General Wesley Clark - who may be the more progressive on the issues than any current Dem candidate for Prez - will run for president. Orlando Sentinel Political Editor Mark Silva writes:
Clark is an unconventional candidate: a career military man who led NATO forces in combat but adamantly opposes Bush's invasion of Iraq; a freshly minted Democrat who opposes Bush's tax cuts; a Southerner who might make inroads in a region Republicans have dominated.
"Clark is clearly the wild card," said Peverill Squire, political scientist at the University of Iowa. "He may be able to do what most other candidates probably couldn't do . . . jump into the race pretty late and run a competitive campaign."
Clark enters a field dominated by Howard Dean, the ex-governor of Vermont who has claimed advantages in the first presidential contests of Iowa and New Hampshire. Like Dean, another opponent of the Iraq war, Clark has built an Internet following that could provide money.
Clark's military credentials should upstage U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, until now the sole combat veteran in the field, Squire said.
The allure of a new candidate also should make campaigning more difficult for some struggling with little result, he says. That includes U.S. Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, John Edwards of North Carolina and Bob Graham of Florida. "Wesley Clark decides he'll run".
ET TU "JEB!" - "No Child … what's it called?"
—Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, explaining to June Kronholz in today's Wall Street Journal that the failure of 87 percent of Florida's schools to meet to meet Florida's self-imposed benchmark under President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act "doesn't bother me." "Jeb Disses Dubya. Et tu, governor?"
PHONE RATE CUTS FOR BUSINESS, RATE INCREASES FOR THE REST OF US -Sprint is requesting $6.86 more; Verizon's is $4.61. Hearings on the merits of raising the basic rates will be held in early November by the commission in Tallahassee. The commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal Nov. 25.
The centerpiece of the rate hike: a corresponding reduction in rates on in-state long distance calls, which would drop from 4.5 cents a minute to a penny a minute. The measure would benefit businesses with multiple telephone lines that make thousands of intrastate calls a year. Not benefiting: residential customers who use prepaid calling cards or cell phones to make all long-distance calls.
The state's poorest residents, who now receive a $13.50-a-month telephone subsidy, would be exempted from higher residential rates for the first two years. . . . The up-and-down, back-and-forth nature of phone bill rates was made possible by a new state law. Drafted by the telephone industry, the law cropped up late in the legislative session, rocketed through both chambers and was quickly signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, who vetoed similar legislation in 2002 before his landslide reelection. "No Dade hearing planned on rates".
WHY WE LOVE THE PRIVATE SECTOR -It's all well and good that Tampa Electric Co. aspires to be a good corporate citizen - but of North Korea? Slinking around neighborhoods like the Fortune 500's answer to the KGB, treating its own customers with less respect than Hannibal Lecter eyeing a spleen is hardly a way to endear oneself to one's ratepayers. "Why Did TECO Do What It Did? Because It Can, Silly".
DCF -Bush and state lawmakers should investigate what has gone so drastically wrong with the state's new child-welfare computer system. The Department of Children & Families project was supposed to cost $40 million when it was authorized in 1994; but the actual price tag -- $230 million -- was nearly six times that amount. It was supposed to go online in 1999; but the actual launch was July, 2003. Even then, the computer system crashed for eight hours on the first day.
Now, after only two months, callers to the child-abuse hotline managed by the new computer system are hanging up in frustration in record numbers. This month, the number of ''abandoned'' calls on the new system -- optimistically called HomeSafenet -- was 6.9 percent, almost double the rate for July. That means 2,500 calls didn't get through, each potentially with a child's life at risk "DCF: Anything but safe". See also "Number of DCF child abuse hot line hang-ups increased in August".
"CONDI" RICE COURTS CUBANS -National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has sent a letter to 13 Republican state lawmakers to reassure them that President Bush's administration is committed to bringing a transition to democracy in Cuba. "Rice's letter answers criticism from Cuban-American legislators".
'WE'D RATHER YOU JUST HIRED MORE TROOPERS - The state of Florida is calling to ask about your morals, your marriage and your mother-in-law. "State examining marriage bond".
BIG DEAL: TWO CITATIONS ISSUED -Investigators searching for possible violations of the state's farm and child labor laws visited 18 farms in southwest Miami-Dade County and issued two citations. "State sweeps 18 farms in Miami-Dade, cites 2 labor contractors".
ISN'T THAT NICE-Education Commissioner Jim Horne urged Florida's Board of Education to push lawmakers to repeal the state's class size limits Tuesday, saying the voter-initiated law will prevent teachers from getting pay raises. "Horne urges Board of Education to oppose class size law".
COURT AUTHORIZES CLASS ACTION AGAINST "JEB!" - Accusing Gov. Jeb Bush of racial discrimination, the labor union representing most state workers claimed a legal victory Tuesday in its 20-year fight to improve pension benefits for attendants at state mental institutions including Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee. "Judge OKs class action for hospital attendants".
OFF TOPIC; DUBYA SCREWING VETS AGAIN - The Bush administration has come up with a novel way to give disabled veterans their benefits and pay their retirement at the same time. The White House says it can find the money to allow "concurrent receipt" by dumping about 1.5 million vets from the program.
If the Department of Veterans Affairs disqualifies roughly two-thirds of the people it serves, the government will have no problem treating the remaining one-third fairly. Such a deal. Maybe the same idea will work with Social Security. Disqualify two-thirds of the recipients, and the program could stay solvent for another century. "Pay all vets, not just some". 7:32 AM
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