thousands of eligible Blacks from voting lists (not surprisingly, the company was "paid $4.3 million for its work, replacing a firm that charged $5,700 per year for the same service").
ChoicePoint is now working with the government to identify supposed illegal aliens, and a scandal is brewing - "The American company that arranged the sale from a Mexican supplier to U.S. immigration and police agencies [ChoicePoint] said it might stop selling the data -- if it turns out the information was obtained illegally. The data sales caused a storm of criticism in Mexico, where many feared that corrupt politicians had sold voter rolls to U.S. agencies, who in turn used them to identify illegal immigrants." See "Mexican data acquired by ChoicePoint included more details than originally suspected".
"Where would Florida be were it not for the bloated, imperial egos of the state's top three elected officials, Gov. Jeb Bush, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and Senate President Jim King?" See the Orlando Sentinel's "Bloated egos".
We Wouldn't Put It This Way - "Clash Of The Titans". "Twits on parade" would be more accurate. And the biggest twit of them all has the audacity to scold top lawmakers; this man's audacity is simply shocking.
Speaking of Twits - These twits blame the Florida Senate for not blindly following Bush - Byrd.
Myth Busting: Bush A Zero - One "myth is that Gov. Jeb Bush is the most powerful and influential chief executive in Florida history. If that's true, then Bush apparently decided to rest on his laurels while the Republican leaders of the two chambers duked it out this session."
"Bush seems to have exerted zero influence on resolving the major contentious issues of the session. Indeed, for most of the past two months he has been an absentee governor, traveling the state and nation for photo ops while the public's business withered on the legislative agenda. Apparently, Bush has been too busy giving speeches to the National Rifle Association and making other self-promoting public appearances to be bothered with what's been going on (or rather, what's not been going on) in Tallahassee.". See "Myth-busting session". Perhaps "Jeb!" ought to reconsider his career as a pump salesman (See last year's story, "U.S. fraud suit targets ex-partner of Jeb Bush" ("Gov. Jeb Bush's former business partner in a venture to sell water pumps abroad defrauded the U.S. government of more than $74-million, federal authorities contend in a lawsuit").
A Bright Spot - "Lawmakers didn't fulfill any of Bush's personal requests, such as putting to voters a repeal of class-size reduction or a Miami-to-Tampa bullet train, or combining state agencies that oversee cultural resources and land planning under his newly appointed secretary of state.". See the Miami Herald story (cited above).
No Living Wage For You - "As many as 2,000 workers at Miami International Airport, including baggage and food handlers, could soon take home less pay based on a proposal approved by Florida lawmakers Friday. The legislation, sent to Gov. Jeb Bush for his stamp of approval, wipes out a provision in the county's living-wage ordinance that had guaranteed that those workers make twice the federal minimum wage of $5.15.". See "State bill cuts in half MIA wages". This is an absolute outrage - where does the Florida GOP get off telling local governments they cannot establish a living wage in their communities.
They'll Be Back - "[T]he GOP-dominated Legislature [has been called] back into a 16-day special session, beginning May 12, to finish crafting a $52 billion state budget, the only bill lawmakers must pass each year." Story.
And Don't Forget The Everglades - "Glades legislation worries judge". See "Bush Should Veto Extension". Heck, why should the Republicans stop with the Everglades, when they can "do considerably more damage when they return to Tallahassee to write the budget, especially if they decide to balance it by breaking into trust funds set aside for land preservation and environmental cleanup"; see ""Dirty business".
Graham - Goss Attack 9-11 Coverup - "Recent articles by MSNBC and Newsweek both outlined the outrage Graham, Goss and others feel after news leaked that the White House wants to classify what should be public documents concerning 9/11. Some of the information the White House wants to keep secret concerns public testimony and some of it has already been printed in newspapers." See "White House plan to keep 9/11 report secret is attacked".
Now We Can Now Breathe Easy - One of Florida's more prominent GOP politicos climbs another rung - She's no Katherine Harris, but she's close.. See "Hood OK'd as secretary of state".
Sweet - "Let's hope that Florida legislators were too busy last week to read the inside pages of The Washington Post". See the Sarasota Herald editorial.