Remember when St. Pete Times columnist Howard Toxler wanted the state university system’s next chancellor to be “a real (bleep)”? Basically he wanted someone with name recognition who couldn’t be easily pushed around by legislators. Fat chance at that. The Board of Governors hired a search firm from Texas, and…
For a man who has held so many government positions, Mel Martinez never seemed too gung-ho about public service. As he put it in his book, A Sense of Belonging, politics, “sort of sneaked up and tapped me softly on the shoulder.” But after all these years he would like…
It has been over eight years now since Florida changed the history of the world forever by not being able to count votes correctly, and we have been apologizing for it ever sense. I mean, we weren’t sorry enough to not vote for Bush in 2004, and Broward County wasn’t…
Both Democratic U.S. Senate candidates announced their fundraising haul for the first quarter of 2009 today. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who benefited from a few fundraising appearances by none other than Bill Clinton, raked in $1.49 million. That’s roughly on track with other early, non-incumbent front runners from past election cycles…
The mainstream media and the federal government have comfortable slots on the top ten list of things Republican hate. It seems, for now at least, the Republicans in Tallahassee hate the government a little more. Republican state Sen. Ronda Storms was supporting a bill that would no longer require local…
You would think the Republican party would start trying to find ways to be a more inclusive group. Instead, operating under the assumption that when the democrats make one major screw up, voters will have only one choice to turn to: a newly, ideologically pure Republican party. Now, The Tampa…
Charlie Crist may be his party’s most gung-ho supporter of Obama’s stimulus plan, but not all Republicans in Tallahassee are quite as excited. Congressional leaders may reject a plan to widen unemployment benefits, because they fear it could increase taxes on businesses, and cost the State more in the long…
The current political scandal involving a Republican spending money on things involves Bill McCollum’s anti-pedophile PSAs. Apparently the Attorney General spent $550 on makeup for the ad! Gasp! Here (via the Buzz) is “yuk yuk yuk” YouTube video driving the point home. Men in makeup for the purposes of lighting!…
It seemed like a foregone conclusion just a few months back that Gov. Charlie Crist would run for a relatively easy re-election. Then in November, the Republicans in Washington got their asses handed to them, and whenever Minnesota decides to get its shit together, the Democrats in the Senate will…
When news broke that Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp had a pricey travel habit footed by taxpayers, we thought it was suspicious it came only a few weeks after rumors began circulating that Gov. Charlie Crist might be thinking of resigning to run for Senate in 2010, leaving the governor’s mansion to…
The Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau has been following a proposed porn tax with quite some fervor lately, but the State Legislators can’t seem to talk about the proposal with a straight face. Republican Sen. Carey Baker said he’d heard someone throw out the idea of an extra tax on porn, and…
Florida’s University Chancellor Mark Rosenberg resigned last fall, and returned to FIU where he previously served as provost. John Delaney, President of the University of North Florida is serving in the interim, but the hunt is on for the full time replacement. Rosenberg’s tenure was marked with strife with the legislature…
For most of us, our psycho-ex’s biggest offenses are sending locks of their hair in the mail, leaving 20 minutes long voice mails with self-penned poetry, or posting Photoshop manipulations of what our kids might look like on our Facebook walls long after we’ve broken up. Unfortunately though many have…
How insane was Dirty Dozen alum Victoria Jackson’s appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last week? Well it starts out with Jackson proclaiming, “I’m so happy to be on, I’m your biggest fan. Fox news! Yay! The Only One with the truth! Yay!”Another panelist asks her, “Where are you…
You know what Howard Dean did in his first few months as chair of the DNC? He raised $86.3 million and started working on his 50-state strategy. You know what Michael Steele has done so far as RNC chair? Turned himself into a political sideshow with his dumb feuds with…
Did you hear openly gay North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns running for Senate? Silly gays, you can’t even get married or adopt children. What makes you think you can be Senator? Actually, it’s kind of sad that a he’s become the “Gay candidate,” and he wants to clear that up. The St. Pete…
Somewhere, sometime ago in one of the many wonderful comments we get, someone accused me of blindly following MSNBC in my political mumblings. Which was funny to me because at the time I didn’t watch much of the channel, and had never seen an episode of Countdown or The Rachel…
2016 so, so far away. We’re not even sure if human civilization as we know it will exist then, but it’s never too soon to make outlandish presidential predictions. We’re dreaming of a Crist vs. Clinton matchup. At this point, I don’t see a Crist 2012 run as a reality…
Gallup, Healthways, and America’s Health Insurance Plans have teamed up to create a state by state, and congressional district by district well-being index. The index is based on the World Health Organization’s definition of health as “not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical,…
Back in December, we wondered out loud if Charlie Crist’s love of diversity would leave the Supreme Court with a more balanced ideological outlook. That seems to be pretty much what happened. Last year, the Governor found himself in the unprecedented situation of picking four Supreme Court justices within a span of less than a year. He first replaced two bonafide, Bush-appointed…
By wide majorities, Americans love stem cell research. According to Gallup numbers 64% find it morally acceptable, and 52% support easing the restrictions or having none at all. Today, your president Barack Obama repealed his predecessor’s strict limits on stem cell research, which created a bunch of bureaucratic, red-tape hassles for scientists (I thought the red…
Frederica Wilson and her extensive hat collection have pretty much done everything they can in Tallahassee. The Miami democrat has served in both houses of the State legislature, and now she’s made it official that she’ll be seeking the congressional seat Rep. Kendrick Meek is leaving behind in his quest for…
