This is our regular feature where every day I do a quick post with the top posts/stories that I think people should read from the previous day.
1. spacecoastweb: blog – The Palmetto Withered: “In December of 2007, one of Florida’s most popular blogs, Stuck on the Palmetto, closed up shop. I was sad to see it go. The circumstances of this unfortunate loss are complex. One of the blog’s authors, Rick, felt that his anonymity was being threatened. An investigative journalist, Bob Norman, took offense following a post by Rick at SotP. Norman used his New Times blog, The Daily Pulp, to respond. Rick was spooked upon seeing Norman’s post. The chain of events eventually caused SotP to be shuttered and its archives deleted. Many South Florida blogs have already given this story their attention. Print media has noted the loss. I won’t attempt an analysis of it here. Better writers than I have dissected the matter. I want to explore a peripheral issue, that of respect for intellectual property. Viral propagation of data is an irreversible process.”
2. spacebawl (the blog) – Floridians: Vote on January 29th! Or else!: “In addition, there are other items on the Jan. 29 ballot that must be voted on, the most important of which is the property tax reform amendment. I’m voting against this because our municipalities are already operating on a shoestring and have practically no tax revenue to invest in public works projects and services.”
3. Florida Netroots – Democrats: Vote in the Florida Primary: “Seriously, your vote matters, despite what you may have been told to the contrary. We will have an important role in choosing the Democratic Nominee for President and our delegates, ultimately, will be seated” and
4. Florida Kossacks – Why Vote: To Take Our Country Back: “‘With the original First Amendment ‘Freedom of Speech’ looking on, admirers of the U.S. Constitution in the Washington D.C. National Archives Building today were ordered to leave for wearing tee-shirts reading ‘Impeach Bush and Cheney.’ The only thing I could think of to add to the comments was this: ‘This is just another reminder of why it is so important to elect a Democrat President this year. We have GOT to take our country back from those people.’ But then I got to thinking, this is why we need to vote in the Florida Presidential Primary on January 29th. We do have to take our country back. Some folks being told they have to leave the National Archives building because their T-shirts bothered the rent a cops seems like a rather trivial thing. But something like this should never happen in our country. However, may things that should never have happened in this country have happened in the past seven years.”
5. Blast Off! – What do south Florida elections have in common with the ‘62 Mets?: “Here we are, less than three weeks before the Florida primary (months from the general election, of course), and there already are problems with the absentee voting procedure in at least two south Florida counties…”
6. Eye On Miami – Global warming, sea level rise and Florida: “we’re on the way to something else”: “I understand the mind-set of the Chamber of Commerce perfectly well, especially in Florida where the only perceivable industry is health care, where patients are a constantly renewable resource, and construction and development, where keeping costs low means constantly deferring the true costs of infrastructure: promote anything that puts cement on ground and steel in the air and people in more and more houses even if they are in flood plains. And I understand perfectly well the mind-set of the Farm Bureau, that opposes anything that might obstruct their spontaneous transformation into builders and developers. So in Florida, there is nothing by way of long-term planning that works.”
7. Miami-Dade Dems – Dems also violate the rules on political money: “I missed this story from earlier this week – the wrapup of that small fuss that arose during the 2006 election season over dubious fundraising by OUR side. Seems some money is being paid out in fines. It makes me wonder about our laws. Shouldn’t it be clear that it’s wrong to do something? If we need a lawyer standing over us all the time to advise whether some action is legal or not, have we not made life too complicated? Take a browse through the Florida election laws: Title IX, Chapters 97-106, 126 pages of rather small print. Got it memorized? Now you can think about running for office or giving/accepting campaign contributions.”
8. Florida Science Standards: DarkSyde – Creationism in the Sunshine State, Florida Citizens for Science – Disgusting, Florida Citizens for Science – Governor: Hit by the theory bug, Florida Citizens for Science – Two more resolutions, and DuvalDem – Darwin In My Classroom.
9. Why Now? – More Problems: “The recent changes enacted by the Postal Service weren’t simply an increase in the price of stamps. There were other changes in the package that is shifting costs from large corporations to the people at the bottom. Many of you have heard of the large increases for small periodicals as compared to the big guys, but there are also changes that affect the individual. A big change is that almost anything that isn’t a standard #10 envelope is going to cost you more to mail. Sinfonian at Blast Off! has a prime example of this: absentee ballots. The Palm Beach county absentee ballot will cost 91¢ to mail back, not a single first class stamp, because it is not a standard sized envelope.”
10. Stephen Crockett – Exciting Talk Radio News – From Florida: “Amazingly, we are going to have a 24 hour progressive/Democratic/labor friendly radio station on the air in Jacksonville, Florida for the rest of 2008! It will be run by a great Democratic talk show host and my friend Andy Johnson” and Pensito Review – Jacksonville to Get Progressive Talk Radio: “Good news for liberals in the Jacksonville-St. Augustine market: ‘[It] appears that Jacksonville, Fla., will be getting its very own progressive talk station…So far the only schedule announcements are the addition of Ed Schultz live from noon-3P and Johnson’s own show from 3-6P. Look for a heavy emphasis on local talk programming. No word on the addition of other syndicated programming, i.e. Air America, etc.’”
11. Miami-Dade Dems – Great piece in the Miami Herald online about Guantanamo Demo: “The newspaper industry, which loves to give itself awards, needs to set up a category for multimedia stuff, and I’m making a nomination: Ricardo Lopez of the Miami Herald for his piece on the Jan. 11 demonstration to close Guantanamo and stop torture. I was there, and his report is terrific.”
12. Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida – City may abandon waste plans: “St. Augustine City Commissioner Errol Jones says he’ll push fellow commissioners to spend the extra money not to return landfill waste material to Riberia Street. ‘I’ve heard enough,’ Jones said, striding to the front of St. Paul A.M.E. Church on Thursday evening after listening to more than two hours of presentations, discussion and protests. He told the full house he would make a motion to spend the money that would take the material to a landfill.”
13. Adam4Pd – A Graham of Civility: “In the Spring of 1981, I was a nineteen year old student at New College when I was selected to be part of the Governor’s internship program created by Bob Graham. I spent that semester is his press and speech-writing office where I worked under the direction of Jill Chamberlain, a member of New College’s charter class of graduates. As part of my internship I was allowed to sit in on morning staff meetings with Governor Graham and to help write ceremonial speeches that he delivered around the state. This experience was a highlight of my college career. I felt like I gained a practical understanding of state government, and that I also did a lot of growing up during that time in Tallahassee.”
14. becoming change – if the democratic candidates were….cable channels.
15. AMERICAblog – Bankruptcies nearly doubled in Orlando area: “Passing through the Orlando airport, the headline of the Orlando Sentinel caught my eye ‘Personal bankruptcies jump 96% in Metro Orlando.’ That’s almost double. The economy of Florida is clearly tanking. And, they’ve got two Bushes to thank, George and Jeb. We’ll see if Floridians stick with Republicans again this year after all the economic damage wrought. And, they can thank Bush and the GOPers for the new bankruptcy law that screws people while enriching the industries that brought about the fiscal crisis.”
16. MyDD – Florida now Matters to Obama: “Out of Florida, The Buzz picked up on a quote by an Obama strategist that tipped off the plan for Obama to compete in the upcoming primary of Florida…”
17. Here are the sites in our Candidate Watch Network that have been updated: Florida Cabinet Watch, Florida Senate Watch and Florida House Watch.
18. Also check out CG Radio and Political Newsclippings from The Spencerian.
Just thought I’d let you know the “Duvaldem” you have listed in the Florida Science Standards story #8 is in fact me. It is my old user name in Daily Kos and I just haven’t changed it because I don’t want to lose my userid #.
TrumanDem
Truman’s Conscience
“The Buck Stopped Here“
Yes, I knew that was you, I didn’t know if you wanted it to go with the user name or your blog name, so I went with what you had on the site. In the future, I’ll keep them consistent if you want me to so that people will know it’s you.
Kenneth,
First, thanks for the kind mention the other day. It’s great to be back.
Just wanted to throw in that another newspaper has provided it’s endorsements today. You may already be aware that the Tampa Trib endorsed McCain and Obama in this morning’s edition (it actually made the announcement on it’s Web site Friday evening). The Daytona Beach News Journal today endorsed McCain and John Edwards.
It’s beginning to get interesting…