They are poor little sheep who have lost their way . . .

With his "Legislature of sheep" comment to the Tampa Trib, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd riled some Legislators. Others, in sheeplike fashion dutifully tempered the remark. ``We all use analogies like that,'' (Rep. Sandra) Murman (R-Tampa) said. ``I think of sheep as kind animals. They're just out in the field working hard for the farm.'' (Deep in the Tampa Trib story.) Ba-a-a-h! Editorials -- + St. Pete Times -- Wooly Bully. + Tampa Trib -- Byrd's Peculiar Brand Of Leadership Lane | 28.2.04 |

Up ahead

Light posting for the next few days. Lane | 24.2.04 |

Another privatized mess

Another privatization horror -- A grand jury finds, Healthy profits for a private company caused dangerous conditions and inmate injuries at a local prison while state officials looked the other way. (Via South of the Suwannee.) Lane | 24.2.04 |

Uniters not dividers

Rod Paige sez: Unions+public school teachers=terrorism. Sheesh, and the election is still more than eight months away. Lane | 24.2.04 |

AntiMATRIX page

We've written before about The MATRIX and privacy concerns. Now, the Florida ACLU has put up a page that will tell Your Legislators to Stay Out of the Matrix Lane | 24.2.04 |

Don't know much about history ...

and thanks to the FCAT, you don't have to. Lane | 23.2.04 |

Shaking down drivers

Boy, does this bill have stink-bomb written all over it. It's a plan to create a statewide bad-driver fee. Innocuous enough. When you first hear about it, you'd almost think it was a tax on drunk drivers (who would pay would pay $1,000 annually for three years). But in fact, you could be mailing in $100 a year to the state for getting only two speeding tickets. Except, that you'd probably be mailing the check to ACS of Texas, not the state of Florida. That's because ACS, which might as well change its name to Politically Connected ACS, because that's what it tends to get called anyway, wants to administer the program. After donating at least $240,000 during the 2002 election, including $145,000 to the state Republican Party, ACS has beefed up its Tallahassee lobbyist ranks. Al Cardenas, former chairman of the state Republican Party, and Cynthia Henderson, former secretary of the state Department of Management Services, are among more than a dozen lobbyists registered to push the company's efforts with the Legislature. ACS, has had a few setbacks lately, but nothing $240,000 in campaign contributions can't solve. Oh, and look, the always-lands-on-her-feet Cynthia Henderson is working for them. (Or jar your memory by checking The Vault of Memory.) Sounds like more crony capitalism not dissimilar to the type Troxler drew attention to just last Thursday. Lane | 23.2.04 |

Weekend Polaroid

Chemical imagemaking refuses to die! Lane | 21.2.04 |

Malfunction Junction

Who has the 16th worst traffic bottleneck in the nation? Tampa. Lane | 20.2.04 |

It really works

I have been underwhlemed Mozilla's efforts in the past, but wow! Mozilla Firefox is fast, fast, fast and impressive. It has tabs, password managment, skins, built-in pop-up blocker and other things ie won't do. Just one problem: Flablog's design looks a bit, well, funky on Firefox. Weird stripes on the top and bottom. Looks like I'll have to re-start the redesign I put off doing. Lane | 20.2.04 |

Senate swarmed

Another excellent Mary Jo Malone column on how the Senate leadership was stampeded into voting for the Shiavo bill. It took King a while to realize that he had been fooled. Most of the callers, e-mailers and fax senders weren't from Florida. They were part of a well organized national campaign from the far right. But most of the callers who contacted King after the vote last fall were Floridians, and they were infuriated at the adoption of what's called Terri's Law. That is in line with a poll the Times and the Miami Herald took in December that showed two-thirds of us were against what the Legislature and the governor did. Lane | 20.2.04 |

NASCAR coverage at TAP

This doesn't really square with my NASCAR experiences, but Matt Thompson sits in the cheaper seats at the Daytona 500 (there are no cheap seats) for The American Prospect and finds that a lot of NASCAR fans are not Bush fans. You call this a base? Lane | 19.2.04 |

AOL sues over Florida spam

35 million spam messages ... whew, that's a lot of herbal v!@gra. That's the mail AOL says was generated by the Florida-based spammers it's suing. The ISP says it acted after 1.5 million consumer complaints. Lane | 18.2.04 |

This must have been meant for Halliburton

Look! My first Iraqi-themed Nigerian-style scam e-mail! From: "Philippe V." Reply-To: v_philip@fastermail.com To: mark.lane@news-jrnl.com Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 08:09:39 -0800 Subject: Urgent ! For Your Attention, The Managing Director / Owner REF: RE-CONSTRUCTION OF IRAQ - VARIOUS SUPPLIES... My name is Philippe V. and this is an urgent contract invitation from Iraq. My benefactor at the new American controlled Iraq ministry has mandated me to seek for your cooperation in a multi million dollars worth of supply contract. Please if you can assist us, then kindly contact me via My Global Satellite Fax Number: + 1 253 663-3510. (PLEASE MAKE SURE TO SEND FAX ONLY DETAILING YOUR DIREACT TELEPHONE, FAX NUMBER AND EXCLUSIVE EMAIL). As soon as we recieve those, I shall get back to you with all details exclusively. Regards, Philippe V. Lane | 17.2.04 |

Parents rights ... again

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd is not content with an abortion parental-notification amendment to the Florida. He wants a Parental Rights Amendment in the Florida Constitution. Most coverage treats this as the brainchild of Byrd, but the Christian right has been campaigning for Parental Rights Amendments nationwide. In 1996, recently, one was defeated in Colorado (Also see here. A sweeping federal parental rights bill was part of the Christian Coalition's "Contract with the American Family" in 1995. (Remember? Back in the Newt Gringrich days? It all seems so long ago.) Educators feared such a sweeping "parental rights" amendment would void basic protections of children like mandatory school attendance laws, minimum drinking-age laws, tobacco restrictions for youth or infant car-seat requirements -- hey, these interfere with my rights as a parent! Others worried that it would encourage litigation against schools, teachers, youth counselors, child-protection workers and doctors. You make a sweeping constitutional law saying parents can do anything they want with their kids and you shouldn't be surprised when parents start using it in court. Is this any different? Looks like another bit of Byrd's grandstanding to get himself noticed in a crowded US Senate primary. But it has the potential for tying the Legislature in knots and preventing it from doing that dumb ol' boring stuff, like, you know, maybe passing a budget on time. Lane | 17.2.04 |

Pork choppers

South of the Suwannee recalls the Pork Chop Gang. Lane | 16.2.04 |

Another candidate, another Republican, another Gallagher

As though there weren't enough Florida Republicans running for the US Senate Gallagher has announced he's running, too. No, not the state Cabinet guy Gallagher, Doug Gallagher, his little brother. (Odd how there's no room for his first name on the campaign logo seen on this press release.) This immediately raises the possibility that he might get Opie Factor votes. That is, people reflexively voting for a famous name. (So-called because an unknown named Ron Howard benefited from name confusion more than once.) Lane | 16.2.04 |

The untouchables

How many incumbents lost in 2002 because voters wanted a change? Exactly zero. Troxler on The Untouchables by which he means your "representatives" in Tallahassee. This modern Legislature is a new kind of animal - because its members are almost entirely immune to being defeated at re-election. Lane | 16.2.04 |

Speech falls flat with educators

Lee Handy wins friends and influences people ... again. He singled out the state teachers union and The Palm Beach Post as instigators of attacks against reforms, which he said have reversed decades of problems in the education system. That's the next best thing to a journalism award. Find the series here. (Via Fla. Politics.) Lane | 13.2.04 |

Flying the Christian skies

A good cartoon in Fla. Today. Lane | 11.2.04 |

If you can't get in, you don't have to wait

The Republican plan to end the waiting list for KidCare by simply shutting more kids out of the program is cynical even by Tallahassee standards. There's no waiting list anymore when you flat-out deny kids a chance for health care. Problem solved! The St. Pete Times editorial, Don't shut them out, promises to be the first of many. Lane | 11.2.04 |

Congratulations

to Robyn at Shutterblog. Lane | 10.2.04 |

Getting a peek at the FCAT

You've seen the stories before -- an answer on the SAT or like test is found to be wrong or misleading and the tests are regraded after a parent looks the test over, finds an error and complains. That can't happen with the FCAT. Not because it's so accurate but because nobody can see the results. And courts have ruled that the answers can stay secret. Now there's legislation to allow parents privately review their children's answers on the FCAT. Lane | 10.2.04 |

One of the worst votes

"The Terri Schiavo vote that I made was probably one of the worst votes that I've ever done," Senate President Jim King. tells the St. Pete Times. He cites "unbelievable" pressure from the religious right. Lane | 10.2.04 |

Public records are supposed to be, you know, public

The News-Journal gets the run-around and mild attempts at intimidation when it makes standard public records requests as part of a statewide project. But, hey, in Sarasota they threatened to arrest a volunteer. (Deep in the story.) Another volunteer, who is a Herald-Tribune reporter, was almost arrested after he politely declined to sign in at the front desk at the Charlotte County school district. Instead, he asked to remain anonymous and have the records delivered to the lobby. While Chuck Richards, Charlotte schools' manager of employee relations, was looking into the request, district security called sheriff's deputies to report a suspicious person. "He was being very mysterious, and it was causing anxiety among the staff," Richards told the Herald-Tribune. "He was not acting in a physically imposing way, but there was an attitude. It was his unwillingness to follow our process." Richards said he wasn't aware that the public records law did not require that a name be given. See a roundup of stories at the Florida Sunshine review over at idiganswers.com. Lane | 8.2.04 |

Weekend Polaroid

Chemical imagemaking refuses to die! Lane | 7.2.04 |

Photocopies for the people!

Twenty-nine, count them, 29 newspapers (including my own, beloved News-Journal) tested local compliance with public record laws and encountered stonewalling, and outright hostility. Only 57 percent of government agency tested complied. Example: Roger Desjarlais, the Broward County administrator, threatened a volunteer by saying, "I can make your life very difficult." After insisting that the volunteer give his name, Desjarlais used the Internet to identify the volunteer, find his cell phone number and call him after work hours. In an interview after the audit, Desjarlais denied that he threatened or tried to intimidate the volunteer, who is a reporter with SNN-Channel 6 in Sarasota. Letting people in on what their government is doing isn't just a good idea, it's the law. For a very complete rundown of stories relating to this project -- or anything about public records -- see Joe Adam's outstanding I Dig Answers site Lane | 7.2.04 |

Another indictment of the 'education governor'

Florida Politics points us to People for the American Way report on Florida's educational fiascoes. The whole thing is here in PDF form. Lane | 7.2.04 |

Patriotism at somebody else's expense

This is just too typical. A Florida Senate committee OKs bill mandating flags in public classrooms which is certainly unobjectionable; but get this: the superpatriots pushing this feel-good legislation refuse to pay for the damn flags. (Here's the bill's text.) The flags have to come out of local school budgets and student fees. The bill also tells schools to ask local veterans groups if maybe they'll pay. Gee, thanks guys. What's more stand-up-and-salute patriotic than a red, white and blue unfunded mandate from Tallahassee? How much? According to the Senate staff analysis, if you multiply 156,000 K-12 public classrooms times $17.50 for a mid-range cloth flag, the public cost is about $2.7 million. Find the cuts to make it work. We know you can. Whatsamatter? Don't you love America? Lane | 5.2.04 |

Don't let the screendoor hit you! (Cont.)

Palm Beach Post editorial says Struhs sold out Florida to cash in for himself. Mr. Struhs followed another bad act, Virginia Wetherell, who spent six years failing to enforce environmental laws under Gov. Chiles. Florida hasn't had a true regulator since Carol Browner left in 1993 to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. David Struhs made $122,000 a year running DEP. He turned that public investment into a handsome return -- for himself. Lane | 4.2.04 |

Morning after at Eckerd

The morning-after pill may be legal and may someday be available without a prescription. But one rape victim found that Eckerd wouldn't fill her prescription because the pharmcist apparently thought she should bear her rapist's child. Lane | 3.2.04 |

Writing to the test

The artificiality of FCAT grading has led English teachers to drill kids in writing highly formulaic 5-graph essays with a structure more rigid than a sonnet. St Pete Times runs a good feature on test-writing. My daughter's high school experience: teachers telling her that FCAT-essay writing style is "good writing," anything else is "bad writing." College English teachers find they have to break kids of absurd FCAT-induced writing habits. Lane | 2.2.04 |

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