Category Archives: Florida

Here are the key facts:

After weeks of weathering political assaults from the left, state Republicans announced a plan Tuesday to eliminate a waiting list for tens of thousands of poor children seeking subsidized healthcare.

First, Republican senators said, they would spend $25 million to provide healthcare to about 90,000 children on the list until the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Second, they proposed freezing enrollment in the KidCare program. That eliminates future lists, which grow by about 2,000 children a week, and the bad press that goes with it.

Also tucked in a proposed bill: measures that no longer guarantee dental coverage and that deny benefits to any child whose working-poor family is “eligible” for insurance, regardless of the expense.

But what's the headline in the Miami Herald? GOP: End wait for poor kids' care!

The portion of the KidCare program in question serves 315,000. It is largely restricted to those children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but earn no more than double the federal poverty level of $18,400 for a family of four.

Right. End the wait by having fewer people eligible! Kinda gives a new ring to 'No Child Left Behind' doesn't it? But you'd never guess it from scanning the headline (and the article was buried inside the Metro section too).

Looks like Rev. O'Neal Dozier knows what to say to keep Jeb Bush sweet: praise him to the skies and preach Republicanism from the pulpit. Here's Dozier speaking on the occasion of Martin Luther King Day a year ago:

The Rev. O'Neal Dozier, senior pastor and founder of The Worldwide Christian Center, went so far as to call [Jeb] Bush “the greatest governor ever.”

(Sun-Sentinel, January 21, 2003, Pride on Display; S. Florida Events Honor the Dream and Legacy of the Civil Rights Leader.)

Consider Black S. Florida Preachers Carry on Fight Against Injustice , a story in the Sun-Sentinal—which until now I always thought of as a decent newspaper. This news story (that's right, news, not editorial) printed a couple of days ago paints a glorious picture of Rev. O'Neal Dozier. It begins,

The Rev. O'Neal Dozier lives the message of Martin Luther King Jr. every day. As pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, he uplifts the downtrodden by feeding them and paying their rent. In his sermons he preaches the importance of character. His leadership has transcended the pulpit to politics.

Somehow this news article never gets around to mentioning that Rev. Dozier might be controversial, or why.

Incidentally, until I read this article, I had no idea that Rev. Dozier was black. Does that mean he gets a free pass on MLK day? Somehow I doubt that King would have approved of Dozier—although that is apparently not Dozier's view, as he tries to wrap himself our secular saint's mantle:

“King didn't separate himself from the white establishment,” Dozier pointed out.

Neither does Dozier. A member of one of the state's Judicial Nominating Commissions, which screen and recommend judges, Dozier is active in the Republican Party and served as host to Gov. Bush at his church last King Day.

“We're not going to make advances for black people by slam-dunking [Republicans],” Dozier said. “We need to take a lesson from Dr. King. He had a peaceful approach.”

But even Dozier acknowledges that racism has not gone away. He thinks black people have not helped their cause much because whites perceive blacks as having lost the moral character they had during 1960s protests.

“If King were alive today, he would still be an activist,” said Dozier. “He would be an advocate for black people looking at character.”

Dozier worries that the younger generation needs to strengthen its character for the black community to achieve King's dream.

“Have you listened to the music? It's horrible. The way we dress with our pants down. The way we wear our hair makes us look like demons,” he asserted.

“How can you pierce the upper-crust establishment, where the money and political people are?” Dozier asked. “We can't unless we change our character.”

The article does, however, include a handsome photo of Rev. Dozier.

A little spell on Lexis suggests that Dozier was also active in the 'Ten Commandments' movement, speaking to support (now-former) Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Dozier has also been a prominent supporter of the FCAT, the standardized test relied on by the Florida school system, disagreeing with those who claim that the test is racially biased.

There are also some hair-raising interviews in which Dozier makes clear that he does not separate church and state. Rather, his vision of church — like the Mullahs in Iran — instructs the faithful as to how to vote, to support the wise and virtuous Republicans.

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The Florida Taliban saga continues: Rev. Dozier further displays his total unsuitability to hold any position of public trust, much less one that involves selecting judges. Unfortunately, the Miami Herald buries the story inside the metro section at the end of a “roundup” article with an irrelevant headline.

And Gov. Jeb Bush says he has no intention of removing Rev. Dozier from the judicial selection committee:

“I need someone who is a Christian to tell my story,” began the Pompano Beach pastor and member of a powerful judicial screening committee.

The Rev. O'Neal Dozier was responding to questions about his role on Broward's Judicial Nominating Commission, which interviews applicants and makes recommendations to the governor. As detailed in a recent Daily Business Review article, some attorneys have been unnerved by Dozier's inquiries into their religious beliefs and parenting duties.

Dozier, who was appointed to the nine-member committee by Gov. Jeb Bush, acknowledged that he has asked applicants if they are “God-fearing.” He said he stopped asking the question after an attorney complained, but added: “The citizens deserve someone on the bench who loves God.”

He also said he did ask a single mother with twins about juggling domestic and judicial responsibilities. But he said the question was misinterpreted as showing bias.

State Rep. Dan Gelber, an attorney, has asked Bush to examine Dozier's qualification process. He said the governor should remove Dozier if he is asking inappropriate questions.

“That chills qualified people from applying, and if it is true, the governor needs to act quickly,” said Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat.

Dozier said he had been contacted by the governor's office and that Bush will not remove him.

Dozier went on to blame the “homosexual community” for the dust-up and called homosexuality an “abomination.”

But he said an applicant's sexual orientation would not influence his vote on the judicial nominating commission.

“Let the world know,” he said, “the Rev. O'Neal Dozier loves the homosexuals the same way he loves the fornicators, the adulterers, the thieves and the liars.”

Actually, the term “Florida Taliban” may be unfair. Rev. Dozier really reminds me more of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah al-Uzma Hajj Seyed Ali Khamenei.

A Harris candidacy would have been a gift to Democrats. Gotta hand it to Rove and Co., they run a tight ship: ABCNEWS.com : Source: Rep. Harris Won't Run for Senate.

'course sometimes the arm twisting does go a bit overboard , but why worry when the prosecutors in Main Justice are not looking to cause trouble unless forced.

Our law school courtyard is usually a quiet place, but every so often a flock of very very very loud parrots, descendants of escapees from Parrot Jungle, a nearby mini-wildlife park, take over the trees and make so much noise you can hardly think.

So I sympathize with the residents of Dania Beach, a couple of hours drive north of here. It seems they have a monkey problem. Welcome to South Florida – and beware of the Monkeys.

Of course, as the Miami Herald accurately observes, “Monkeys apparently don’t cause much of a blip on the South Florida weird-o-meter.”

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Turns out that the source for the info about improper questions being asked by Jeb Bush's people of potential state court judges is the very respectable Miami Daily Business Review, and the article—complete with quotes attributed to local lawyers by name—is online at law.com. (Snagged from CalPundit.)

The quotes did not appear in a written questionaire, and weren't state-level, but rather were asked in oral interviews by county-level interviewing committee members.

Here are some choice quotes from an interview with the source of many of those questions, Rev. O'Neal Dozier, pastor of the fundamentalist Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, and one of the Broward County members of the Judicial Nomination Commission:

“This country is founded on the principles of Christianity, not the principles of Buddhism, not the principles of Judaism,” the South Florida Sun-Sentinel quoted him as saying Nov. 30, 2003. “I don't believe the developers of the Constitution would want us to compromise our Christian values.”

Dozier is vehemently opposed to homosexuality, which he called in the Nov. 27, 2003, issue of New Times Broward Palm Beach “something so nasty and disgusting that it makes God want to vomit.”

Dozier said he has received complaints from “atheists” who heard about his line of religiously oriented questioning during JNC interviews. But he argues that religion belongs on the bench. “There is no such animal as separation of church and state in the Constitution,” he said.

And this is the guy Jeb Bush nominates, then re-nominates, to help pick judges.