Category Archives: Florida

Say hello to the new Florida Progressive Coalition Blog. Florida is the ultimate 50/50 state, so it’s always nice to see progressive activists at work. Oh yes, they’ve got a Progressive Coalition Wiki too.

[Update: Read more about the plan behind the effort at Daily Kos.]

Flablog is on the case:

If giant pythons are outlawed only outlaws will have giant pythons.

The board of the South Florida Water Management District asked federal regulators this week to take a step toward banning imports of the Asian reptiles, which can grow as large as 26 feet and 200 pounds – and, if one one famous case is an indication, seem to have acquired a taste for gator.

I confess that I have paid almost no attention to the Florida Governor race. Jeb is term limited and can’t run. The GOP primary candidates are running right, although the latest poll shows Charlie Crist well ahead of Tom Gallagher.

But now I learn that the Democratic primary candidates, Rod Smith and Jim Davis, are tied in the latest poll.

I am among the undecided, mostly for lack of information. Comments as to what distinguishes the candidates — both of whom seem to have been endorsed by pols I like — would be welcomed. I sort of gather that Rod Smith is the more electable candidate, but thought Davis had a decent record as a Congressman. But I could be wrong…

Fred Barnes says Jeb Bush is great. Here’s a real-life example of what Jeb Bush means to real people: thanks to his choices, the state of Florida loses track of hundreds — yes, hundreds — of at-risk kids in the foster care system every year. That’s right: rather than raise taxes, Jeb Bush chose — even after the matter became a state scandal three years ago — to run a system in which the state of Florida takes kids into care, then loses them, (often to biological parents, ruled unfit to keep them, who then kidnaped them). We don’t know if they’re dead. We don’t know if they’re on the streets. We don’t know anything about where they are. All we know is that Jeb Bush doesn’t care much about them — couldn’t be bothered to find competent people to run the system nor to fund it properly.

When the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl from her Miami foster home four years ago went unnoticed for months, the ensuing scandal that engulfed Florida’s child-welfare agency led to recriminations and promises of beefed-up efforts to track down children who went missing from state care.

A few months later, Gov. Jeb Bush and his social-services chief declared ”success,” saying the state had found all but 102 of about 400 foster children who had gone missing.

That was Dec. 17, 2002.

Yet as of Monday, the number of kids missing from the state’s troubled child-welfare system has skyrocketed to 652, most of them runaway teens and youngsters snatched from foster care by their biological parents. The number of missing kids has risen even as the number of kids in state care has declined.

And here’s the killer quote:

“People look for their pets with greater concern,” said Howard Talenfeld, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who is president of Florida’s Children First.

Bumper crop today.

• DNA ties UM prof to Genghis Khan. As Dave Barry says, I am not making this up.
• Man arrested after trying to use potato as a silencer. Apparently, the folk story that a potato will silence a pistol shot is widespread.
• Lady who found a grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary, then auctioned it off on e-bay for $28,000 (plus another $6,000 for the skillet!), has now had the sandwich‘s image tattooed onto her right breast.

Just another day in Florida.

Which is good, because I needed something to distract me from the latest US-troops-get-barbaric allegation: Iraqis claim troops framed victim.