Flablog

Off for Halloween and All Souls Day.

Michael Froomkin of the Univ. Miami talks about bloggers and libel law (Inspired by the Atrios affair).

(For background and comment the outrageous legal threat made by creepy Krugman-obsessed rightwinger Donald Luskin against the blog Eschaton see Metafilter.)

Jim DeFede of the Herald talks with a Roman Catholic priest and medical ethicists about Schiavo case. He says the rhetoric the governor is using is foolish. The only way you can describe it.

''We are in a death denying society,'' says Sandol Stoddard, who was one of the founders of the hospice movement in the United States. ``We are in the most death denying society that I have ever heard about or read about. We just don't want to accept the idea that we are going to die.''

Meanwhile, a brief challenging the law is filed. By giving Bush "limitless power to make the law, enforce the law and interpret the law, ("Terri's Law") violates every building block of divided government that is fundamental to American democracy and the Florida Constitution," the brief said. (NY Times version here.)

(ACLU Fla. has posted the brief in PDF format.)

In the Tallahassee Democrat, a professor who has studied definitions of death calls for a deeper understanding of death.

This is about the only thing that could have made me root for the Yankees. Now that they've won the World Series, the Marlins are positioned to ask a state that has been busy laying off teaching aides and cutting back basic medical care for the poor and elderly to build a ballpark at public expense.

Naturally, Speaker Byrd goes into auto-pander mode. ''I'm certainly open to any kind of new dollars created by any new entertainment,'' Byrd said. "If you can create revenue, then I sure don't mind sharing the wealth.''

Everyone will be a winner. Nothing a few more education cuts can't pay for. You gotta build box seats for your donors.

Tallahassee Democrat decries the rash work of the Legislature in two successive editorials -- Scripted in haste and Hasty Scripps venture needs more deliberation.

Last week in a burst of hyperactivity, the Legislature left its deliberative process in shambles.

Steve Koppelman opens his paper to find a murder at restaruant he likes.

Senate President King tells Fla. Today that if Florida's special law keeping Terri Schiavo alive is struck down, he won't allow the Senate to take it up again.

Yeah, we'll see.

(From the Republicans at Sayfie)

A lot is being made on the Web about a vote-counting machine malfunction in Volusia County during the 2000 election. To set the record straight, let me make a few observations, since I was at the recount:

The first indication that we were in for a long night came when Precinct 216 in DeLand gave weird results. Suddenly, the running tally showed that Gore lost votes, something not possible. This was public knowledge within an hour or so of the numbers being transmitted.

It turned out that a malfunctioning circuit card caused Gore to get negative 16,022 votes (-16,022). What's more, a rather conservative precinct gave Socialist Workers Party candidate James Harris 9,888 votes to outpoll Bush's 8,642 votes. Nader also received negative votes, -2,415.

These were darken-the-circle ballots. Each marked paper ballot was locked in the counting machine after the machine counted them. The malfunctioning counter was brought to the elections office, was unlocked, and the paper ballots were fed into another machine. The total was corrected that night.

Then, in the weeks to come, Volusia County counted every ballot by hand, in view of the press and witnesses by both parties. A ballot committee ruled on every ballot where the intent of the voter could in any way be questioned. The hand count came up with extra votes for both Bush and Gore because ballots that were marked in nonstandard ways were discovered and counted wherever voter intent could be discerned. (You'd be amazed at the number of people who underlined or circled the names of their candidates, something the machine could not detect but a hand-count could.)

The results tended to affirm the accuracy of the counting machines countywide.

Why the card malfunctioned is anyone's guess. But the mistake was instantly noted and quickly corrected. And because of the remarkable effort to count every vote by hand before the deadline, Volusia had some of the most accurate results in the state. And yes, Gore won the county 97,304 to 82,357. (Nader got 2,910.)

Nice piece in the Herald-Trib shows the kind of fund-raising treadmill even a safe seat in Congress has become.

For every dollar donated this year to Rep. Adam Putnam's re-election bid, 27 cents go to consultants working on his political future and trying to raise more money.

(Via the Republican consultants at Sayfie)

St. Pete Times report on why 98 percent of businesses pay nothing Florida corporate income taxes.

Dyckmen lets them have it. Florida learned three things, none of them comforting, about its political leadership last week he notes:

1 - Tallahassee is too small a stadium to contain his (Byrd's) boundless demagoguery and contempt for constitutional principles. He needs to play in the same grand arena as Huey Long and Joe McCarthy.

2 -The boundless hypocrisy of Jeb Bush

3 - Your living will may soon be worthless.

Hiaasen also has a strong response -- It doesn't get any lower than that -- capitalizing on the plight of a brain-damaged woman to score points with religious fundamentalists.

Florida agribusiness develops a hollow celery you can drink through like a straw. The Bloody Mary has been revolutionized!

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate tries to cut through the emotionalism and explain Why spouses get the final say in coma cases.

+Sacramento Bee editorial -- Governor, lawmakers tread on courts' toes. The decision by the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush to substitute their judgment for that of a court of law in the case of Terry Schiavo marks an arrogant intrusion into delicate medical territory that ought to be navigated by families, doctors and judges.

Gallagher's already running for 2006 and Jeb is not happy. (Could it be because he wants to anoint his successor himself?)

Chemical imagemaking refuses to die!

California discovers Jeb-style budgeting. Budget auditor may target social services.

(Via Body and Soul)

Ruth on Plant City values.

In announcing his bid for the U.S. Senate, Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd boasted he had taken "Plant City values to Tallahassee,'" which sort of makes you wonder: Since when did the strawberry capital aspire to mimic the mores of Planet Zircon 12?

Who could blame him? -- Schiavo's doctor of five years quits case.

The story includes this: "Where her cerebral cortex would be, there is a giant black hole filled with spinal fluid," -- George Felos, Michael Schiavo's lawyer.

Meanwhile, rightwing theocratic showboat Randall Terry is so happy at this victory he want to repeat it around the nation. His mistake is assuming that all legislatures are as craven and easily stampeded as Florida's.

Even some right-wingers express qualms.

Reason on-line considers her condition.

+ Tallahassee Democrat -- Lawmaking gone bad.

+ Ernst column (Sarasota Herald-Tribune) -- Even in Schiavo case, governor has no place at the hospital bedside

+ Time-Union -- characteristically is the only paper in the state to applaud the law. And it points readers to the Schiavo parents' web site.

+ Stuart News -- Gov. Bush set a dreadful precedent by intervening in medical, court decision.

+ My take.

+ A caustic letter to the News-Journal says -- former President George H.W. the Elder and his lovely wife must be full of Texas pride these days. After all, they have one son who thinks he is the king and now another son who thinks he is God.

Columnists and editorialists react with alarm and loathing to the Legislature's extralegal grandstanding in the Schiavo case:

Columns --

+ Fred Grimm -- Old-time religion trumps science. The folks from Scripps Research Institute, on the cutting edge of scientific research, must have thought that on their way to modern Florida, they had stumbled through a time warp. It was as they had landed, instead, in some isolated, backward place of Bible-thumping politicians, gearing up for a reprise of the Scopes monkey trial.

+ Mary Jo Melone -- Schiavo's life confiscated by agendas of strangers. What happened this week in Tallahassee was a breathtaking display of mob rule.

Editorials

+ NY Times -- Scorning the Courts in Florida. The State Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush have mocked the courts' careful deliberations and embarked on a ghoulish medical journey by directing that her feeding resume. The courts should reaffirm Ms. Schiavo's right to die in peace.

+ Miami Herald -- Schiavo vote provokes constitutional crisis. The governor and Legislature ... made a mockery of Florida's right-to-privacy and death-with-dignity laws. They did so for no good reason other than to curry political favor with religious-conservative voters in Florida and elsewhere.

+ Fla Today -- Shameful power grab marks Schiavo case. ... political grandstanding in the ugliest sense, with Bush and Byrd eagerly bowing to the right-to-life faction of the Republican Party in a we'll-do-anything hunt for votes.

+ Sarasota Herald-Trib -- In Schiavo action, Bush and Legislature gravely injure the rule of law. The governor and the Legislature in effect tossed out a series of court rulings they didn't like. Floridians should worry about that at least as much as they do over the fate of Terri Schiavo.

+ Gainesville Sun -- Hall of the Gods. Bush and the lawmakers anointed themselves God's own earthly surrogates.

+ Lakeland Ledger -- The Legislature Was Stampeded. The Legislature should have stayed out of it -- and probably would have had House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, who forced the issue, not been a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

+ Palm Beach Post -- State intervenes illegally in Terri Schiavo case. Terri Schiavo didn't leave a living will, which might have helped. Surely, though, she wouldn't have wanted her condition to be exploited for political show biz.

+ Pensacola News Journal -- Could the state overrule spouse's say either way? There is only one person with the responsibility and right to make it, and that is Michael Schiavo. To have state government assume the authority through exercise of state power is a dangerous precedent.

+ Daytona Beach News-Journal -- Schiavo bill was rash, badly timed. "I hope -- I really do hope -- we've done the right thing," King said as the Senate concluded debate Tuesday afternoon. It was clear from the tone of his voice that he already knew the answer -- and that it was no.

+Sun-Sentinel -- There's a sharp lesson for everyone in the bitter battle over Terri Schiavo: Write a Living Will.

MSNBC runs a hard-hitting, doctor written piece -- Florida errs in right-to-die case

There have been plenty of bone-headed decisions over the years by government officials and legislators playing doctor in controversial medical cases. But few lawmakers have acted as rashly, ineptly and dangerously with respect to the public as did the Florida state Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush when they passed a last-minute law intended to stop the death of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman who?s been in a coma for more than 13 years.

Troxler on how an Arrogant Legislature finally walks all over itself.

Tuesday's banana republic mayhem was a spectacularly bad way to make new law. It was immature and intemperate. It was inconstant. It was law made up on the spot by a flock of clucking chickens jerking their heads in unison at loud noises and bright flashes of light.

The few editorials around the state are mixed:

+ St. Pete Times -- Gov. Jeb Bush and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd's emergency law to reinsert Terri Schiavo's feeding tube smacks of political opportunism.

+ The Tampa Trib tries hard to take the high road and find good in both positions and does not venture a conclusion of its own. We don't question the motivation of either the governor or those in the Legislature who disagree with him. We trust that, knowing the findings of the court, they carefully considered intervening and whether they should impose their will on her if she wanted to die.

+ The Orlando Sentinel, despite it's generally Republican slant, accuses Byrd and Jeb of "playing God." A surprisingly strong editorial. No link here because of their intrusive registration. (If you do register, remember: you must check the box way at the bottom of the page or get spam from Sentinel advertisers.)

Nice piece on the politics of a thoroughly political decision in the St. Pete Times. It begins with Randall "wave of hatred" Terry -- formerly of Operation Rescue -- working the phones.

Herald piece sees a play to lock up and motivate the Christian Right Republican base.

''A lot of people felt pretty rotten about being forced into a position of voting for a piece of legislation, or being blamed by the politically expedient on the other end of the hall for killing Terri Schiavo. And that's the way it was put to us,'' Lee told reporters.

Lee charged that the Schiavo bill was ''concocted'' as a ``brainstorm to use this woman's life as a political football to appeal to the Christian conservatives in this state who will never understand the details that construct this case.''

A good summary by the New York Times has this from Byrd -- Mr. Byrd was eager to claim credit for the measure, which passed the House 73 to 24. "I was chewing on his leg," he said of his 11th-hour efforts to get Mr. King to take up the legislation in the Senate.

Scripps cartoons in Fla. Today and Gainesville Sun.

Is nobody covering this except the Palm Beach Post? The Post continues its outstanding coverage of the voucher program with this story about a Senate report slamming voucher management.

Get this: "It has been difficult to determine who at the Department of Education is actually running the tax credit scholarship program on behalf of the state," the report stated. The voucher programs suffer from such lax oversight that they largely have been left to run themselves

An editorial slams Horne's wan attempts at reform.

What happened to The grapefruit?

House uses a medical tragedy as an occasion for cheap demagogy, posturing and throwing the separation of powers doctrine out the window. It passes a bill custom-designed for the Schiavo case.

My favorite quote -- Whether it's legal or not, I'm telling you, you should support this bill -- Rep. Don Davis, R-Jacksonville.

In the gallery applauding was professional antiabortion extremist Randall "wave of hatred" Terry, formerly of Operation Rescue, is now a "spokesman" for the Schiavo family.

The Sun-Sentinel (account is also in The Sentinel) is one of the few papers to actually talk to somebody who is not a politician or professional activist. Its account quotes a bio-ethicist deep in the story.

Bill Allen, a bioethics law professor at the University of Florida, was appalled the Legislature would consider changing the state's 13-year-old right-to-die standard because of a single case. He said requiring all family members to agree would thwart the choices every adult has a right to make about life-sustaining treatment.

"This is terrible. They don't understand what they're doing. Using one tough case to base new law on is a bad way to make legislation," Allen said. "Most people don't have written directives but they still have strong feelings they've shared with a spouse, a brother, a sister, a friend. These people would be at the mercy of a family member who disagrees with their choice."

(Also see Fred Grimm's column last week.)

And from the Conservative Bias in the News Department, look at these headlines

+ Tampa Trib -- Legislature Acts To Save Schiavo.
+ St. Pete -- House votes to save Schiavo
+ Philly Inquirer -- Fla. House seeks to save Schiavo in feeding-tube case.

She is not being "saved." She is being condemned by politicians and activists to a perpetual near-death twilight -- possibly against her stated wishes. Too many headline writers seem content to mouth the slogans of right-to-life activists.

Deanies are mobilizing for the state Democratic straw poll even though the national party wants to quash it. Again. The News-Journal says, Florida Democrats shouldn't heed pleas to hush up.

EPA water-quality expert for Lee, Collier loses his job. His version: Government agencies legally required to protect Florida wetlands are bowing down to big-name developers by accepting faulty science that allows further pollution of protected waterways for the sake of company profits.

Who is Donna Arduin? And how is it she's advising Arnold Schwarzenegger while on Florida's payroll?

Ruth turns the dial to 11 and blasts Byrd and the USF contribution shakedown.

Jeepers, although no one has ever confused the Florida Legislature with Camelot meets the Algonquin Round Table, Byrd - Plant City's Boss Hogg - has managed to reduce the House to a sort of yahoo Politburo.

The estimable Bill Maxwell takes on barbershop opinionmakers and weighs in on the Sapp flap.

Chemical imagemaking refuses to die!

Tallahassee Dem runs a one-hand-but-then-the-on-the-other-hand column about the Florida pension fund's strange investment in Edison with unnamed analysts saying it's good and it's bad. (Named analysts have a pretty spotty record as it is.) Myself, I can't decide if it's crony capitalism or ideological investing. It's too much money to be purely a slap in the face at public school teachers. That was merely a deal-sweetener for the Jebbites.

(FEA site reprints Josh Marshall on the issue.)

Hatless.com registers a complaint with S. Fla. public radio. You go, Koppelman! Bring back jazz and Ital-K!

Marlins: We won the pennant! Now give us $300 million for a new park!

The Red Sox broke my heart again. And in classic Sox extra-innings-in-a-tied-game-in-a-tied-game fashion. This ranks with Bucky F. Dent.

No series viewing for this boy. I'm rooting for nobody.

Questions keep popping up about the Scripps deal.

The News-Journal is good enough to post Sen. King's letter to the governor asking for details along with an editorial. (Here's the problem. Lawmakers don't yet know what they would be voting on. As of Thursday, the precise language of the deal with Scripps had still not been released. Yet legislators giddily rushed to embrace the deal.)

Meanwhile, the role the role of developers and other third-parties remains unclear.

As usual, Jeb bristles at the idea anyone would ask him to explain his actions and suggests that if this isn't rubber-stamped, Scripps will just go somewhere else.

St Pete Times editorial on Byrd contribution shake-downs at USF. . . an especially damaging chapter in the poisonous politicization of the state university system.

Discourse.net listens incredulously to teevee rightwinger Fred Barns at his recent talk at U of Miami and gives a more general review, too.

Florida blogging loses one of its most popular sites when Robyn at Ain't too proud to blog says, "Goodbye. And thanks for the memories."

But she'll still run shutterblog.

Coverage of and comment about the Scripps Research Institute deal has been generally rhapsodic. (Here, here, here and here, for example.)

But there are still a few questions unanswered here. Sen. King has nine pages of them. (And here.)

''This is a strange situation for all intents and purposes,'' said Sen. President Jim King, who has sent Bush nine pages of questions about the deal. ``Scripps isn't investing anything other than its reputation and intellectual capacity.''

Then, too, there's a pesky constitutional question. Article VII, Section 10 limits the state's ability to "become a joint owner with, or stockholder of, or give, lend or use its taxing power or credit to aid any corporation, association, partnership or person." (Though there are many, many ways around this.)

He's making a list and checking it twice/ Software can tell who's naughty and nice.

Infomercials pose as actual programming on NBC-affiliate WFLA in Tampa. $2,500 for six minutes as a guest on Daytime.

(Via Romenesko)

More opposition to proposals for centralized water control and infrastructure to bring water from North to South Florida to fuel uncontrolled growth.

+ Lake County objects

+ South Florida objects.

+ Putnam County objects

+ Objections in Palm Beach County. We don't have a water problem -- we have a growth problem -- Sierra Club activist George Cavros.

+ Herald on North versus South

Whose Florida? has put up a Water Management Page with a bunch of responses to the Council of 100's water proposals.

For your viewing pleasure -- and my easy reference -- 18 Florida columnists now are listed off to the left. The only criteria: they are the people I read regularly.

Why 18? -- Just because.

Why is that foolish and juvenile Dave Berry listed first? -- Alphabetical order, boogerhead.

Why don't you link to Grimes? He's funnier than you are. -- Because the wretched design of his newspaper's Web site doesn't have standing links to individual columnists. Nor does the Palm Beach Post, for that matter, but you can at least find Cerabino and Versteeg there.

Why no Sentinel people?- - Because of their site registration system, which bugs me for no really good reason. Like the LA Times, and Chicago reg systems, which it emulates, it has too many steps and demands too much information. After Yahoo! sold my e-mail address to spammers, I believe nobody's posted privacy policy

Why no comments, you wimp? -- Because I don't want to deal with comment spam, trolls, psychos, dittoheads, Freepers, NeoConfederates, potty mouths and Web bullies. Besides I want to keep the coding simple. Do your own blog.

What with this Weekend Polaroid thing? -- It's a personal celebration of bypassed technology and it's easy to do. Chemical imagemaking refuses to die! See A Polaroid a Day, Formerly 669 for someone who does this better, seriously and daily.

What a coincidence! Lottery Ads Would Coincide With Campaigns.

USF dean forced out after helping with one of Johnnie Byrd's fund-raising shake-downs.

In recent weeks, Daugherty asked 25 of his top-ranking employees, both face to face and by phone, for up to $2,000 contributions for the Byrd campaign.

Nice little office you got here. Be a shame if anything happened to it. I have a little favor to ask.

How many times have you asked yourself -- when is Florida going to have its own home-grown, pandering Oprah-style teevee show with a Renaldo wannabee who is always willing to take the cheapest possible shot? Well, wait no more!

Sure, he bombed on MSNBC, but it might just work in South Florida.

St. Pete Times asks: What's the plan?

Public schools are facing an immediate shortfall of roughly $72-million merely to deal with fall enrollment that exceeded projections, and the governor's spokeswoman said any attempt to dip into a $948-million federal economic stimulus grant would be "not fiscally responsible."

No paper has done more to expose the problems, abuses and ideological zealotry behind Florida's voucher program than The Palm Beach Post . And they do it again with Increasing vouchers to religious schools stirs debate.

The vast majority of each of those types of vouchers is going to religious schools, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis: 64 percent of the schools taking McKay vouchers, 81 percent of those taking failing school vouchers and 84 percent of those taking corporate vouchers.

Bottom line -- this government subsidizing of religion.

Past Post voucher coverage can be found here.

Florida Politics blog asks the obvious question about Donna Arduin being granted paid leave from her $122,981-a-year job by Gov. Jeb Bush to volunteer and lead an audit of California's beleaguered budget -- HOLD ON A MINUTE - Why is a Florida state employee being paid to "volunteer" to help "fix" the California budget?

Why, indeed.

Those who know Arduin predict Californians will soon be handed a conservative diet of program cuts, the use of one-time tax dollars to pay for recurring state services, the privatizing of state work, and tax cuts to stimulate the economy.

And don't forget education cuts and under-estimates of student population and unbelievably optimistic revenue predictions.

Chemical imagemaking refuses to die!

The idea of a statewide water board and a water pipeline system to fuel south Florida growth with north Florida water looks like a nonstarter.

+The conservative Tampa Trib says This state doesn't need an authoritarian water board.

+ Opposition in Lee, Polk, Putnam and Alachua counties.

Illiteracy on the road.

Committee on Natural Resources gets an earful about using North Florida water to fuel South Florida development.

The issue of gay ordination drives House Speaker Byrd from the Episcopal Church. Of course, the fact that there are a lot more Baptists than Episcopalians in Florida had no affect on the Senate candidate's decision. Nope. None at all. Uh-uh.

Some of his fellow Republicans, though hesitant to question the issue of a colleague's religion did find it odd Byrd passed up Baptist churches in his hometown to commute to Brandon.

``The First Baptist Church of Plant City is probably one of the most well-known and well respected of Hillsborough County,'' said state Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon. ``I wouldn't think that someone would choose a place of worship for political expediency,'' but, he added, ``It's an interesting business we're in.''

(Via the Republicans @ Sayfie)

Arnold borrows Jeb's surrealist economist. Maybe she can do for California's budget what she helped do to Florida's. Bad news for schools.

Haw-haw. They thought they were voting for a moderate.

Lest we get too smug, the Sun-Sentinel (may Web gods preserve them from the site-registration system of their sister paper, the Sentinel) reminds us of some scary budgetary facts

Divide each state's deficit by its population, and Californians have a smaller per-person budget obligation ($218) than Floridians ($240).

And, likewise, our governor never held elected office before, either.

(Via Fla. Politics)

I've been rather surprised at the lack of response to the Florida pension system's bailout of Edison schools. Yeah, pension issues are a little complicated and hard to explain. But it seems clear this is politically motivated and a potentially big money-losing investment by a pension plan that already is smarting from its still inexplicable Enron purchases. At least the The Palm Beach Post -- now the first stop for anyone following state ed policy -- says Edison Schools buyout links Florida to a loser

Orlando Sentinel goes to an annoying registration system which of course asks for lots of demographic information and has a click-if-you-want-our-advertisers-to-spam-you box.

I'll keep Sentinel links to a minimum. There are lots of other sites in the state.

Meanwhile, Herald.com -- which used to be too horrible and slow to deal with -- has improved with the newspaper redesign. No more I-read-miami.com-so-you-don't-have-to notes here. Unless, of course, Knight Ridder clamps down and forces bad design choices on them again.

St. Pete Times warns Graham pick Senate race or VP slot. Not both. Fish or cut bait.

+ Palm Beach Post -- Run, Bob, run

+ Herald -- A noble defeat.

+ Sun-Sentinel -- Didn't hurt to try.

+ Fla. Today -- Run Bob, run


Meanwhile, ultrarightwing Speaker Johnnie Byrd says Bob's now too extreme and Deanlike to win.

Expect to hear that a lot. Unless it gets too many chuckles.

This Troxler column asks some obvious questions and more-or-less makes sense until the penultimate 'graph. Then, whump! you're in Bizarro World! (Come with us to the Flablog Vault of Memory and recall last year's candidacy of this new star of the Florida firmament. )

Bob Graham is officially out. Too bad, hope he gets right back in the Senate race so the election doesn't become a right-wing kook festival. For a roundup, go to Florida Politics despite the annoying popup ads Tripod flings at you.

Or go to the Republicans at Sayfie Review which has put up its animated dome light for the occasion. (What is it about conservatives and corny graphic design?)

Here's his statement.