Progress Florida Blog

Progress Florida Education Center's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 5-11-12
Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida Education Center's popular free Daily Clips service.

Official: "Bigger Fish To Fry" Than Actually Prosecuting In "Preventive" Florida Voter Purge
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
From the Department of Phantom Voter Fraud, Republicans in Florida have made sure that the Florida Division of Elections is hard at work enforcing their new election laws that restrict voters from getting to the polls.

The Great Destroyers let no economic crisis go to waste
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
The last five years have tested the hypothesis that the public doesn't care what government does, so long as its belly is full and cares even less when its belly is empty.

Mitt Romney Outed As Anti-Gay High School Bully
By Adam Peck
Think Progress
Last year's string of heartbreaking suicides by young members of the LGBT community who had been bullied by their classmates led hundreds of celebrities, sports teams, politicians and ordinary citizens to record "It Gets Better" videos.

Who said this first? Gay group starts petition to force Dems to move convention out of NC
By Peter Schorsch
St. Petersblog 2.0
A gay advocacy group is trying to rally sympathizers to help shift the Democrats' trouble-plagued convention from North Carolina to another state.

Progress Florida Education Center's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 5-4-12
Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida Education Center's popular free Daily Clips service.

Book Review: From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans
By Dave Trotter
Political Hurricane
For those of you that might be new to Florida politics or don't know much of this history behind it, this is the perfect book to get you up to speed.

Florida Lawmakers Claim 'Stand Your Ground' Is Pro-Woman, Despite Exemption For Domestic Violence
By Annie-Rose Strasser
Think Progress
A father/son duo in the Florida state legislature is working hard to bring gender politics into the debate about Stand Your Ground laws.

Marco Rubio: refuses to meet with climate change scientists
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
Dr. Harold Wanless is Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Miami.

I Live In Florida And Wanted An Education, But All I Got Was This Rick Scott Sharpie
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
Hey Kids, Can You Spell Awkward? Maybe not, but it's the same way you spell pathetic: "R-i-c-k  S-c-o-t-t."

The Concealed Carry Dream World
By Jon Rector
SOG City Oracle
Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano wrote an opinion piece the other day on concealed carry entitled, Get ready for new face of gun owners.

Progress Florida Education Center's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 4-27-12
Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida Education Center's popular free Daily Clips service.

Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Shows One Group Was Right -- the Welfare Recipients
By Trish Ponder
Pensito Review
What do you do when the facts don't support your actions, which were based on extremist rhetoric and false notions?

ALEC leader admits last week's announcement was a PR stunt
By Campaign Staff
ColorOfChange.org
Last week, ALEC acknowledged that it was reeling after its corporate sponsors -- some of which pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for membership in the right-wing group -- started dropping like flies.

The Stupidity Equation: The Rick Scott UF-USF Disaster
By Benjamin J. Kirby
The Spencerian
Maybe now we can stop pretending Florida Governor Rick Scott is anything but a back-stabbing grifter who only cares about making his rich friends richer.

Half The Lawmakers On Florida 'Stand Your Ground' Task Force Are ALEC Members, All Supported Stand Your Ground
By Adam Peck
Think Progress
Yesterday, Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) unveiled the members of his task force assigned to investigate the effects of the state's "Stand Your Ground" laws that have come under intense scrutiny and criticism in recent weeks after the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin.

Standardized test security questioned
By Valerie Strauss
The Answer Sheet
Tenth-graders in Florida took the state's standardized test in reading on a staggered schedule because there weren't enough computers available for them all to take it at the same time, raising concerns that security of test questions could be compromised, the Miami Herald reported.

Progress Florida Education Center's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 4-20-12
Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida Education Center's popular free Daily Clips service.

Rick Scott Signs His Bait And Switch "Education Budget"
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
Today Rick Scott signed what he's calling his "education budget" at an elementary school during FCAT testing time and using kindergartners as a backdrop.

Senate's Defense On Redistricting Shows Continued Arrogance
By Kartik Krishnaiyer
Political Hurricane
The Senate continues to misfire in the reapportionment debate. In their brief to the Supreme Court the Senate lawyers have claimed that the chamber fixed every objection of the court in the initial plan which met with court rejection.

Orlando Rising
By Steve Schale
Steve Schale
On Election Night 2008, my usual elecction night jitters ended immediately at  7:05 PM EST, when the early vote in Orange County had us up by some 60,000 votes.

The Truth About Taxes
By Kenneth Quinnell
Florida Progressive Coalition
In honor of National Tax Day, I wanted to say a few things about taxes and the way conservatives talk about them.

Governor Rick Scott and John DeGrove: gone
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
Most Floridians never heard of John DeGrove, who passed away recently at age 87.

Progress Florida Education Center's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 4-13-12
Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida Education Center's popular free Daily Clips service.

Mike Haridopolos: The worst Senate President of the modern Republican era
By Peter Schorsch
St. Petersblog 2.0
Ander Crenshaw. Jim Scott. Toni Jennings. John McKay. Jim King. Tom Lee. Ken Pruitt. Jeff Atwater. Mike Haridopolos.

Where Have All The Great Democrats Gone?
By Kartik Krishnaiyer
The Political Hurricane
After reading my colleague Dave Trotter's excellent Sunday editorial on Reubin Askew, I became sentimental about the days when Florida groomed real progressive leaders.

Does Your Legislator Work For ALEC, Or For You?
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC has been losing support and funding in light of being exposed as one of the groups behind laws like the Stand Your Ground and those involving the current rash of voter suppression efforts across the country by Republicans.

Corrupt: in Florida, this is how we roll
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
Last week FBI Robert Mueller III spoke to the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce to enlist the business community in rooting out the pervasive corruption in South Florida.