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The March of a Thousand Billionaires

Tropical Feetwave: The March of a Thousand Billionaires

Contact Information:
Norwood Orrick
(813)226-2550
norwood@wmnf.org

Event Information:
WMNF pre-Heatwave PARADE - Tropical Feetwave
Saturday May 1st
Gather at 4:30pm; Parade Starts at 4:45pm SHARP
Meet at Avenida Republica de Cuba and 9th Avenue

For immediate release:

Tampa, March 17 - On Saturday, May 1, WMNF Community Radio presents it's 23rd annual Tropical Heatwave, an eclectic night of hot live bands and DJs spanned across six stages, making it Tampa Bay's biggest live music event.

Before the music begins, the streets of Ybor City will make way for WMNF's pre-Heatwave people's parade, Tropical Feetwave: The March of a Thousand Billionaires - Flamboyant floats, creative costume and musical merriment will fill the streets as we celebrate the cause of the billionaires in none-too serious fashion.

The parade kicks off at 4.45pm. Folks who wish to march in the parade should meet no later than 4.30 pm at Avenida Republica de Cuba and 9th Avenue. Participants should dress appropriately (Billionaire Attire such as Top Hats and Tails for men and Gowns, Furs and Tiaras for women is de rigueur). Everyone is welcome.

Propelled solely by feet-power, big music and stunning costume, the parade will wind itself around Tampa's historic Latin quarter, culminating at the Cuban Club Courtyard where Opening Games and Award Ceremonies merge FEETwave into HEATwave and the first of a thousand dances begins.

Any person wishing to get involved in the parade in any creative or organizational way, should contact norwood@wmnf.org.

PDF Flier

For updated information on Heatwave, Feetwave and WMNF, please visit
www.tropicalheatwave.org.

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WMNF Community Radio

WMNF is a non-commercial community radio station that celebrates local cultural diversity and is committed to equality, peace and social and economic justice. WMNF provides broadcasts and creates other forums to serve the community by the exposure and sharing of these values.

Posted by Norwood at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2004

Democracy, American style

Freedom of the press and freedom of speech:

American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.
Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"No, no, America!" and "Where is democracy now?" screamed protesters who hoisted banners and shook clenched fists in a hastily organized rally against the closing of the newspaper, Al Hawza, a radical Shiite weekly.

The rally drew hundreds and then thousands by nightfall in central Baghdad, where masses of angry Shiite men squared off against a line of American soldiers who rushed to seal off the area.

The closing of the newspaper illustrated the quandary Americans faced in trying to strike a balance between their two main goals — encouraging democracy while maintaining stability. But as the days wind down to the June 30 target date for handing sovereignty back to the Iraqi people, security seems increasingly elusive.

On Sunday, the Iraqi public works minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the northern city of Mosul, and two foreign workers were shot to death nearby in front of a power plant.

Many Iraqis said closing down a popular newspaper at such a crucial time would not curtail anti-occupation feelings but only inflame them.

"When you repress the repressed, they only get stronger," said Hamid al-Bayati, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a prominent Shiite political party. "Punishing this newspaper will only increase the passion for those who speak out against the Americans."

Posted by Norwood at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

Tribune twists truth

Don’t believe the Tribune’s happy headline (“Proposed Spending Plans Benefit Colleges, Parks”), and don’t be distracted by their little list of spending line items that might come to area colleges.

Hillsborough Community College stands to get millions. So does the University of South Florida. There's also money set aside for cultural and historic preservation projects, as well as the court system and parks.
The proposed spending plans set for debate in each chamber of the Florida Legislature this week contain a little something for everyone. But the competing budget proposals - $56.5 billion in the Senate and $57.6 billion in the House - paint two different pictures.

Much will change between now and April 30, when this year's legislative session is scheduled to conclude. But the initial proposals are considered a good guide to how communities will fare.

``It's a rosier budget picture than we had last year - we seem closer together,'' said Rep. Bob Henriquez, D-Tampa. ``But you never know.''

Keep in mind the The Tribune is a very conservative newspaper, a backer of both Jeb! and W, so their agenda is to make the Bush brothers and the Republican dominated legislature look good. Nice try, but Florida students are not smelling the roses:

State senators bemoaned another year of tuition increases for university students Thursday as they discussed a budget with hikes of 7.5 percent for undergraduate residents and up to 12.5 percent for out-of-state and grad students.
The Senate's spending plan for higher education guarantees per-credit costs for Florida-resident university students would climb to $68.16. And that could increase if a university's board of trustees exercises its right in the bill to heap another 2.5 percent on its state-resident students.

"We're financing education on the backs of students by raising tuition and increasing fees," said Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, during debate on the appropriations bill.

Posted by Norwood at 07:32 AM | Comments (0)

Ex-felons beg Governor for basic rights

Florida’s racist law which disenfranchises felons who have served their sentences and are otherwise considered rehabilitated is garnering some much deserved national attention. NYT

Gov. Jeb Bush looked out over a roomful of felons appealing to him for something they had lost, and tried to reassure them.
"Don't be nervous; we're not mean people," the governor said as some fidgeted, prayed, hushed children or polished their handwritten statements. "You can just speak from the heart."

And they did: convicted robbers, drunken drivers, drug traffickers and others, all finished with their sentences, standing up one by one in a basement room at the State Capitol and asking Mr. Bush to restore their civil rights. Their files before him, Mr. Bush asked one man about his drinking, another about his temper, and so on.

Four mornings a year, this unusual scene unfolds in front of the governor and his cabinet, as they review the requests of some of the thousands of felons whom Florida has stripped of their rights to vote, serve on a jury and hold public office.

Since daybreak on Nov. 8, 2000, when the nation awoke to the shock of a presidential race ending in a virtual tie, Florida's voting laws and practices have been the subject of intense debate and scrutiny. The disputed election results led the state to adopt sweeping changes in how votes are cast and counted and how voter rolls are maintained.

Yet as Florida becomes an election-year battleground again, with Governor Bush vowing to ensure victory here for his brother and Democrats eager to reclaim the state, its electoral practices — including its felon disenfranchisement law — are drawing renewed attention.

In one lingering puzzle from 2000, an unknown number of legal voters were removed from Florida's rolls leading up to the presidential election, after a company working for the state mistakenly identified the voters as felons. At the same time, some counties mistakenly allowed actual felons to vote or turned away legitimate voters as suspected felons. A lawsuit filed in January 2001 sought to prevent similar errors, while another, filed just before the 2000 election, charged that the ban on felons voting discriminated against blacks and should be overturned.

Critics say that President Bush would have lost in 2000 if disenfranchised felons had been allowed to vote. A 2001 report by a University of Minnesota sociologist counted more than 600,000 in Florida, not including those still in prison, on parole or on probation. More than one in four black men here may not vote, the report found. The state says it is impossible to know how many disenfranchised felons live here, because some have died or moved.

Emperor Jeb! sitting on his throne and deciding whether to grant the basic rights that these people deserve to have back. I wonder if party affiliation is included in those files?

Posted by Norwood at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2004

Conscientious objector faces charges

The U.S. Army has charged Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia of North Miami -- who extended a two-week leave into a five-month absence -- with desertion from the war in Iraq, authorities said Friday.

Mejia, 28, was the first soldier to refuse to go back to the war and publicly declare himself a conscientious objector.

He was absent without leave for five months before surfacing and returning last week to his unit in Fort Stewart, Ga.

Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a public affairs officer at Fort Stewart, said senior commander Maj. Gen. William Webster referred Mejia's case to a special court-martial.

If convicted, the maximum sentence Mejia could face: a year in confinement and a bad conduct discharge.

''The next step is for a military judge to docket the case,'' Kent said. ``Because they are so busy, it's hard to predict when the case will go to trial.''

''The defense for Sgt. Mejia will have to decide whether to request a trial by other soldiers or by the military judge alone,'' Kent said.

Military trials are typically open to the public unless national security issues arise, he said. Then a judge can close the proceeding. Mejia has been assigned to administrative duties in the meantime, he said.

Army officials have also restricted Mejia to Fort Stewart and have barred him from conducting face-to-face interviews with the media, said Tod Ensign, a leading national GI rights advocate and one of his attorneys.

Posted by Norwood at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

Air Force tanker details come to light

Yahoo! News - Senate Passes Fetus Protection Bill

The Air Force gave the Boeing Co. five months to rewrite the official specifications for 100 aerial refueling tankers so that the company's 767 aircraft would win a $23.5 billion deal, according to e-mails and documents obtained by Knight Ridder.
In the process, Boeing eliminated 19 of the 26 capabilities the Air Force originally wanted, and the Air Force acquiesced in order to keep the price down.

The Air Force then gave Boeing competitor Airbus 12 days to bid on the project and awarded the contract to Boeing even though Airbus met more than 20 of the original 26 specifications and offered a price that was $10 billion less than Boeing's.

Follow the link for all the details.

Posted by Norwood at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2004

Bush just keeps letting Bin Ladens go

First we had that flight of Saudis out of the country. Then this.

The swiftness and ferocity of the Bush White House's attack on Richard Clarke tells you two things: his story may be largely true, and the Bush administration is terrified that the American people will believe it.
The central allegation - that Mr Bush was so obsessed with going after Saddam Hussein that he openly challenged his counter-terrorism adviser to find a link between September 11 and Iraq the day after the attacks took place - is serious.

It threatens the fundamental platform of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign: that you are safer with them than you are with the Democrats.
......

The fact that the Pentagon pulled the fighting force most equipped for hunting down Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan in March 2002 in order to pre- position it for Iraq cannot be denied.

Fifth Group Special Forces were a rare breed in the US military: they spoke Arabic, Pastun and Dari. They had been in Afghanistan for half a year, had developed a network of local sources and alliances, and believed that they were closing in on bin Laden.

Without warning, they were then given the task of tracking down Saddam. "We were going nuts on the ground about that decision," one of them recalls.

"In spite of the fact that it had taken five months to establish trust, suddenly there were two days to hand over to people who spoke no Dari, Pastun or Arabic, and had no rapport."

Along with the redeployment of human assets came a reallocation of sophisticated hardware. The US air force has only two specially-equipped RC135 U spy planes. They had successfully vectored in on al-Qaida leadership radio transmissions and cellphone calls, but they would no longer circle over the mountains of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

The Bush White House has banked on all who were privy to these details keeping the code of silence. But too many people outside the White House sphere of influence are too well informed, be they commandos on the ground or career civil servants at the state department and CIA.

Posted by Norwood at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

March 26, 2004

Leaders call for Aristide kidnapping investigation

Caribbean nations are calling for an U.N investigation into the coup that removed Jean-Bertrand Aristide:

Caribbean leaders said the U.N. General Assembly should investigate Jean-Bertrand Aristide's claims that the United States staged a coup in Haiti and forced the ouster of the country's first democratically elected president.
The 15-nation Caribbean Community also said it was considering rejecting the U.S.-backed government of Haiti.

At the first day of a two-day summit Thursday, Caribbean leaders said they were focusing on whether to recognize a government that praises the rebels who helped oust Aristide.

Jamaican officials said Aristide will take permanent asylum in South Africa, but not until it holds general elections next month. Aristide has been in temporary exile in Jamaica since March 15, despite protests from U.S. and Haitian officials.

Caribbean leaders are ``still upset and uncomfortable'' about Aristide's departure, and made that clear to U.N. special envoy Reginald Dumas when he listened to their debate, St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas told The Associated Press.

``We are prepared to discuss the possibility of identifying exactly what were the circumstances,'' Douglas said. ``We are taking this matter to the U.N. General Assembly for clarification.''

Conference officials said the 15-nation regional bloc wants the General Assembly to investigate rather than the Security Council, where the United States or France could veto the proposal.

The Caribbean can expect support from the 53-member African Union, which last month echoed its demand.

The officials say Aristide has told Caribbean leaders that he was abducted at gunpoint by U.S. agents and put on a U.S.-chartered aircraft that carried him to the Central African Republic.

Posted by Norwood at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2004

Cost of cheap laughs: over 500 American lives

W attended a Washington dinner last night where the sitting President traditionally makes fun of himself...

It's standard fare humor. Bush says he is preparing for a tough election fight; then on the large video screens a picture flashes showing him wearing a boxing robe while sitting at his desk. Bush notes he spends "a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies." Then we see a photo of him on the phone with a finger in his ear. There were funny bits about Skull and Bones, his mother, and Dick Cheney. But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere."
The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again.

Disapproval must have registered upon my face, for one of my tablemates said, "Come on, David, this is funny." I wanted to reply, Over 500 Americans and literally countless Iraqis are dead because of a war that was supposedly fought to find weapons of mass destruction, and Bush is joking about it. Instead, I took a long drink of the lovely white wine that had come with our dinner. It's not as if I was in the middle of a talk-show debate and had to respond. This was certainly one of those occasions in which you either get it or don't. And I wasn't getting it. Or maybe my neighbor wasn't.

Posted by Norwood at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

U.S. Senate attacks Roe v Wade

The Senate voted Thursday to make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during commission of a violent federal crime, a victory for those seeking to expand the legal rights of the unborn.
......

The key obstacle was an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would have imposed the same tougher penalties for attacks on pregnant women as outlined in the DeWine bill but made no attempt to define the beginning of life.

Feinstein said that by defining when life begins, the bill was "the first step in removing a woman's right to choice, particularly in the early months of a pregnancy before viability." She said it could also chill embryonic stem cell research.

The Senate also defeated an amendment by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that would require employers to give unpaid leave, and states to pay unemployment benefits, to women when they or family members are victims of domestic or sexual violence.

Posted by Norwood at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)

Richard Clarke has Bushites running scared

They have no answer to his charges, so all they can do is call him names and attempt to impugn his character while straining to cast any doubt that they can on his credibility through surrogates like Fox News:

Shortly before the hearing, the White House violated its long-standing rules by authorizing Fox News to air remarks favorable to Bush that Clarke had made anonymously at an administration briefing in 2002. The White House press secretary read passages from the 2002 remarks at his televised briefing, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who has declined to give public testimony to the commission, called reporters into her office to highlight the discrepancy. "There are two very different stories here," she said. "These stories can't be reconciled."
Back at the hearing, former Illinois governor James R. Thompson, a Republican member of the commission, took up the cause, waving the Fox News transcript with one hand and Clarke's critical book in the other. "Which is true?" Thompson demanded, folding his arms and glowering down at the witness.

Clarke, appearing unfazed by the apparent contradiction between his current criticism and previous praise, spoke to Thompson as if addressing a slow student.

"I was asked to highlight the positive aspects of what the administration had done, and to minimize the negative aspects of what the administration had done," he explained. "I've done it for several presidents."

Funny: Condoleezza has time to attack Clarke, but no time to testify under oath to this same commission.

Condaleeza Rice will not testify but has no reluctance to appear on every TV show that would have her and most would. Imus this morning criticized Fox’s Sean Hannity for doing a poor job of questioning. I didn’t see the attacks she launched on Clarke as “scurrilous”. I did see how well Clarke stood up on the barrage of attacks he is being subjected to. The National Security Advisor Ms Rice led the demolition derby aimed at Clarke

MoveOn has a new ad planned to get Richard Clarke’s message out to the people:

“Frankly, I find it outrageous that a president is running for re-election on the grounds that he'd done such great things on terrorism. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11"

This is a direct quote from Clarke’s 60 Minutes interview.

And from Daily Kos:

Despite the assists of hacks like Lehman and the slimeballs at Fox News, this whistleblower will be hard to marginalize and ignore. The political heart of the Bush presidency is counter-terrorism, and their former counter-terrorism expert may have just ripped out their heart.
Richard Clarke is a hawk, appears to have been a Republican, and most balanced summaries of his career show him to have been a bit of a loose cannon too smitten by covert actions and insufficiently respectful of civil liberties. But he's the type of knowledgeable, dogged, and passionate analyst on whom every successful administration must rely for honest and non-ideological appraisals and advice. However, this administration doesn't value analysts, it values acolytes. Thus, it's not surprising this outraged insider has so effectively exposed the rank incompetence and rotten dishonesty at the center of the Bush administration. Furthermore, this administration doesn't respect people who aren't cynical idolaters of power like themselves; it's to be expected that they wouldn't heed the advice of someone whose character and motivations are so different from their own. The leaders of the Bush administration wouldn't listen to Richard Clarke because, as he proved today, he is fundamentally what they will never be. Richard Clarke is a mensch, and Richard Clarke is a patriot.

Posted by Norwood at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

Delay done?

Rumor has it that House Majority leader Tom Delay may have to step down, at least temporarily, from his post: (from Roll Call via Political Animal)

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has begun quiet discussions with a handful of colleagues about the possibility that he will have to step down from his leadership post temporarily if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury investigating alleged campaign finance abuses.
...Republican Conference rules state that a member of the elected leadership who has been indicted on a felony carrying a penalty of at least two years in prison must temporarily step down from the post.

Posted by Norwood at 08:01 AM | Comments (0)

Call your Legislator (after you call WFLA - c'mon... you've already got the phone in your hand...)

One of the least expected bills to emerge from the legislature this year is the reversal of the industry friendly telephone rate increases that the Leg. passed last year. Howard Troxler fills us in:

Here is what is happening right now in Tallahassee. Your state legislator is coming under enormous pressure from telephone lobbyists to protect the huge rate increase the Legislature passed last year.
Do not underestimate how powerful the atmosphere of Tallahassee can be. Left alone, hundreds of miles from the voters, our lawmakers will stick together and vote for the phone companies all over again.

So, it's up to the citizens to make sure they are not left alone.

If it were me, I'd look up my state House member and state senator in the local phone book.

Or I'd look up their numbers on the Legislature's Web site, www.leg.state.fl.us which also lists their e-mail addresses.

If I were calling my legislators (Rep. Frank Farkas and Sen. Jim Sebesta, both R-St. Petersburg), I might say something like:

"Don't stand on a foolish consistency, based on what you did last year - do the right thing this year.

"Even I, a mere citizen, know that you were sold a bill of goods last year. You were told if you gave the phone companies hundreds of millions of extra dollars, that there would be more "competition.' But now that story is proven untrue. You have perfect grounds for voting for repeal.

"Some of your Tallahassee leaders also are trying to claim that repeal is premature, and we should let courts work it out. But that isn't true either. The federal courts have already told the FCC what it can't do. And the state's courts will have no choice but to uphold the rate increase - you made sure of that, in the very wording of your law!

"Besides, even if Attorney General Charlie Crist miraculously wins his fight against the first round of rate hikes, there are STILL lots more rate hikes allowed in the law. You made sure of that, too.

"So, the bottom line is you've voted to hijack somewhere between $355-million and $1-billion from the people over the next three years. Only you can fix that, not the courts or anybody else."

That's what I'd say.
......

To help in your phone calls, yet again, here is the list of how our area's legislators voted on the phone law last year. Notice that both Democrats and Republicans were divided; neither party has more virtue.

Here's who voted yes in the House:

Kevin Ambler, R-Lutz; Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City; Faye Culp, R-Tampa; Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg; Bob Henriquez, D-Tampa; Ed Homan, R-Tampa; Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa; Ken Littlefield, R-Wesley Chapel; Sandy Murman, R-Tampa; Frank Peterman, D-St. Petersburg.

Here's who voted no in the House:

Tom Anderson, R-Dunedin; Kim Berfield, R-Clearwater; Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor; John Carassas, R-Belleair; Charlie Dean, R-Inverness; Heather Fiorentino, R-New Port Richey; Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg; David Russell, R-Brooksville; Leslie Waters, R-Seminole.

Here are the senators who voted yes:

Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island; Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg.

Here are the senators who voted no:

Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon; Victor Crist, R-Tampa; Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey; Tom Lee, R-Brandon; Les Miller, D-Tampa.

Posted by Norwood at 07:27 AM | Comments (0)

WFLA TV censors Sierra Club ad

One Rethuglican strategy this year appears to be to pressure TV stations to censor the truth. See, W is raising a record $200 million or so from his fat cat donors to spend on his campaign. Kerry will have a fraction of that, but the new campaign finance laws say that independent organizations can buy their own ads and spread their own messages.

During the Super Bowl, MoveOn.org was censored by CBS when it tried to buy some air time. Other incidents have cropped up around the country. Now, Tampa based WFLA TV, owned by Media General, who also owns the Tribune, has bowed to Rethuglican pressure and has dropped an ad that accurately describes W’s environmental policies.

W’s policies are indefensible, so his people have decided that the only way to respond to criticism is to silence the critics before too many people notice the truth that they are spreading.

Coronet Industries has asked local television stations to stop airing an environmental group's advertisement attacking President Bush, saying it isn't accurate and doesn't have the legal protections of a political ad.
Tuesday, one of the four local television stations broadcasting the ad - WFLA, Channel 8 - announced it would comply.``WFLA-TV is concerned about the accuracy of the current ad from the Sierra Club; due to that fact we are pulling the ad in question,'' said a statement by Joe Pomilla, sales director for the station.

WFLA-TV and The Tampa Tribune are owned by the same company and their news staffs work together to cover stories, including looking into health concerns among residents near the Coronet plant.

One other station, WTVT, Channel 13, is seeking information from the Sierra Club about the accuracy of the ad, station manager Bob Linger said.

Executives at two other local stations could not be reached late Wednesday.

Spokesmen for the Sierra Club and Coronet said they hadn't heard of plans by any other stations to pull the ad.

Mother Jones has some great background on 527s (the collective name for these political advocacy groups) and possible changes in the way they will be allowed to raise and spend money. Right now, there is absolutely nothing illegal about the commercials they are airing, and it is likely that the FCC will allow their activities to continue through the election.

Since the Democrats have a decided advantage in the 527 race, Republicans are manufacturing controversy in an attempt to silence the 527s well before the FCC has a chance to rule.

Call WFLA TV and ask them to stop censoring legal 527 ads: (813) 221-5788

Posted by Norwood at 06:38 AM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2004

Hillsborough County Living Wage campaign

`Living Wage' Public Meetings Start This Week

H illsborough County has scheduled four public meetings to discuss the possible implementation of a ``living wage'' for county workers and those employed by county contractors.
Two local groups have called on the county to increase what is paid to some employees earning less than federal poverty standards. Input from the meetings will help a task force determine what recommendation to make to county commissioners.

The meetings, all starting at 6:30 p.m., will be:

* Thursday at the Plant City Neighborhood Service Center, 702 E. Alsobrook St.

* March 30 at the Ruskin Neighborhood Service Center, 201 14th Ave. S.E.

* April 1 at the University Community Center, 14013 N. 22nd St., Tampa.

* April 6 at the West Tampa Neighborhood Service Center, 2103 N. Rome Ave.

For information, call Toni Beddingfield at (813) 272-5275.

Posted by Norwood at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

Jeb! is thinking about November

Is Jeb! trying to engineer an excuse not to do the voter mandated Pre-K thing this year? We know how he just hates voter initiatives that force him to spend money on people’s needs. Of course, he could just be engaging in a little disingenuous election-year grandstanding:

Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that a House bill's proposed standards for a statewide prekindergarten program fall short of what he would like to see.
"I'm not going to sign a bill into law that from the very beginning sends the wrong signal about the importance of literacy," Bush said after visiting an elementary school in Orlando.

Asked if he thought the House bill was below the level of standards he wanted, he said, "Yep."

The Senate has yet to unveil its prekindergarten proposal. But the governor said he is confident the Senate's version will resemble the proposal he supports.

"My prediction is that we will have a final law that will be very close to what we proposed," Bush said. "If we don't, if we get below a threshold in terms of quality that is not acceptable, we'll do it next year."

Major differences between a pre-K proposal approved by the state Board of Education last month - which Bush supports - and the amended measure sponsored by Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami Beach, include the number of hours 4-year-olds would spend in school, the amount of education and training required for pre-K teachers, the ratio of teachers per pupil and which state agency should oversee the program.
......

The House bill would call for as little as 540 hours of pre-K class time over 180 school days, compared with the Board of Education plan calling for 720 hours, and would allow a student-teacher ratio of up to 18 to 1, in contrast to the board's recommendation of 10 to 1.

Don’t get me wrong - the House bill is completely inadequate, as I have pointed out previously. I just don’t trust Jeb!’s motives.

Posted by Norwood at 06:48 AM | Comments (0)

State Democrats want money to help people, not corporations

SP TImes:

Democratic legislators Monday called on their Republican counterparts to postpone a series of planned tax cuts to spare the state deep cuts in social service programs.
Florida shouldn't lower taxes for corporations and investors when the state is considering eliminating prenatal care for an estimated 7,000 poor pregnant women, Democratic leaders said.

"We need to understand the first rule of holes is when you're in one, stop digging," said Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale. "We don't need these tax cuts this year."

Republican leaders, including Gov. Jeb Bush, are considering three major tax breaks worth $277-million: the next phase of the intangibles tax cut on stocks and bonds, a piggyback on a federal corporate income tax break and a nine-day sales tax holiday.

Legislative budget writers are proposing social service cuts of more than $300-million, including reductions in prenatal care, a popular youth tobacco education program and health coverage for extremely sick Floridians who can't get insurance.

Posted by Norwood at 06:30 AM | Comments (0)

Get Up with MorningWood

Get Up with MorningWood, on Community Radio WMNF 88.5 fm, Tampa, and streaming at wmnf.org.
4 to 6 am every Tuesday!

Studio line: 813-239-9663. Call or email the studio anytime!

Today on MorningWood

I’m gonna get back to the music today. I’ve had lots of themed shows lately, which tend to restrict what can be played. Today, lots of new releases, including cuts from The Von Bondies, Graham Parker, Lambchop, Junkie XL, and more. And listen up for BR549, The Gibson Brothers, and Terry Allen as MorningWood checks out some new morning roots. I’ll mix in plenty of older stuff from artists like Frank Zappa, and keep you guessing with new works that remix old artists like The Beetles and Ella Fitzgerald.

Playlists

Live playlist

The March of a Thousand Billionaires

Tropical Feetwave: The March of a Thousand Billionaires

Contact Information:
Norwood Orrick
(813)226-2550
norwood@wmnf.org

Event Information:
WMNF pre-Heatwave PARADE - Tropical Feetwave
Saturday May 1st
Gather at 4:30pm; Parade Starts at 4:45pm SHARP
Meet at Avenida Republica de Cuba and 9th Avenue

For immediate release:

Any person wishing to get involved in the parade in any creative or organizational way, should contact norwood@wmnf.org.

For updated information on Heatwave, Feetwave and WMNF, please visit
www.tropicalheatwave.org.

###

WMNF Community Radio

Posted by Norwood at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)

March 22, 2004

250,000 families left behind

Not too surprising - W's gotta pay for those tax cuts for the rich somehow, right?

Janice and Earl Johnson live on combined monthly disability payments of about $1,100, and their monthly rent runs $800. Utilities total as much as $260 a month. Then there's food and a telephone.
To make ends meet, the Johnsons have relied on a federal housing program since 2000. A voucher covers $678 of the rent for their three-bedroom Progress Village home.

"When you're on a fixed income, it's a big help," Janice Johnson, 47, said of the housing assistance. "I couldn't be here if I wasn't in the program. I couldn't afford it."

But Section 8, the program the Johnsons and 1.9-million other families depend on to cover rental costs in the private market, faces a proposed $1-billion in cuts next year and structural changes that some say could hurt hundreds of thousands of families.

As many as 250,000 low-income, older and disabled families receiving Section 8 vouchers could lose assistance next year under President Bush's 2005 budget proposal, according to projections by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington. About 10,545 Florida families - at least 1,700 in the Tampa Bay area - would lose help, according to the center, which analyzes the impact of proposed legislation on low- and moderate-income families. In Florida, 87,000 families have Section 8 vouchers.

Aside from eliminating families from the program if cuts and changes take effect, housing agencies may be forced to require tenants to pay higher rents, which might be impossible for some.

"It's going to have a devastating impact on us, as far as I'm concerned," said Jerome Ryans, executive director of the Tampa Housing Authority, which administers Section 8 vouchers to about 4,200 families. "If you don't have enough vouchers or enough money to pay for vouchers, then you're going to have to put people out on the street. It's going to put me in a position of serving less people."

Posted by Norwood at 07:36 AM | Comments (0)

Kerry shadowed by FBI

LA Times:

As a high-profile activist who crossed the country criticizing the Nixon administration's role in the Vietnam War, John F. Kerry was closely monitored by FBI agents for more than a year, according to intelligence documents reviewed by The Times.
In 1971, in the months after the Navy veteran and decorated war hero argued before Congress against continued U.S. involvement in the conflict, the FBI stepped up its infiltration of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the protest group Kerry helped direct, the files show.

The FBI documents indicate that wherever Kerry went, agents and informants were following — including appearances at VVAW-sponsored antiwar events in Washington; Kansas City, Mo.; Oklahoma City; and Urbana, Ill. The FBI recorded the content of his speeches and took photographs of him and fellow activists, and the dispatches were filed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Nixon.

The files contain no information or suggestion that Kerry broke any laws. And a 1972 memorandum on the FBI's decision to end its surveillance of him said the agency had discovered "nothing whatsoever to link the subject with any violent activity."

Kerry, now the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, has long known he was a target of FBI surveillance, but only last week learned the extent of the scrutiny, he told The Times. The information was provided by Gerald Nicosia, a Bay Area author who obtained thousands of pages of FBI intelligence files and who gave copies of some documents to The Times.

The FBI files shed new light on an early chapter in Kerry's public life and are another example of the extent to which the U.S. intelligence apparatus monitored and investigated groups opposed to government policies during the Vietnam era, especially the Hoover-run FBI.

FBI harassment of some activists and leaders in the antiwar and civil rights movements — including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — was exposed after Hoover's death in 1972, and reforms were mandated in the bureau to prevent such abuses and restore public confidence.

Reforms were mandated all right, but many of them were rolled back with the passage of the PATRIOT Act right after 911. It is very sloppy of The Times not to mention the fact that FBI and CIA infiltration of peaceful groups as well as the sharing of information between the two agencies is again being allowed with very few, if any, safeguards.

Until the mid-1970's, both the CIA and the National Security Agency ("NSA") illegally investigated Americans. Despite the statutory provision in its charter prohibiting the CIA from engaging in law enforcement or internal security functions (50 U.S.C. 403-3(d)(1)), the CIA spied on as many as seven thousand Americans in Operation CHAOS. This operation in the 1960's and early 1970's involved spying on people who opposed the war in Vietnam, or who were student activists or were so-called black nationalists. Operation CHAOS involved an extensive program of information sharing from the FBI and other agencies to the CIA. The CIA received all of the FBI's reports on the American peace movement, which numbered over 1,000/month by June of 1970, according to a Senate report issued by the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect To Intelligence Activities ("Church Committee Report"). The Church Committee Report revealed how simple passive information sharing from other agencies to the CIA became authorized spying and data collection on lawful American political activity protected by the First Amendment. Once CIA officials expressed interest in particular types of information on American individuals and groups, other federal and local agencies were persuaded to covertly spy on citizens at the CIA's behest. The Church Committee reported:
The mechanics of the CHAOS operation, both in performing the mission undertaken by the CIA and in servicing the FBI's needs, involved the establishment of files and retention of information on thousands of Americans.

To the extent that [the] information related to domestic activity, its maintenance by the CIA, although perhaps not itself the performance of an internal security function, is a step toward the dangers of a domestic secret police against which the prohibition of the charter sought to guard.

After these abuses were exposed, the CIA's domestic surveillance activities and collection of information about Americas were greatly curtailed. For example, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act made it clear that the Department of Justice would have the leading role in gathering foreign intelligence in the United States. The USA PATRIOT Act would tear down these safeguards and once again permit the CIA to create dossiers on constitutionally protected activities of Americans and eliminate judicial review of such practices.

Posted by Norwood at 07:17 AM | Comments (0)

Don't trust Buddy on this one

I know it’s his job to reassure voters that all is well with the new technology, but Buddy Johnson could at least feign some concern for making sure your vote counts this November:

"There's never been a perfect election," Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson said. "And there never will be."

Buddy seems to be taking to whole issue of electronic voting machines entirely too lightly, despite recent under votes in Palm Beach County, horror stories in California and Georgia, no verifiable paper trail, and numerous other problems, including this rather unsettling information:

Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc., told Republicans in an Aug. 14 fund-raising letter that he is ``committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.''

From the Tribune, an overview from AP:

It's true some changes have been made: Roughly 50 million registered voters, or slightly more than a quarter nationwide, will be able to cast ballots on the latest touchscreen equipment this year.
That means the glass is half- full, at best, especially with the biggest reforms so far now coming in for criticism. In particular, those ATM-style electronic voting machines - once trumpeted as the solution to voting problems - are under fire from some computer scientists and lawmakers. That, in turn, is slowing further reforms and weakening confidence in the system even more.
......

After the 2000 crisis, promises of electoral reform didn't translate into quick action. It took nearly two years for Congress to pass the law giving states money and direction to buy new machines, and improve voter registration and training.

The problem was that policy-makers were pulled in different directions - minority and disabled voters sought federal standards to ensure all had equal access to the polls, and state election officials argued local control would best serve widely different communities.

Experts produced nearly a dozen studies, including recommendations from a Gerald Ford-Jimmy Carter commission (some of its top ideas, such as making Election Day a holiday and giving all felons the right to vote after serving their sentence, were promptly ignored).

Money for the states to implement reform took even longer: Of $3.8 billion promised, states have only received $650 million.
......

Computer scientists' worries run much deeper.

The high-tech voting machines, they say, can miscount election results through a software bug or a crashing computer; what's even more troubling, they can be manipulated if someone hacks the computer's software. The biggest problem is that, without a paper ballot, there is nothing tangible to recount.

Because the voting machine industry keeps its computer code secret, claiming competitive business concerns, no one can be truly confident that the machines are as secure as they promise, critics say.

``If something can be stolen, eventually it will be,'' said Barbara Simons, a retired IBM computer scientist. ``Our democracy is much too valuable to trust them to this machine. ... If the election is close - or the opinion polls are close - that means people aren't going to trust the outcome. And there's no way to convince them that they are right.''

The solution, in this view, are ``voter verifiable paper trails'' - paper ballots the computer prints after votes are cast, that voters can see to ensure their choice was accurately recorded, and that will be locked away for any recount.

A number of studies of the electronic machines have confirmed the doubts, and studies in Maryland and Ohio found flaws, but said they could be corrected.

If you want a paper trail for your vote, request and use an absentee ballot (link is for Hillsborough County voters). In Florida, it is legal and common to request an absentee ballot even if you plan to be near your polling place on election day.

More information: BlackBoxVoting.org

Posted by Norwood at 06:50 AM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2004

Guantanamo Chaplain charges quietly dropped

Yahoo! News

The Army's allegations last year were grave: A military chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was linked to a possible espionage ring and eventually charged with mishandling classified information. Six months later, all charges against Capt. James Yee have been dropped.
"Chaplain Yee has won," his attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Washington, said in a statement Friday. "The Army's dismissal of the classified information charges against him represents a long overdue vindication."

Yee now faces only minor punishment and should be back at work soon. If convicted of all the original charges, he could have faced dismissal from the Army and a maximum of 14 years in prison.
......

Charges against Yee had included mishandling classified material, failing to obey an order, making a false official statement, adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly downloading pornography on his government laptop.

The U.S. Southern Command said in a release from its Miami headquarters that Yee will face nonjudicial punishment for two side issues, allegations of adultery and pornography, at a hearing Monday at Fort Meade, Md. Only minor punishment, such as duty restriction or a temporary pay cut, is expected.

Posted by Norwood at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2004

Clinton officials to testify before 911 panel

Those of us who pay attention probably wont be surprised by a lot of the testimony this week, but it should be a good show anyway.

Senior Clinton administration officials called to testify next week before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks say they are prepared to detail how they repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that Al Qaeda posed the worst security threat facing the nation — and how the new administration was slow to act.
They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence briefings in December 2000 and January 2001 for Condoleezza Rice, who became Mr. Bush's national security adviser; Stephen Hadley, now Ms. Rice's deputy; and Philip D. Zelikow, a member of the Bush transition team, among others.

One official scheduled to testify, Richard A. Clarke, who was President Bill Clinton's counterterrorism coordinator, said in an interview that the warning about the Qaeda threat could not have been made more bluntly to the incoming Bush officials in intelligence briefings that he led.

At the time of the briefings, there was extensive evidence tying Al Qaeda to the bombing in Yemen two months earlier of an American warship, the Cole, in which 17 sailors were killed.

"It was very explicit," Mr. Clarke said of the warning given to the Bush administration officials. "Rice was briefed, and Hadley was briefed, and Zelikow sat in." Mr. Clarke served as Mr. Bush's counterterrorism chief in the early months of the administration, but after Sept. 11 was given a more limited portfolio as the president's cyberterrorism adviser.

The sworn testimony from the high-ranking Clinton administration officials — including Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and Samuel R. Berger, Mr. Clinton's national security adviser — is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

They are expected to testify along with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who will answer for the Bush administration, as well as George J. Tenet, director of central intelligence in both administrations.

While Clinton officials have offered similar accounts in the past, a new public review of how they warned Mr. Bush's aides about the need to deal quickly with the Qaeda threat could prove awkward to the White House, especially in the midst of a presidential campaign. But given the witnesses' prominence in the Clinton administration, supporters of Mr. Bush may see political motives in the testimony of some of them.

The testimony could also prove uncomfortable for the commission, since Mr. Zelikow is now the executive director of the bipartisan panel. And the Clinton administration officials can expect to come under tough questioning about their own performance in office and why they did not do more to respond to the terrorist threat in the late 1990's.

The White House does not dispute that intelligence briefings about the Qaeda threat occurred during the transition, and the commission has received extensive notes and other documentation from the White House and Clinton administration officials about what was discussed.

What is at issue, Clinton administration officials say, is whether their Bush administration counterparts acted on the warnings, and how quickly. The Clinton administration witnesses say they will offer details of the policy recommendations they made to the incoming Bush aides, but they would not discuss those details before the hearing.

"Until 9/11, counterterrorism was a very secondary issue at the Bush White House," said a senior Clinton official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Remember those first months? The White House was focused on tax cuts, not terrorism. We saw the budgets for counterterrorism programs being cut."

Listen to the Pacifica radio coverage of these hearings live at work on WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa, or on your computer here

Pacifica Radio will broadcast live from Capitol Hill the hearings of the September 11 Commission into Terrorist Attacks on the United States Tuesday and Wednesday March 23/24. The witness list, just announced, includes Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Madeline Albright, and many other present and former government officials. Pacifica's National Affairs Correspondent, Larry Bensky, will anchor the hearings from Capitol Hill. He is available for interviews this week and next Monday, before the hearings begin, and, of course, afterwards.

And on Sunday, 60 Minutes is running a piece on Richard Clark and his new book which details the Bush administration obsession with Iraq and how they tried to use 911 as an excuse to invade immediately. This clip is via Josh Marshall:

Former White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke tells Lesley Stahl that on September 11, 2001 and the day after - when it was clear Al Qaeda had carried out the terrorist attacks - the Bush administration was considering bombing Iraq in retaliation. Clarke's exclusive interview will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday March 21 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Clarke was surprised that the attention of administration officials was turning toward Iraq when he expected the focus to be on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. "They were talking about Iraq on 9/11. They were talking about it on 9/12," says Clarke.

The top counter-terrorism advisor, Clarke was briefing the highest government officials, including President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in the aftermath of 9/11. "Rumsfeld was saying we needed to bomb Iraq....We all said, 'but no, no. Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan," recounts Clarke, "and Rumsfeld said, 'There aren't any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq.' I said, 'Well, there are lots of good targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with [the 9/11 attacks],'" he tells Stahl.

Clarke goes on to explain what he believes was the reason for the focus on Iraq. "I think they wanted to believe that there was a connection [between Iraq and Al Qaeda] but the CIA was sitting there, the FBI was sitting there, I was sitting there, saying, 'We've looked at this issue for years. For years we've looked and there's just no connection,'" says Clarke.

Clarke, who advised four presidents, reveals more about the current administration's reaction to terrorism in his new book, "Against All Enemies."

Bilmon comments

Posted by Norwood at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

House demands a quality education for some

SP TImes:

Children of active military personnel and veterans would qualify for vouchers to attend private schools under a bill that passed the House Appropriations Committee 25-10 Friday.
The bill, which was sent to the full House, would give active and retired military parents vouchers for as much as $3,600 to be used at private schools. The "K-12 GI Bill" also would pay as much as $500 for transportation.

Rep. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, is sponsoring the bill (HB 549), which is similar to one that passed the House last year but died in the Senate. Baker, a first sergeant in the Florida Army National Guard, returned from Iraq in February.

"We owe these people something; they put their lives on the line, and this is something we can do to help them," said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala.

Uh, maybe we could do something to help the whole state and strive to improve a public education system that is second to all? Just a thought.

...students at nearly nine out of 10 (Florida) schools last year failed to meet reading, writing and math standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which measures how subgroups (including blacks and poor children) fare in each school.
Meanwhile, the latest national rankings show that Florida's public high school graduation rate in 2002 was 49th in the nation, besting only South Carolina. That's down from 47th in 1999 and 48th in 2001. The state ranks 46th in the nation in its average SAT score, 26th in average teacher salary and 40th in expenditure per pupil (50th in per capita spending on education).

That last point should not have been parenthetical: Florida ranks dead last in per capita student spending.

UPDATE: Fiore on (Florida?) schools.

Posted by Norwood at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2004

Byrd bullies Bucher

TBO.com

A spokesman for House Speaker Johnnie Byrd said the speaker has asked a committee to look into recent comments by Rep. Susan Bucher, who suggested that campaign contributions fueled a health care bill's move through a House committee.
Byrd spokesman Tom Denham said there had been complaints about Bucher's comments, and said Byrd asked House Rules Committee co-chairmen Sandy Murman, R-Tampa and Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, to recommend what action, if any, should be taken against Bucher, D-Lantana.

Bucher's comments came this past week as Republican leaders limited debate on a bill to create a new health care profession, anesthesiologist assistants. The measure was approved.

"It is just amazing what contributions have purchased here today," Bucher said.

Bucher said Friday that Byrd's request that the Rules Committee consider whether she should be punished was "a threat to democracy.

"I think the system is broken when a state legislator cannot come here and ask questions about issues in the process of representing their constituents," Bucher said. "I believe that this is an attempt to intimidate the members and I think that this is a form of prior restraint."

The real outrage, of course, is the dollar-driven corporate and fat cat friendly system of “democracy” that we live under. Bucher should be praised for questioning the status quo, but instead she’ll probably be censured. This is what happens when greedy, unprincipled bullies gain a safe position of power - they attack the weak. Actually, taking on a fellow Rep., even if she is just a member of the minority party, and has absolutely no power compared to Johnny Byrd’s Speaker position, is a step up for Johnny. As one of the leaders of the State GOP, he prefers to gang up with his colleagues and hurt children.

Two years after voters demanded tax-paid pre-kindergarten, conservatives in the Florida House voted Wednesday to create a program with scant accreditation standards, few educational requirements for teachers and only three hours of daily instruction.
The bill, rushed through the education committee, would also allow parents to home-school their children with state-paid educational books and websites.

Before the bill passed on a party-line vote, Democrats, pre-K advocates and a representative of Gov. Jeb Bush spoke against it. They said the bill needed to resemble Bush's proposal, which calls for an extra hour of instruction and details standards to ensure that 4-year-olds receive an education rather than taxpayer-paid baby sitting.
......

House conservatives are reluctant to regulate the voucher program and the pending preschool initiative and describe Bush's proposal as not conservative enough.

''It's too demanding. It's too much bureaucracy,'' said committee chairwoman Rep. Bev Kilmer, a Quincy Republican. ``The bottom line for me is making sure every dollar we spend touches a child positively. And I don't want to touch bureaucracy.''

Kilmer and Miami Republican Reps. Gus Barreiro and Ralph Arza don't want the state Department of Education to oversee the program, in part because many religious lobbying groups have an abiding mistrust of the agency and its secular regulations.

Oh, those horrible regulations and rules! Why, it’s almost impossible to obtain a faith-based education on the government’s dime these days. The shame!

Posted by Norwood at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2004

Despite deprecatory draft, Dent’s in denial

HARTline Director Sharon Dent was ridden hard by some County Commissioners yesterday. Aparently, they’re starting to lose patience with Ms. Dent:

Hillsborough commissioners formally declared their lack of confidence in the head of the county's transit agency, in response to a critical report from their performance auditor.
While commissioners have no direct supervisory responsibility over the agency, their 5-2 no-confidence vote came with threats to yank county funding to the agency, and even replace some of their appointees to the board of Hillsborough Area Regional Transit.

"Unless that board takes immediate action and makes some changes," said commission Chairman Tom Scott, a past advocate for HARTline, "they can't expect support financially from me in the future."

The no-confidence vote will be sent in a formal notice to the HARTline board, some of whom were in the commission's chambers Wednesday for what amounted to a lengthy tongue-lashing. The two commissioners who voted against it were Jan Platt, who is a board member of HARTline, and Kathy Castor.

Platt argued that commissioners were jumping the gun in taking any action before the performance auditor has issued her final report, and before Clerk of Circuit Court Richard Ake undertakes a broader audit of the agency.

But other commissioners accused HARTline Executive Director Sharon Dent, the subject of the no-confidence vote, of denying allegations they felt are now proven true, and lying to them about whether money for buses went to pay Channelside streetcar expenses.

Hmmm... subsidizing a ride for wealthy tourists with funds meant to pay for service for people who rely on the bus to get to work and school and the store. Sounds like business as usual to me.

The Tribune gives more details:

Sharon Dent sat quietly in the audience as commissioners voted 5-2 to show their lack of support for her leadership of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority.
Commissioners have no direct power over Dent. HARTline is independent, and she said she has no plans to resign.

But after weathering more than a decade of ups and downs in a job that pays her about $125,000 a year, Dent said after the meeting that she takes the current situation seriously.

She announced she had asked the FBI to look into allegations that her administration hid or destroyed documents to keep them away from the county auditor, whose recent review of the agency has commissioners railing.
......

Commissioners complained that Dent has lied about how her agency spends its money, including during a meeting last fall in which she publicly stated no money meant for bus service was being used on Tampa's streetcar.

Because the county provides money to the bus agency for weekend and neighborhood service, commissioners asked County Auditor Kathleen Mathews to investigate HARTline spending.

Mathews reported Monday that she had found evidence contradicting Dent. Her review also revealed that HARTline broke its own purchasing procedures, paid for unfinished consulting work and held onto construction invoices for hundreds of days.

The report was released as a draft, without a formal response from HARTline, which upset some HARTline board members. Dent said her agency found fault with the auditor's work and will complete a response in the coming days.
......

Commissioners criticized a HARTline board member who called the county review a ``hatchet job'' and a streetcar board member who labeled the work a ``witch hunt.''

Then they took aim at Dent.
......

Storms, who also serves on the HARTline board, said Dent's call to the FBI was too little too late.

A former employee has said he brought spending irregularities to HARTline officials' attention a year ago, and Storms asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate two months ago.

Dent, Storms said, has been ``driving around with a body in her back seat for a year.''

Hmmm... I guess Sharon doesn’t ride the bus.

Posted by Norwood at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2004

Got lies?

Get ‘em here in a searchable database: over 230 documented misstatements by top Bush administration officials on the supposed threat posed by Iraq.

Posted by Norwood at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)

Is Sharon Dent done?

Finally, more people are talking about firing Sharon Dent, the dysfunctional head of HARTline. HARTline seems to have a mission of providing subsidized bus service to tourists and other impulse riders while overcharging regular customers for shoddy and unreliable service.

Hillsborough County's transit agency could get an ultimatum from county commissioners today: Get rid of Executive Director Sharon Dent or forget about $1.3 million the county has promised for enhanced bus service.
No commissioner would commit on Tuesday to suggesting such a step, but several said they would support it if proposed, including Chairman Tom Scott.

``The credibility of HARTline is at an all-time low,'' Scott said of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority.

``If the [HARTline] board wants to move forward and be able to help the transit system,'' he said, ``then they need to take some kind of punitive action to address these concerns with the executive director.

``My position would be to fire Sharon Dent.''

Commissioner Pat Frank said she hadn't heard about a Dent-for-dollars deal.

``But it's not a bad idea,'' she said. ``I've been saying it for two years. I think she's part of the problem.''

A spokesman said Dent, HARTline's boss since 1990, did not want to comment.

The commissioners' comments came a day after County Auditor Kathleen Mathews reported HARTline violated its own spending practices, paid for unfinished consulting work and, contrary to public statements by Dent, used money on the Tampa streetcar system it operates that was meant for bus service.

Posted by Norwood at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)

Key West backs gay marriage

More Florida events here.

''Every movement has a start, and a lot of times it's controversial,'' Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley said moments before the measures went to a vote. ``We're joining in to assure the civil rights of all Americans. We need to be a spearhead of this movement. This is just simply the right thing to do.''
Weekley was so confident that the measures would go through that he scheduled a break into the commission's agenda after the vote, where the resolutions were read on the Old City Hall's steps to a waiting crowd.

That the measures were entirely symbolic -- same-sex marriages still cannot be performed in Key West or Monroe County -- seemed to matter little to the 200-odd people gathered before Weekley, their emotions running high.

Pressed against her girlfriend of 10 years, Susan Kent, a real estate appraiser, said Key West's support of same-sex marriages sent a distinct message to other communities: ''This island is unique, it's not tolerance, it's acceptance of diversity,'' she said. ``You could do this too.''

Posted by Norwood at 11:49 AM | Comments (1)

Iraq soldier lays down arms

Let’s hope Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia is the first of many:

”I'm prepared to go to prison because I'll have a clear conscience,'' Mejia told reporters as he entered the National Guard Armory in North Miami where his unit -- Charlie Company of the First Battalion of the 124th Infantry Regiment -- is based.
FOLLOWING `HEART'

``I know that I'm following my conscience and . . . my heart.''

Mejia served three years of active Army duty and was a National Guard infantryman for five years. He had been in Iraq for six months, serving in the Sunni Triangle, when he became increasingly disillusioned with the war, which he said was about oil, not terror.

He called the war immoral and recounted ambushes in which soldiers were wounded, enemies escaped and civilians were killed in the crossfire.

Posted by Norwood at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

Anti-abortion legislation progresses

The Tribune has a misleading article up today with a headline screaming about $300 per hour consultants. House Speaker Johnny Byrd brought in an expert to write an anti-abortion bill, and the guy has billed the Leg about $50,000 so far.

The Florida House is paying a Washington- based conservative legal scholar $300 an hour to counsel lawmakers on pending legislation that appears to be going nowhere this session.
Jonathan Turley, a nationally recognized law professor at George Washington University, has earned nearly $50,000 helping lawmakers draft a sweeping parental rights amendment sought by House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City. That proposal was abandoned after Senate leaders refused to consider such a broad erosion of privacy rights for minors.

$300 per hour may or may not be excessive, but the Tribune seems to be going to great lengths to manufacture a controversy where there is none, as the article only mentions one person who is openly critical of the arrangement.

The real story here, which the archly conservative Tribune may well be happy to obscure, is the fact that an ani-abortion “Parental Notification” amendment almost certainly will be on our ballots this November, as this SP Times headline points out:“State abortion measure nears ballot”:

State lawmakers could require parents to be notified before minors get an abortion, under a proposal approved Tuesday by the Florida House.
The measure, approved 93-25, would ask voters in November to amend the Florida Constitution and give the Legislature the authority to require parental notification.

It also would reverse a Florida Supreme Court ruling last fall that allowed minors to get an abortion without a parent's knowledge.

The bipartisan vote was far more than the three-fifths majority required to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

A similar proposal passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 5-3 vote and was amended to more closely match the House measure. It is poised to go to the Senate floor.

If the Senate approves, the proposal would appear on the Nov. 2 ballot.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd sponsored the measure (HJR 1) and made it one of his top priorities.

Only Democrats voted against it, arguing that it undermines the privacy rights of minors.

The proposal marks the Legislature's third attempt to deal with minors getting abortions. The state Supreme Court struck down a 1989 law that required a minor to get a parent's consent to an abortion. Last year, the court ruled that a 1999 law requiring parental notification also violated minors' privacy rights guaranteed by the state Constitution.

"Last summer when the Supreme Court struck down parental notification, it actually almost drove a stake through my heart," said Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa. "Parents have a right to know if their minor child is going to have an abortion."

(ed. note: This might be as close as we ever get to a Republican actually admitting to being a blood sucking vampire.)

The Senate version differs from the House version by allowing judges to make exceptions to the parental notification requirement, such as when incest or abuse is involved.

The House did not include that provision because it already is covered in federal law, Byrd said.
......

While 35 other states have parental notification laws, nine have had legal challenges preventing laws from being enforced, said Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach.

Other opponents said the proposal is little more than an anti-abortion measure.

"This bill is about abortion and placing obstacles on young women so that they cannot or will not have an abortion," said, Rep. Nan Rich, D-Weston.

Here’s what’s happening: Johnny Byrd had his consultant work up a bill that would have restricted much more than abortion. His bill was so restrictive that it never would have passed the Senate. So Johnny had his consultant write up a bill that would only deal with abortion. This re-written bill is now known as the Parental Notice bill. The original was known as the Parental Rights bill. It looks like the Notice bill, which passed in the House yesterday, will pass in the Senate and therefore be on the ballot this November in the form of a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution.

The Tribune’s reference to “legislation that appears to be going nowhere” refers to the Parental Rights bill, but since the whole point of their story seems to be that Johnny’s consultant is a waste of money, they may have intentionally clouded the fact that the same consultant wrote a similar bill that is going to pass.

Posted by Norwood at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2004

Get Up with MorningWood

Get Up with MorningWood, on Community Radio WMNF 88.5 fm, Tampa, and streaming at wmnf.org.
4 to 6 am every Tuesday!

Studio line: 813-239-9663. Call or email the studio anytime!

Today on MorningWood

Thanks to Amy for doing a great show last week as part of the International Women’s Day special programming at WMNF.

Saturday, March 20 marks the one year anniversary of George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Today’s show will feature songs of war and protest.

Observations of the anniversary are being held in many locations in the Tampa area. A partial listing follows. If you know of any events that I’ve left out, email me and let me know.

Bradenton, FL USA
Peace Day and Memorial Ceremony (March 20 Mobilization)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 12:00
The event will include music and keynote speaker. It will also a feature a memorial ceremony for the 530 U.S. soldiers that have died and the many more sick and wounded. It will culminate in a stunning visual tribute on the bank of the Manatee River.

Clearwater, FL USA
Clearwater Peace Rally (March 20 Mobilization - Recurring)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 12:00 pm
Peace Rally at noon in solidarity with the March 20th events.

Gainesville, FL USA
Out Now Bring the troops home, end the occupations (March 20 Mobilization)
Saturday, March 20th 2004
A teach-in on the dual occupations followed by a march to public space for a display of the cost in lives to maintain these occupations.

Lakeland/Polk County, FL USA
Lakeland Rally (March 20 Mobilization)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 04:00 pm
This year we will display the names and pictures of the 550 U.S. Service personel who have died in Iraq the past year and a list of
200 names representing the 10,000 Iraqis who have also died.

Naples, FL USA
The World Still Says No to War (March 20 Mobilization)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 04:00 pm
March 20, 2004—the one year anniversary of the U.S. bombing and invasion of Iraq—will be a Global Day of Action against War and Occupation. JOIN US in Naples to demonstrate our solidarity with the International Community. We say YES to peace and NO to war and occupation! Bring signs and banners.

Arlington South (March 20 Mobilization)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 09:00 am
Mourning for the 554 soldiers and their families.

Arlington South Anti-War Protest (March 20 Mobilization - Recurring)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 08:00 am
Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi Naples, Social Action Committee and other volunteers will erect 549 white two-foot crosses with the names and ages of American soldiers who have been killed in Iraq. The aim is threefold: to recognize and mourn the 549+ American soldiers who have lost their lives; to make visible the human cost of this illegal war; to show support for our troops by demanding that the administration BRING THEM HOME NOW-ALIVE.

Orlando, FL USA
Operation Iraqi Disaster (March 20 Mobilization - Recurring)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 12:00 pm
1st anniversary protest of bush's immoral and senseless war - end occupation of iraq

Sarasota, FL USA
Anti-War Protest (March 20 Mobilization)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 12:00 pm
This is an all-day event to protest the Occupation of Iraq. There will be several speakers and materials for sign-making. Contact us if you are interested in speaking or if you want more information. All are Welcome!

St. Petersburg, FL USA
TAKE TIME OUT FOR PEACE (March 20 Mobilization)
Saturday, March 20th 2004 12:00
Tampa Bay STILL says NO to war! Participate in a global day of protest as we march, rally and picnic at Crescent Lake in St. Petersburg.

This last one seems to be getting the most attention, and should provide a good turnout. Here’s more inofrmation on teh St. Pete Crescent Lake event:

One year later...it's time to celebrate peace. Join us in a global day of protest as we say NO to Mr. Bush's war, NO to occupation and NO to military dominance. Tampa Bay residents will join hundreds of thousands of people across the United States, and in over 13 countries, to mark the first anniversary of the US bombing and invasion of Iraq.
Our celebration for peace will be held:

Saturday, March 20th
Crescent Lake Park
22nd Avenue and 7th Street North in St Petersburg
2:00pm - 4:00pm
(map)

Street parking (unlimited time, free) is available next to the park on Crescent Lake Drive (also called 7th Street) or on 5th Street (map).

Bring a picnic lunch as we rally and then march for peace. Live entertainment will be provided by Bob Howes and children in attendance will be asked to paint their symbols of peace on flags which will be carried in the Fourth Street march. The march will encourage us to break our silence and speak out for peace.

If you are interested in representing your group with a table, please contact us.

This event is globally sponsored by United for Peace & Justice, and International A.N.S.W.E.R and is brought to you locally by the March 20th Committee, a coalition of the following organizations: Veterans for Peace, Green Party of Pinellas County, Pax Christi Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg Friends (Quakers), Sojourner Truth Project, St. Pete for Peace, and Women in Black - Gulfcoast.

For more information, please contact:
Linda at lmhubner@hotmail.com, (727) 867-1212
Winnie at Wfoster26@hotmail.com, (727) 867-8994

We hope to see you and your family there as we celebrate peace around the globe.

Playlists

Communications Workers of America

Live playlist (note: due to a technical glitch, today’s “live” playlist at wmnf.org will be listed under the March 8 link)

Shameless Self-promotion:

See the sidebar for an update. The short version: I did not get teh Saturday slot I applied for, but now there is an opening for a Monday afternoon show: SOnic Detour from 4 to 6 PM. Call or Email WMNF Program Director Randy Wynne and ask him to pick Norwood for this slot! (Phone number is 813-238-8001, ex 16) I know: I’ll have to come up with another catchy name, since MorningWood seems somehow inappropriate in the afternoon, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice.

WMNF Community Radio

Posted by Norwood at 12:29 AM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2004

Council calls for censorship

Last November, St. Pete residents got all in a tither over the fact that the city itself had not only allowed but encouraged thousands of people to come to Vinoy park for a concert, one of 15 held at the park last year. Many nearby residents said that the music was too loud and overly offensive.

Funny thing, though: when the annual Blues Festival is held at Vinoy over three days, it attracts more people each day than that controversial one day event. Bigger crowds. More congestion. Loud music. A whole weekend of activities, but no publicized complaints.

Now John Claude Bodziak, the same promoter who brought in rapper 50 Cent in November, is asking to use the park for the Vans Warped Tour, a collection of punk and alternative bands presented carnival-like over the course of a day, and the St. Pete City Council is seriously considering denying his request based on the types of acts which are involved in the tour.

Promoter John Claude Bodziak, 31, went before the council March 4 to ask permission to bring the tour to St. Petersburg. After arguing for more than an hour, council members told Bodziak they needed more information before his request would be considered. They are expected to vote Thursday.3 (sic) The objections varied. Some members felt Bodziak hadn't followed the proper procedures for approval. Council member Rene Flowers said it was time to limit the number of concerts held at Vinoy. And council member John Bryan wanted to enforce stricter standards regarding the type of act allowed in the park.
"We want to make sure the concerts we hold in our downtown park system are somewhat wholesome and family-oriented," Bryan said.

Just wondering: would that include wholesome Jimmy Buffet singing about smuggling drugs and getting drunk and screwing, or perhaps those wholesome blues musicians with their songs about drugs and drinking and fucking, but not 5o cent with his songs about exactly the same subjects? Could that be because the Blues Fest draws a a mostly middle aged mostly white crowd - very non-threatening, at least for the mostly white and middle aged residents of the area around Vinoy park?

The scrutiny comes after an October appearance by the Urban Car Show tour, featuring rapper 50 Cent. The event, also promoted by Bodziak, was cosponsored by the city of St. Petersburg and drew more than 5,300 people to the park.
City Council members were flooded with calls and e-mails from residents offended by the volume of the music and vulgar lyrics. At its next meeting, the council asked its legal department to explore ways to prevent similar scenarios.

Bodziak has apologized for the Urban Car Show, saying he didn't know the performers would be using so much profanity. But he said the Warped Tour, an all-day festival that celebrates the skater-punk lifestyle, is different.

Note to Bodziak: show the City Council pictures from last year’s tour. Make sure they notice that it’s mostly white kids. Avoid any close-ups of tattoos and piercings, as these can seem threatening to closed minds.

The event was in St. Petersburg last year and attracted about 7,500 people to Vinoy Park. Bodziak said the festival generated virtually no complaints.
"I think a lot of cities would consider it a real feather in their cap to get this tour," Bodziak said.

But not everyone was pleased with last year's turnout.

Suzanne Fisher, past president of the Beach Drive Business Association and manager of Coplon's, said cars were so backed up that day patrons couldn't reach her store. She also said the concertgoers were loud and unruly.

"I had customers call and say, "I can't get there, the traffic is too bad. And I'm seeing the kind of people I'm seeing and I'm not going down there,' " Fisher said.

"Is this really the type of person we're trying to attract?" she added.

Uh, is this woman seriously trying to claim that traffic is not bad when other events are held at the park? Or is her real problem with whatever type of person she thinks she is seeing driving by her store?

......
Bryan thinks the city is obligated to ensure concerts in Vinoy Park are suitable for all ages. He suggested the Bayfront Center parking lot as a possible alternative for the Warped Tour and similar acts. The venue is close to the water but away from most downtown residences, Bryan noted.

Council member Jay Lasita strongly objected to Bryan's proposal and wondered who would judge whether an act is family-friendly.

"Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder," Lasita said. "What may be mainstream to you or me may not be mainstream to somebody else. ... Vinoy Park belongs to everybody. The other parks do, too."

Well, at least there’s one voice of reason on the council.

BlogWood post on the 50 Cent controversy in November.

Tampa Bay Blues Fest

Van’s Warped Tour

Posted by Norwood at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2004

Threats used to hide true cost of Pharmaceutical Corporations Welfare bill

Is anyone really surprised by this thuggish behavior? It’s business as usual for this crowd...

The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan.
When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that.

Withholding the higher cost projections was important because the White House was facing a revolt from 13 conservative House Republicans who'd vowed to vote against the Medicare drug bill if it cost more than $400 billion.

Posted by Norwood at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)

Democrats fold on Women's rights

Republicans just can’t seem to keep their filthy laws off of women’s bodies. Sometimes, they’re even able to talk the Dems into joining in for some good old-fashioned back alley teamwork. (“Just jiggle that hanger a little more... it’ll come loose...)

A proposed constitutional amendment concerning abortion won the support of a majority of the Democrats on a conservative House committee Thursday, signaling that the measure will likely pass out of the Legislature by wide margins and end up on the November ballot.
Though suspicious of the presidential election-year timing of the issue, centrist Democrats in the more moderate Senate also approve of the measure requiring parents to be notified if their underage daughters get abortions. They cite opinion surveys that show widespread support for putting parental notification in the state Constitution. The state Supreme Court struck down a parental-notification law as unconstitutional last summer.

Posted by Norwood at 06:43 AM | Comments (0)

Mayor does the right thing

But what would be really cool is if she started marrying same sex couples. Anyway,
this is a start:

Mayor Pam Iorio signed an executive order Thursday extending health benefits to unmarried domestic partners of city employees, including same-sex couples.
With the order, Tampa joins a handful of other local governments in Florida offering the benefit to employees with domestic partners.

Posted by Norwood at 06:18 AM | Comments (3)

Left behind: 21,000 (and not counting)

Don’t be fooled by Jeb!’s high profile signing of the KidCare bill. The bill allows 90.000 kids into the insurance program (which could and should have been done before now) but makes it harder for others to join, it leaves 21,000 kids behind by excluding them right off the bat, and in a very Orwellian twist, the bill eliminates the existence of a waiting list so that we will never again know how many kids are being left out of this program. No list, no problem!

A $25 million expansion of the popular KidCare program was signed into law Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush, a move that covers 90,000 needy children now on a waiting list for the subsidized health care program but that critics say will deprive thousands of others. ......
The measure tightens eligibility requirements and abolishes wait lists, effectively preventing the state from tracking how many needy children aren't getting insurance.
......

Republicans tout the new law because it enrolls the more than 90,000 children on the wait list through Jan. 30.

Democrats say the legislation does nothing to help the more than 21,000 additional children who have tried to sign up since that date.

That includes about 560 children in Hillsborough County, 270 in Pinellas County and 150 in Pasco County.

``We're not finished fighting this,'' said social services advocate Karen Woodall.

``We're going to have to work throughout the session to fix some of the policy changes.''

The law stipulates that families must prove they meet income restrictions and have no employer-provided health care benefits.

Parents who have access to employer-provided coverage may enroll their children in KidCare if the cost of the private policy exceeds 5 percent of their income.

Democrats, however, argue the new restrictions are too strict.

``Every child in Florida should have health insurance,'' said House Minority Leader Doug Wiles, D-St. Augustine.

``This program isn't a handout. It's an opportunity to buy critical health protections for their children.''

Bush said the ``critics defy logic,'' and that he is astounded by those who say the legislation limits access to insurance.

``It has never been intended to serve as cheaper insurance,'' Bush said.

``We will have to protect the integrity of its intent.''

Jeb! is doing a marvelous job of protecting the integrity of the intent of denying healthcare to those who need it most.

Posted by Norwood at 06:11 AM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2004

Saudis flew. Who knew?

I’ve always wondered what happened to this story. I’ve seen one or two references to the Saudi flight from Tampa since the original Tribune article, but nothing noteworthy, until now: (go ahead and get the free day pass to read the whole thing)

Meanwhile, a Saudi prince sent a directive to the Tampa Police Department in Florida that young Saudis who were close to the royal family and went to school in the area were in potential danger.
Bandar went to work immediately. If any foreign official had the clout to pull strings at the White House in the midst of a grave national security crisis, it was he. A senior member of the Washington diplomatic corps, Bandar had played racquetball with Secretary of State Colin Powell in the late '70s. He had run covert operations for the late CIA director Bill Casey that were so hush-hush they were kept secret even from President Ronald Reagan. He was the man who had stashed away 30 locked attaché cases that held some of the deepest secrets in the intelligence world. And for two decades, Bandar had built an intimate personal relationship with the Bush family that went far beyond a mere political friendship.
......

Before the attacks, Bandar had been invited to come to the White House to meet with President George W. Bush on Sept. 13 to discuss the Middle East peace process. Even though the 55-year-old president and he were, roughly speaking, contemporaries, Bandar had not yet developed the same rapport with the younger Bush that he'd enjoyed for decades with his father. Bandar and the elder Bush had participated in the shared rituals of manhood -- hunting trips, vacations together, and the like. Bandar and the younger Bush were well known to each other, but not nearly as close.

On the 13th, the meeting went ahead as scheduled. But in the wake of the attacks two days earlier, the political landscape of the Middle East had drastically changed. A spokesman for the Saudi embassy later said he did not know whether repatriation was a topic of discussion.

But the job had been started nonetheless. Earlier that same day, a 49-year-old former policeman turned private investigator named Dan Grossi got a call from the Tampa Police Department. Grossi had worked with the Tampa force for 20 years before retiring, and it was not particularly unusual for the police to recommend former officers for special security jobs. But Grossi's new assignment was very much out of the ordinary.

"The police had been giving Saudi students protection since Sept. 11," Grossi recalls. "They asked if I was interested in escorting these students from Tampa to Lexington, Ky., because the police department couldn't do it."

Grossi was told to go to the airport, where a small charter jet would be available to take him and the Saudis on their flight. He was not given a specific time of departure, and he was dubious about the prospects of accomplishing his task. "Quite frankly, I knew that everything was grounded," he says. "I never thought this was going to happen." Even so, Grossi, who'd been asked to bring a colleague, phoned Manuel Perez, a former FBI agent, to put him on alert. Perez was equally unconvinced. "I said, 'Forget about it,'" Perez recalls. "Nobody is flying today."

The two men had good reason to be skeptical. Within minutes of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the Federal Aviation Administration had sent out a special notification called a NOTAM -- a notice to airmen -- to airports all across the country, ordering every airborne plane in the United States to land at the nearest airport as soon as possible, and prohibiting planes on the ground from taking off. Initially, there were no exceptions whatsoever. Later, when the situation stabilized, several airports accepted flights for emergency medical and military operations -- but those were few and far between.

Nevertheless, at 1:30 or 2 P.M. on Sept. 13, Dan Grossi received his phone call. He was told the Saudis would be delivered to Raytheon Airport Services, a private hangar at Tampa International Airport. When he arrived, Manny Perez was there to meet him.

At the terminal a woman laughed at Grossi for even thinking he would be flying that day. Commercial flights had slowly begun to resume, but at 10:57 A.M., the FAA had issued another NOTAM, a reminder that private aviation was still prohibited. Three private planes violated the ban that day, in Maryland, West Virginia and Texas, and in each case a pair of jet fighters quickly forced the aircraft down. As far as private planes were concerned, America was still grounded.

Then one of the pilots arrived. "Here's your plane," he told Grossi. "Whenever you're ready to go."

What happened next was first reported by Kathy Steele, Brenna Kelly and Elizabeth Lee Brown in the Tampa Tribune in October 2001. Not a single other American paper seemed to think the subject was newsworthy.

Grossi and Perez say they waited until three young Saudi men, all apparently in their early 20s, arrived. Then the pilot took Grossi, Perez and the Saudis to a well-appointed 10-passenger Learjet. They departed for Lexington at about 4:30.

"They got the approval somewhere," said Perez. "It must have come from the highest levels of government."

"Flight restrictions had not been lifted yet," Grossi said. "I was told it would take White House approval. I thought [the flight] was not going to happen."

Grossi said he did not get the names of the Saudi students he was escorting. "It happened so fast," Grossi says. "I just knew they were Saudis. They were well connected. One of them told me his father or his uncle was good friends with George Bush senior."

How did the Saudis go about getting approval? According to the Federal Aviation Administration, they didn't and the Tampa flight never took place. "It's not in our logs," Chris White, a spokesman for the FAA, told the Tampa Tribune. "It didn't occur." The White House also said that the flights to evacuate the Saudis did not take place.

According to Grossi, about one hour and 45 minutes after takeoff they landed at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, a frequent destination for Saudi horse-racing enthusiasts such as Prince Ahmed bin Salman. When they arrived, the Saudis were greeted by an American who took custody of them and helped them with their baggage. On the tarmac was a 747 with Arabic writing on the fuselage, apparently ready to take them back to Saudi Arabia. "My understanding is that there were other Saudis in Kentucky buying racehorses at that time, and they were going to fly back together," said Grossi.

In addition to the Tampa-Lexington flight, at least seven other planes were made available for the operation. According to itineraries, passenger lists and interviews with sources who had firsthand knowledge of the flights, members of the extended bin Laden family, the House of Saud and their associates also assembled in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, Orlando, Washington, D.C, Boston, Newark, N.J., and New York.

Posted by Norwood at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2004

Is Jeb! Cheating on the FCAT?

TBO.com

A top Democratic lawmaker called Wednesday for an independent analysis to see if the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test given this year to third-graders was watered down in an attempt to show statewide improvement.

Senate Minority Leader Ron Klein of Boca Raton said he has gotten calls from about half a dozen teachers and administrators in his district who think this year's FCAT is considerably easier than last year's exam.

The teachers are calling the FCAT "markedly different," Klein said.

"If an independent evaluation shows that this test is remarkably different and easier than last year I'm going to claim that this is a fraud on the people of Florida. ... I hope that's not the case," Klein said. "And I hope the test is just a better version that challenges the kids in the same way it did last year."

Posted by Norwood at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

Unions for Kerry

TBO.com

Labor leaders voted Wednesday to spend $44 million to mobilize union household voters in November against President Bush, a record sum in an election they say is do-or-die for the labor movement.
The AFL-CIO's get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of Democrat John Kerry are concentrated in a few battleground states that labor leaders believe will determine the next occupant of the White House. Florida, Ohio and Missouri top the list.

"People are fed up with this administration's inability to create good jobs and get our country back on track," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. "They are demanding a change and we plan to give it to them."

Support unions.

...... Research has shown labor leaders that continuous communication with those union swing voters can move them 10 to 15 percentage points in polls on attitudes about candidates and issues, said Karen Ackerman, the AFL-CIO's political director.
For example, when Saddam Hussein was captured in November, it boosted Bush's poll ratings. But the AFL-CIO found that swing voters who had received mailings, fliers and phone calls from their unions did not give Bush more favorable marks.

Kerry won the labor federation's endorsement last month, and is counting on labor's organizational strength and money to boost his campaign.

"George Bush is running on the same old Republican tactics of fear - and they're already getting tired," Kerry said in a satellite feed to the union conference Wednesday.

AFL-CIO

Industrial Workers of the World

Posted by Norwood at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)

March 09, 2004

Hangin’ out with Wood in the afternoon

Today on Sonic Detour

I’m hosting the Sonic Detour from 4 to 6 pm today on Community Radio WMNF 88.5 fm, Tampa, and streaming at wmnf.org.

Today, it’s the Sonic Detour Election Day Special. I’ll be playing lots of songs about freedom, America, choice, war, peace, and what have you. Stuff to think about on a day when you may be voting.

The Florida Democratic primary is today, so John Kerry is getting an awful lot of attention. In the interest of farness and balance, I’ll play some clips from President George W. Bush’s current campaign commercials, as well as clips from some of his speeches.

You can get your own copy of the remixed commercial here.

Here is great places to find tons of mp3s.

Here is the “Domestic Enemy” mp3 played right after the 4:30 news.

Playlists

The St. Petersburg Times:

Studio line: 813-239-9663. Call or email the studio anytime!

Shameless Self-promotion:

There is an opening for a programmer on Monday afternoon’s Sonic Detour. Call or Email WMNF Program Director Randy Wynne and ask him to pick Norwood for this slot from 4-6 PM on Mondays! (Phone number is 813-238-8001, ex 16) I know: I’ll have to come up with another catchy name, since MorningWood seems somehow inappropriate in the afternoon, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice.

WMNF Community Radio

Posted by Norwood at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

Senate President hates democracy

Florida Senate President Jim King has made it a priority this year to weaken the power of citizens to participate in the democratic process. Both houses of the Legislature are debating bills that would make it much much harder for a citizens initiative to get on the ballot.

In Florida, citizens have the right to gather signatures and place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot for a vote. A simple majority of votes passes the amendment and places it into the state constitution.

Right now, Jeb! and the Leg. are incensed over the High Speed Rail amendment, passed in 2000, and the Classroom Size Amendment, passed in 2002. The people spoke, and instructed the Governor and Legislature to act to follow these amendments. But Jeb! and the Leg. just hate it when actual people ask them to do something. They are whining about costs (meaning that they want the money for their own pet projects) and threatening to introduce bills to overturn these two popular amendments.

But the absolute worse thing they are considering is the weakening of the rights of ordinary citizens to get any amendment on the ballot and to have a majority of the voters decide its fate. Our arrogant rulers do not like to hear from the people:

People who want to change the state Constitution by petition drive could be limited to issues dealing with the structure of government or individual rights under a recommendation approved Monday by a House panel.
The Select Committee on Constitutional Amendments voted to recommend that sponsors of citizen initiatives be required to identify how their proposal would be funded and to get 60 percent of the vote to win ultimate passage.

Voters' approval of two potentially expensive petition initiatives - mandatory public school class size reduction in 2002 and a high-speed train project in 2000 - have spurred politicans to push to make it more difficult to use petitions to change the Constitution.

Both of those projects reached the ballot after petition drives that collected nearly 500,000 validated signatures.
......

Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, has made the issue his top priority this year. He and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, appointed special committees to hold public hearings around the state and recommend changes.

Don’t be fooled by the “pregnant pigs” argument. 2 years ago, an amendment was passed by the voters that deals with the confinement of pregnant pigs on corporate factory farms. Since then, the amendment has been ridiculed by those who hold it up as an example of why the citizen initiative process should be restricted.

If the real worry is that the initiative process clutters up the state constitution with silly laws, then the Leg. should provide citizens with a way to enact change without amending the constitution. A citizen’s initiative on pregnant pigs could simply mandate a change in law or regulation to fulfill its requirements.

Right now, though, the amendment option is the only one available to the people. If the Leg. is not listening, the citizen initiative is the only way to enact change. Now the Leg. is whining about having to listen to the people. Don’t buy into that specious argument. Demand more rights to petition, not less.

Posted by Norwood at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)

Bush continues election year tightening of Cuba travel restrictions

Our strong, firm, but loving Big Brother Bush says it’s too dangerous for us to cross the street. We might be exposed to ideas or art or culture or something equally scarey and dangerous:

American neurologists and medical ethicists, including one from the University of South Florida, cannot attend a conference in Cuba this week because the U.S. government withdrew permission for the trip.
About 60 people from U.S. universities were scheduled to be in Havana today for a four- day International Symposium on Coma and Death. The conference has been held three times in Cuba's capital, with U.S. citizens attending.

About 10 days ago, the Treasury Department told the New Jersey travel company responsible for the U.S. arrangements that permission for the trip had been canceled. The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control oversees U.S. travel to Cuba.

``We got rebuffed in every way, and 58 people had to cancel their reservations,'' said Bob Guild, program manager for Marzul Charters Inc. of Weehawken, N.J.

Guild said the Treasury Department previously told him that the trip could be made under a general license for professional travel to Cuba.

About 10 days ago, he said, he was told that the conference did not qualify because it was being sponsored by a Cuban organization, the Institute of Neurology in Havana.

Individual participants could have applied for permission, but the Treasury Department told him that would not be granted either, Guild said.

Posted by Norwood at 07:39 AM | Comments (0)

Jeb! vows to protect growers who abuse migrants

At first, this proposal sounds pretty good:

Gov. Jeb Bush and top Republican legislators on Monday vowed to improve the lives of Florida's migrant farmworkers, announcing legislation to toughen penalties against those who abuse the laborers who harvest the state's rich crops.

But something smells fishy, and it’s not just the fertilizer.

A farmworker advocate said that Bush's plan ''has some good things in it'' but is not a cure-all to the industry's ills. ''They are making some improvements on the law,'' said Rob Williams, Director of Florida Legal Services' Migrant Farmworker Justice Project. ``On the other hand, I don't think you can characterize this as the comprehensive reform that would be required.''
While the governor's proposal targets the farm contractors who are hired by growers to provide laborers, Williams believes more should be done to target the growers who ``benefit from the system.''

So, this proposal would punish the subcontractors who hire the actual laborers. The growers will continue to claim no knowledge or responsibility for what is happening in their fields. From the SP Times, we learn that “All three state legislators who joined Bush at his announcement are growers back in their districts.”

Sounds like business as usual to me.

Posted by Norwood at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)

Jobs

Posted by Norwood at 07:12 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2004

Florida for Kerry

A new poll by the SP Times and Miami Herald shows Kerry with a 49 to 43 percent lead:

Increasingly critical of President Bush on his handling of the economy and the war in Iraq, more Florida voters now say they plan to support Democrat John Kerry than to help reelect the president, according to a new poll.
The Herald/St. Petersburg Times survey reveals striking vulnerabilities for Bush among key independent voters in the state that narrowly put him into the White House four years ago.

More Florida voters disapprove of his job performance than approve, another sign of the president's lagging popularity since the 2001 terrorist attacks transformed Bush from a polarizing figure into a popular wartime president.

A majority of voters believe that the United States is ''moving in the wrong direction'' under Bush -- a marked reversal from two years ago, when 7 in 10 voters, including half of Democrats, approved of Bush's job performance.

Posted by Norwood at 02:42 AM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2004

Kerry supports troops

Courtesy of Daily Kos, here’s a preview of Kerry’s Saturday radio address. It actually sounds pretty good:

"We cannot let the strongest armed forces in the world be weakened. America's greatest military strength has always been the courageous, talented men and women whose love of country and devotion to service lead them to attempt and achieve the impossible everyday. We must resolve that America's leaders will never let them down.
"Yet we hear reports that - in dangerous parts of Iraq - our helicopters are flying missions without the best available anti-missile systems.

"At the same time, un-armored Humvees are falling victim to road-side bombs and small-arms fire. The Bush Administration waited through month after month of ambushes and only acted to start manufacturing armored door kits three months ago.

"The Army's 428th Transportation Company, headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri, shipped out to Iraq two weeks ago. They had to ask local businesses to donate the steel to armor their vehicles. When the Bush Administration heard about this, their response wasn't `never again.' It was `good idea' - they emailed instructions to other units letting them know how they could use homemade armor to protect their own Humvees from attacks. I believe our soldiers deserve better.

"Even more shocking, tens of thousands of other troops arrived in Iraq to find that - with danger around every corner - there wasn't enough body armor to protect them. Many of their families on the homefront - mothers and fathers, husbands and wives and children - were forced to raise the money to buy it for them. They went to their neighbors for donations - and dipped into their savings to give their sons and daughters the equipment to save their lives - which the Army should be providing. Last month, a young newlywed in Virginia even gave her husband body armor for Valentine's Day as he prepared to ship out to Iraq.

"Families should be sending pictures and care packages to Iraq - and the Department of Defense should be sending the body armor. Today, I call on President Bush to support a law now in Congress to reimburse each and every family who had to buy the body armor this Administration failed to provide. This month, I will also be introducing a Military Family Bill of Rights to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

"What we face isn't a question of the budget; it's a question of priorities and values. This Administration has given billions to Halliburton and requested 82 million dollars to protect Iraq's 36 miles of coast line. But they call this basic body armor a `non-priority' item.

Posted by Norwood at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2004

Lord smites Ashcroft, cites hateful demagoguery

In an exclusive telephone interview today, God told BlogWood that John Ashcroft was smitten because “vengeance is mine.”

Continuing long slide, Bush falls 286,000 jobs short for Feb.

What makes these numbers even worse is the fact that W promised that 306,000 jobs per month would be created after the last set of tax cuts. He has not met this monthly goal even once.

U.S. employers added a paltry 21,000 workers to their payrolls last month, far fewer than expected, according to a government report on Friday that was likely to weigh on President Bush as he seeks re-election.
In its report, the Labor Department said private-sector employment was unchanged in February, while the government added 21,000 workers.

The report also showed job creation in November and December was weaker than previously thought, adding to the weak tone of the report. The department revised lower its count of jobs gains in December to 97,000 from 112,000 and for November to just 8,000 from 16,000.

February's unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent.

Economists at top Wall Street firms had forecast a February payrolls gain of 125,000 new jobs.

Over the last three months, employment has risen an average of just 42,000 per month, down from the 79,000 average of the prior three months and far short of the 150,000 or so jobs needed each month just to keep pace with growth in the labor force.

Employment in construction tumbled by 24,000, while the factory sector shed 3,000 workers, the 43rd consecutive monthly drop.

The service sector also proved surprisingly weak, creating only 46,000 new positions.

Democrats have hit Bush hard for presiding over the weakest period of jobs creation for any president since Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression.

Posted by Norwood at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

Grand Orwellian Party eliminates list, declares problem solved

I was all set to post something on the heartless and cynical “Kid Care” (“waiting list elimination”) bill that just passed the Florida Senate yesterday, but Herbert beat me to it:

I wrote a column back in January about the tens of thousands of youngsters from low-income families who were eligible for a children's health insurance program in Florida but, instead of being allowed into the program, were diverted by state officials to a long waiting list.
Even children with serious health problems were put on the list. Conni Wells, director of the Florida Institute for Family Involvement, which advises families on health matters, told me at the time, "We've had families tell us they've put off buying groceries so they can afford to take their child to the doctor."

The program is called KidCare. It's Florida's version of the nationally popular and successful Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, which covers families with incomes too low to pay for private health insurance but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid.

The attention given to the Florida waiting list by the news media embarrassed the state Republican Party, which controls the governorship and both houses of the State Legislature.

So here's the good news: The Legislature is expected to approve a measure that would end up providing coverage to about 90,000 of the 100,000 or so youngsters on the waiting list at the end of January.

The rest of the news is not good. Republican leaders in the Florida House and Senate have crafted the new legislation in ways that will radically limit future access to KidCare and prevent the press and the public from getting information about the number of kids who are frozen out.

At least we knew over the past several months that children were being put on a waiting list. Under the new legislation, eligible youngsters who are denied enrollment in KidCare will not be put on a waiting list. There won't be any waiting list.

Robert Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which has been monitoring the developments in Florida, said, "Politically, what that means is that nobody — not us, not you, not anyone — would be able at any point to say that 30,000 or 50,000 or 80,000 or 100,000 kids are on the waiting list because there would no longer be any record of a waiting list."

At the same time, the enrollment process would be sharply curtailed. Under the new legislation, there would be only two 30-day periods each year in which parents would be allowed to try to enroll their children in KidCare. Worse, the state would not be required to actually conduct those two enrollment periods. State officials could simply declare, for budgetary reasons, that there would be no enrollment in a given year.

This is mean-spirited stuff. We are finding new and ingenious ways in this country to wreak havoc on low-income people.

Here are the headlines on this story from today’s Tampa area papers: The Tampa Tribune:

Senate OKs $25 Million To Cover KidCare Program and

Senate votes to reduce KidCare waiting list

A reader would have to read past the middle of both articles to realize that children might actually be hurt by this bill, and details are egregiously glossed over. The Times:

Republicans in control of the Legislature have been pressured for weeks to spend the money to eliminate much of KidCare's waiting list, which continues to grow and now exceeds 110,000 by some estimates. Official figures place the list at about 96,000, through Feb. 27.

So, reading The Times or The Tribune, one would almost certainly come away with the impression that those cuddly kid-loving Republicans in Tallahassee did something to help children, when in actuality they eliminated the existence of a list so that no one will ever know how many kids are in dire need of help. No list, no problem. An elegantly Orwellian solution.

Read some background on this issue.

Posted by Norwood at 07:10 AM | Comments (0)

March 04, 2004

Jeb! hates democracy doesn’t mind a little democracy now and then, as long as he doesn’t have to share with everyone else

Jeb! says that direct democracy in the form of citizen initiatives is a bad thing. But now, having been repeatedly rebuffed by the legislature, Jeb! plans to use a citizen’s initiative to advance his own cynical agenda.

The drive to repeal a voter-mandated high- speed rail system, something lawmakers are proving unwilling to tackle themselves, will get a major push today from Gov. Jeb Bush and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.
The two Republicans have scheduled a joint news conference this morning at the Capitol, a day after a key House panel voted down a legislative proposal that would have put the costly bullet train back on the ballot for voters to reconsider.

Bush's office wouldn't disclose the topic of the announcement, but lawmakers familiar with the governor's opposition to high-speed rail said the duo would announce their support of a citizen's initiative petition drive under way in parts of the state.

If successful, a new constitutional amendment squelching the train would trump the one requiring it as a result of the 2000 vote.

With today's expected action, the governor takes his call for repeal out of the Legislature and into the streets. Bush and legislative leaders from both parties have repeatedly called on lawmakers to act.

State senators and representatives can draw up ballot measures for statewide vote. But lawmakers have been reluctant to ask voters to rethink the issue. In addition to the bill shot down Wednesday, several similar bills died in the 2003 session.

Posted by Norwood at 07:08 AM | Comments (0)

Fast trains, young children, and abortion

(but not necessarily in that order...)

This post ended up getting pretty long and rambling, so for those of you who would rather just take my word for it, here’s a brief summary: Hateful, demagoguic GOP, led by Jeb!, follows the lead of Jeb!’s brother and seeks to restrict individual freedoms while de-funding popular government programs and paying little more than lip service to initiatives that were announced with great pomp and self-congratulation.

(click on the link to read the whole thing!)

Is it just me, or is this AP article on a proposed Constitutional Amendment overly vague on exactly what went down today? Reading between the lines, I surmise that a House committee met and either approved or debated a resolution that would put an amendment on the ballot to restrict abortion. It seems that the entire House has not yet voted on this measure, and it will require a two thirds majority in both the House and the Senate to appear on this year’s ballot as a proposed amendment.

Bill Requiring Abortion-Seeking Minors Inform Parents Advances
By Jackie Hallifax Associated Press Writer
Published: Mar 3, 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The privacy rights of girls who seek abortions without first telling their parents or obtaining their consent would be curtailed under a measure lawmakers advanced Wednesday.

"We want parents to be involved in these important medical decisions of their children," said state Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa. The House is expected to debate the bill and vote later this week.

The House considered the legislation (HJR 1) and amendments Wednesday. A companion bill in the Senate (SB 2178) has not yet been heard in committee and no vote is scheduled.

Florida has had both a parental consent abortion law and a parental notice abortion law. Both were overruled by the state Supreme Court, which concluded they violated the constitutional privacy rights of girls.

So lawmakers want to change the state constitution to make parental rights trump the privacy rights of minors seeking abortions. Their proposed amendments would need to be approved by three-fifths of both the House and Senate to reach the ballot.

If approved by voters, lawmakers next year can write a law that will either require minors to tell their parents they're seeking abortions or to get parental consent.

Since only voters have the power to change the Florida Constitution, lawmakers this year want to get their proposed amendment on the November ballot. Democrats, however, are critical of that push.

"By putting the amendment in the constitution, how will you improve the relationship between a child and parent and force them to communicate?" said Rep. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood.

Democrats proposed a handful of changes; all were defeated, including one to provide an exemption for girls who were victims of rape and incest. Murman said a similar exemption, requiring any notice or consent law to allow case-by-case exemptions, is already in place under federal guidelines.

Democrats also proposed an amendment that would have required consent or notice of the parents of the father of the fetus. Rep. Shelley Vana, D-Lantana, said it was simply a question of equity.

"Clearly, they would love this to be unconstitutional," Murman said.

Meanwhile, Jeb! and the rest of the State GOP are crying about how easy it is for citizen’s initiatives to get on the ballot in Florida, and they have no problem amending the state and federal constitutions to restrict the rights of individuals. How is it that they maintain a reputation as All-American defenders of freedom amidst all of their tough love stern daddy knows best rights-restricting demagoguery?

Jeb!:

Gov. Jeb Bush, a loud and passionate opponent of both the high-speed rail project and class-size reduction, asked lawmakers last spring to consider making it harder for groups to use the citizen initiative process.

Lawmakers didn't take him up on that recommendation last year but seem eager to in the two-month session that begins March 2. Both House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, and Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, created special committees to make recommendations.

rest of the State GOP:

This year's dizzying collage of 52 citizen initiatives, ranging from pie-in-the-sky universal health care to humdrum insurance rates, will be watched more closely than any in decades.

History suggests that only a fraction will reach the 488,722-signature threshold to even become an issue on Election Day. Fewer still can expect to land in the constitution.

But each is serving as ready ammunition for legislative and business leaders determined to combat what they see as a dangerously rising tide of direct democracy and a threat to their influence and authority. Their response: Make it even harder for ordinary citizens to mount a successful constitutional amendment drive.

Now, once they get an amendment passed, it’s anybody’s guess as to how well they will actually follow the intent of the amendment. Right now, Jeb! is doing his best to stall on the high speed rail initiative. As noted above, he wants to repeal both high speed rail and the class size amendments.

This latest high-speed project was written into the Florida Constitution by voters in 2000. But it still faces the governor's opposition. Bush is pushing a bill in the Legislature to seek repeal of the high-speed rail constitutional amendment with a statewide referendum next fall. Bush also has proposed no funding for the project, while the authority sought $75 million.

But what about an amendment that Jeb! actually likes? Well, if it has anything to do with poor people or poor people’s kids, then Daddy Jeb! might just be a little short on spare change:

Amid the financial strain gripping public schools and universities, Florida is getting ready to embark on a new endeavor. In fall 2005, it will offer schooling for all 4-year-olds, and the question facing lawmakers designing the plan this year is one that has become emblematic in public education: Do we want the deluxe or economy model?
Not surprisingly, some lawmakers are saying cheap will do.

Ask Bev Kilmer, chairwoman of the House Education K-20 Committee, why she would shorten the prekindergarten school day from six to four hours, and she says, "It is not the state's responsibility to provide day care." Ask whether she thinks these schools should employ the highest quality teachers, and she throws up her hands: "It's going to be hard to find people with bachelor's degrees who want to spend four hours a day with 4-year-olds."

The debate over prekindergarten plays out against the backdrop of an education system that has been starved for money in recent years. Although Gov. Jeb Bush is proposing a 2004-05 budget that would increase overall education spending by 7.1 percent, much of that money simply restores some of the losses in the past three years.
......

In an election year, lawmakers don't want to appear indifferent to the financial needs of public education, and they are lauding the governor's budget plan as a good starting point. But the problem is, the governor builds his spending plan on $1.6-billion in one-time money, including $738-million to be taken from trust funds that were created and pledged for other purposes. And the following budget year, the state also will begin universal prekindergarten, which could cost anywhere between $300-million and $600-million a year.

That prekindergarten program, which is mandated under a constitutional amendment that Bush supported and voters approved in 2002, is aimed at giving young children a head start on school. Prekindergarten will be voluntary, but education officials estimate that roughly 70 percent, or 151,000, of the state's 4-year-olds will attend the first year.

To get ready for these children, the state first has to put together a prekindergarten framework. That task has been led by Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, who as a Senate president helped write the current law on school readiness programs. Jennings has produced remarkably broad support for the initiative. In a political sense, her most amazing feat might be that she is aiming to put most of this new venture in the hands of private schools yet has avoided the histrionics that usually attend the voucher debate.

Clearly, part of the reason that public school educators are not fighting for a bigger share of the prekindergarten program is that they won't be paid enough to make ends meet. The state already has been cutting back reimbursements for preschools for poor children, causing 20 school districts to drop out. For the universal prekindergarten plan, the reimbursements might be cut back even more. Jennings' task force is projecting the state will spend $3,200 for each student, which is less than most districts now receive and won't come close to covering the cost of additional public school construction and certified teachers' salaries.
......

The other reason preschool privatization has drawn less ire from public educators is the manner in which Jennings devised her plan. She began with a task force that included public teachers, private educators and proponents of the amendment, who worked carefully through research and established common goals for quality. As such, the standards she proposes for prekindergarten stand in sharp contrast to the lack of those for voucher schools in K-12.
......

Under the prekindergarten initiative, the state would establish standards for teacher qualifications, class size, number of instructional hours, student testing and school accreditation. Not one of those is currently in law for the McKay or Corporate Tax scholarships.

In prekindergarten, Jennings and her task force determined that there should be no more than 10 children per instructor and that the quality of the teacher is the most critical component. But they also had to deal with the reality that the state faces a shortage of qualified teachers, which makes recruitment difficult. So the plan is to require, in the first year, that each prekindergarten teacher be certified as a "child development associate," which is currently required for basic day care. Within eight years, each teacher would be required to possess a bachelor's degree.
......

Two easy ways to cut costs are to shorten school days and hire less qualified teachers. Some early drafts of prekindergarten legislation do both: 1) The school day would be reduced from six to four hours, requiring parents to pay for before- and after-school care (though poor families may apply for federal money); and 2) Teachers would be required to meet only the child development associate standard, not the higher standard for college degrees, and Kilmer says she sees no reason to ever require degrees.

What is revealing about such low ambitions is that the prekindergarten plan enjoyed broad political support when it was presented to voters. The amendment, engineered by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, was endorsed by the governor, Education Commissioner Jim Horne and most legislative leaders.

At the time, Horne said, "The research on the positive effects of prekindergarten education is among the strongest in education," and, "This investment should save the state millions of dollars that otherwise would go to remedial education, the criminal justice system and social services."

Horne's remarks were accompanied by education agency projections that pegged the cost of prekindergarten at $4,282 per student. That number was derived by adding inflationary costs to the reimbursement for readiness programs at the time, which had few of the educational standards the Legislature is being asked to adopt. As the bills come due, though, the dollars are disappearing. Already, $4,282 has become $3,200 or less, and the bidding seems to be going lower, not higher.

Florida, which ranks 49th in per capita education spending, is looking for the economy model again. At a time when elementary schools are dropping social studies curricula and universities are holding classes in movie theaters, Florida is heading down a familiar path with prekindergarten. Despite its good intentions to provide real educational opportunity for young children, it is preparing to treat 4-year-olds just like the rest.

Business as usual: lip service. And whatever money does eventually get appropriated will go to well connected companies which will provide shoddy and perhaps dangerous care to anyone who is unable to afford any “extras” (like lunch and breakfast?) for their kids.

Posted by Norwood at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2004

Caribbean Community backs Aristide

House Committee Wants Flags in Every Public Classroom

The 15-member Caribbean Community Wednesday called for an independent investigation into the resignation of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and said it will not participate in the interim peacekeeping force in Haiti.
The CARICOM decision, prompted by Aristide's allegations that he was kidnapped by U.S. military personnel, appeared to be a blow to international efforts to forge a coalition government in Haiti and return the nation to normalcy.

CARICOM mediated the power-sharing plan that is at the root of current plans for a transitional Haitian government, and its withdrawal is likely to complicate the already tangled efforts to select a new prime minister and cabinet.

Leaders of the regional bloc, which includes Haiti, said they spoke with Aristide via telephone on Tuesday and remain disturbed by the way Aristide was forced to leave office.

They added that the current plans for a transition government no longer follow the CARICOM proposals because their plan called for Aristide and his opponents to share power in a new cabinet.
......

CARICOM wants an independent inquiry into Aristide's charges that he wasa forced to resign and then ''kidnapped'' to the Central African Republic -- charges vehemently denied by U.S. officials and the San Francisco security firm that provides his bodyguard.

For more, Bilmon is keeping up with the situation.

Posted by Norwood at 07:32 PM | Comments (0)

Jeb! hides behind the flag

Jeb!’s State of the State speech yesterday was a pep-rally for the GOP. He didn’t even mention his support for repealing two voter initiatives or for making it harder for voter initiatives to pass in the future. Instead, he used patriotic imagery to cover up the fact that he and other GOP types are really anti-American in their support of weakening the voice of the people.

Surrounded by patriotic imagery, Gov. Jeb Bush opened an election-year session of the Florida Legislature Tuesday with an upbeat speech touting improvements in education, the economy and the environment. ......
But in a divided state that likely will again play a pivotal role in a presidential election, a starkly different scene played out on the Capitol grounds.

As Bush gave lawmakers a glowing assessment of Florida in his sixth State of the State address, about 2,000 protesters, most of them black, marched outside the Capitol, demanding a higher minimum wage, better health insurance and an end to privatization and the FCAT.

"We know what the state of Florida is, it's bad," said march organizer Bishop Victor T. Curry of Miami, who compared Bush's reliance on standardized tests in schools to barriers once put up by segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
......

In a significant departure for the two-term governor, Bush's speech was more of a rallying cry to fellow Republicans than an ambitious policy blueprint. It sought to unite factions of a party that feuded almost constantly last year but must be together if his brother, President Bush, is to win Florida in November, and Republicans are to win an open U.S. Senate seat.

Bush's remarks came against a backdrop of military hymns and returning soldiers in uniform, as lawmakers opened their joint session with a tribute to those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, including Rep. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, who served 14 months with the Florida National Guard. Divisive issues were rarely mentioned, unlike a year ago when Bush defiantly urged lawmakers to repeal the costly class size amendment voters passed in 2002.

On Tuesday, Bush never mentioned class size. Neither did he raise problems in the Department of Juvenile Justice, embroiled in controversy after the death of 17-year-old boy from an untreated ruptured appendix.

Also missing: references to lawmakers' plan to require doctors to notify parents before performing an abortion on a minor, or plans to make it harder for voters to amend the state Constitution.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd promoted the abortion notification amendment in his opening day speech while Senate President Jim King listed the constitutional amendment change as a top priority.

Bush said he supports both measures. "There will be time to do that," he said. "I wanted to talk about the principled priorities I see."
......

Bush's one major proposal was far from a surprise. He urged lawmakers to help him overhaul Medicaid, whose costs have nearly doubled since Bush took office in 1999. The state faces another double-digit increase next year.
......

But even his Medicaid overhaul is politically modest in the short term. Bush will seek lawmakers' approval to ask federal officials to allow Florida to overhaul Medicaid next year so that it no longer would be an entitlement and more resemble private insurance.

Democrats dismissed the governor's view as too rosy. They said the Republican record of $8-billion in tax cuts since 1999 has cut government services too much and that too many Floridians struggle without high-paying jobs or health insurance.

The governor mentioned only in passing the 100,000 low-income children of working parents on the waiting list for the Healthy Kids subsidized health insurance. And he only briefly noted his plan to kick out of the Healthy Kids program any families who have access to employer insurance, even if the cost is prohibitive.

"The governor touted a program that is failing children," said House Democratic Leader Doug Wiles of St. Augustine. "They're showing us we don't have a lot to look forward to this session."

Democrats also countered Bush's education claims, saying Florida ranks 26th in teacher salaries and 40th in per-pupil spending. And they argued that Florida's gain in student achievement was slower than other states'.

Democrats said nearly one-third of Florida's new jobs are in businesses tied to tourism, with average salaries of $17,000 a year.

"The job creation and economic prosperity that the governor speaks of has not reached into the homes of my community," said Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa. "The folks in my district work too many jobs for too little salary and too few benefits. ... We believe this is an utterly embarrassing economic record."

That view prevailed outside the Capitol as hundreds rode early-morning buses to Tallahassee from cities as far away as Miami and Pensacola to rally and listen to speeches criticizing Republican initiatives. Among the speakers were the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
......

"These issues are really multicultural and multiracial ... whether white, black or brown, hunger hurts, unemployment hurts," said Jackson in an interview before the march began. "If you can't keep your job, you can't keep your house or educate your child; those are depression times and we deserve better."

Posted by Norwood at 07:04 AM | Comments (0)

Legislative update

The Legislature’s first day didn’t produce any big surprises. The biggest news had to do with flag worship and the Republican’s ancient strategy of chipping away at the rights of women:

A House committee voted unanimously Tuesday to support a bill which seeks to place an American flag in every public classroom in the state - but doesn't want to pay for them.
Every public school, community college and university would have to properly display a U.S. flag in classrooms, according to the legislation approved by the Education K-20 Committee.

The panel voted down an amendment offered by Rep. Shelley Vana, D-Lantana, regarding paying for the flags.

Instead, the bill directs principals of public schools and presidents of universities and community colleges to try to raise money from private organizations to pay for the flags.

Rep. Frank Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, said he thought that veterans organizations and civic groups would be "pleased and proud" to pay for the flags.

Countered Vana: "We should put our money where our mouth is."

Gov. Jeb Bush said he would have to look at the cost of the proposal. "Most classrooms that I go to have the flags up already," Bush said.

In the Senate, a companion bill (SB 612) cleared two committees last month and is waiting for floor action.

Abortion Bill Set For Debate

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd said a bill seeking to give parents the right to know when their daughters under the age of 18 seek abortions will be debated by the full House this week.
Byrd, R-Plant City, is putting on hold his broader parental rights constitutional amendment, which Senate leaders oppose. Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, favors the narrower measure limited specifically to abortion notification, and Byrd said it's important to get something moving with a chance of passing.

``What we want to do is do the doable,'' Byrd said.

Constitutional changes, if approved by the Legislature, need voter approval. A staff and wire report

Posted by Norwood at 06:48 AM | Comments (0)

New Paltz Mayor arrested

Newsday

Four days after presiding over a slew of same sex marriages in his quaint Hudson Valley village, the mayor of New Paltz today was charged with 19 violations of New York's domestic relations law, injecting the debate over gay marriages in the state with increasing drama and urgency.
Jason West, 26-year-old Green Party mayor, was ordered to appear in court Wednesday to answer charges that he broke state law by solomizing about two dozen weddings without a marriage license, according to New Paltz police and West's lawyer.

Chief Raymond Zappone said he and a lieutenant from the town police served a 19-count summons to West Tuesday afternoon and that the mayor faces up a $500 fine and a year in jail for his actions which have attracted international attention and brought the fight over gay marriages squarely into New York.

The actions come as West is planning to hold more ceremonies this weekend and with other officials around the state considering similar actions. It also coincides with increasing pressure on State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who last week refused a call by the governor to prevent and nullify the marriages, to step in and issue some clarifying words on the complex legal issues at play.

Posted by Norwood at 06:33 AM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2004

FDOC scams inmates on phone charges

The Tribune and the Times are both dutifully running stories from the Hillsborough County Sheriff about an inmate phone scam to make free calls.

Inmates at the Falkenberg and Orient Road jails are abusing their phone privileges in a scam that has unsuspecting Hillsborough County residents paying for inmates' unauthorized telephone calls, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Unfortunately, neither paper is reporting on the ongoing inmate phone scam being waged by the Florida Department of Corrections.

During just the past two years, the FDOC, taking advantage of prisoners’ families’ desire to remain a family and in contact with those incarcerated, has through exclusive collect-call long-distance telephone contracts with telecommunication giants MCI WorldCom and Sprint Communications bilked more than $32 million from prisoners’ families. Perversely, the FDOC sees no problem with this; little or no concern is displayed for the tremendous financial burden this is placing on families or the consequences this anti-family practice of the FDOC is having.

Posted by Norwood at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)

Greenspan's bait and switch

Read Krugman:

And the reason Social Security is in fairly good shape is that during the 1980's the Greenspan commission persuaded Congress to increase the payroll tax, which supports the program.
The payroll tax is regressive: it falls much more heavily on middle- and lower-income families than it does on the rich. In fact, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, families near the middle of the income distribution pay almost twice as much in payroll taxes as in income taxes. Yet people were willing to accept a regressive tax increase to sustain Social Security.

Now the joke's on them. Mr. Greenspan pushed through an increase in taxes on working Americans, generating a Social Security surplus. Then he used that surplus to argue for tax cuts that deliver very little relief to most people, but are worth a lot to those making more than $300,000 a year. And now that those tax cuts have contributed to a soaring deficit, he wants to cut Social Security benefits.

The point, of course, is that if anyone had tried to sell this package honestly— "Let's raise taxes and cut benefits for working families so we can give big tax cuts to the rich!" — voters would have been outraged. So the class warriors of the right engaged in bait-and-switch.

Posted by Norwood at 07:14 AM | Comments (0)

Full of Grace holes

Link

Posted by Norwood at 06:50 AM | Comments (0)

Get Up with MorningWood

Get Up with MorningWood, on Community Radio WMNF 88.5 fm, Tampa, and streaming at wmnf.org.
4 to 6 am every Tuesday!

Studio line: 813-239-9663. Call or email the studio anytime!

Today on MorningWood

It’s the MorningWood Defense of Marriage Special! Lots of songs about marriage, divorce, and love. An essay by Ben Tripp, ticket giveaways, and more. Here’s some of the Ben Tripp piece:

Some people say gay marriage is bad for the kiddies. Some people say it flies in the face of holy writ. Others say it makes them nauseous to see a man in a wedding dress. All of these rationales rise from the traditional oppression of homosexuality, which has nothing to do with anything except xenophobia. Modern Western culture frowns upon homos, regardless of their plumage, although lesbians in matched sets remain celebrated in that vast unsung subculture we call smut (and three cheers, I say). It's okay to watch dolly omis on television do makeovers on real men so they can get girls. But the average American, confronted with an actual fruit in the same room who thinks he should start wearing pastels, will have a negative reaction, somewhere between rejection and vivisection. Queers are qualified to shop, play dress-up, and engage in all-girl romps because there aren't any penises around. But they're not qualified to shoot the marital rapids, because they're not real people. They're just half-people. They can date each other, decorate their apartments, have sex with us that one time in high school (swear to God, I was plastered), but Heaven forfend they should marry each other. Then they'd be officially sanctioned real people.

Listen for the start of the MorningWood theme song in the middle of each hour (don’t call after NPR news or at 4:00AM when I start my show!), and call in to win tickets to the SMLG Florda Bandango sendoff benefit concert coming up on March 6 at the State theater.

Florida Bandango at SXSW

Tampa, FL - Volunteer group to showcase local bands in Austin; Benefit concert March 6.

The SXSW Music Lovers Group (SMLG) announced the lineup today for their March 6 State Theater fundraiser. Scheduled to appear, in order of appearance: Crippled Masters; Red Tide; The band soon to be formerly known as Shotgun Wedding; Auditorium; John McNicholas; Anna O; and Rebekah Pulley. All proceeds raised will be used for the Florida Bandango Party during the South by Southwest Music conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

2004 marks the second year for the Florida Bandango Party. The idea is to showcase Tampa area talent in front of a national audience of media and music industry movers and shakers. The party will feature food, music and art from the Tampa area and SMLG expects 700 - 1,000 people to attend.

Norwood Orrick hosts MorningWood, early Tuesday mornings on WMNF 88.5FM. He and other WMNF DJs and volunteers founded SMLG in 2002 and they hosted the first ever Florida Bandago Party last year at the famous Club DeVille in the heart of Austin's downtown music district.

"Hundreds of people came out last year and heard some fantastic music," says Orrick. "It was an unqualified success. This year, we've added Florida food from Skipper's Smokehouse and a Tampa area art show curated by WMNF's JoEllen Schilke to complement our talented musicians and to help party goers to really slip into a Florida state of mind."

The March 6 State Theater show is the sendoff fundraiser for this year's party. Doors open at 7:30 and the music wont stop until 2:00AM.

The SXSW Music Lovers Group (SMLG) is a volunteer group dedicated to promoting Tampa Bay musicians by providing the opportunity for Tampa Bay bands to play for national press and recording industry executives at the world-famous South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference. SMLG is not affiliated with WMNF.

fmi: The SXSW Music Lovers Group (SMLG)

Event Information:
What - SMLG Florida Bandango fundraiser concert - Crippled Masters; Red Tide; The band soon to be formerly known as Shotgun Wedding; Auditorium; John McNicholas; Anna O; and Rebekah Pulley When - Saturday, March 6, 2004, 7:30PM
Where - State Theater, 526 Central Ave, Saint Petersburg
Price - $6.00
Tickets - 727-895-3045

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