The Democratic voters of Michigan and Florida are unhappy, or so we read. They, or if you will, their representatives, moved up their primary dates and drew a punishment from the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. Since then, what have the voters of Michigan and Florida actually done to try and reverse or repair their problem? Nothing but complain.  Read more 

Greg Sargent doesn’t get it:

Bloomberg News takes a look at what Hillary needs to do to earn a popular vote win, and finds that she basically needs to do the political equivalent of pitching a no-hitter, hitting for the cycle, and pulling an unassisted triple play — all in one game:

What these geniuses forget is that Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates, but not their votes.  Read more 

Gene Lyons  Read more 

Which of these four things should happen to Democratic primary voters in Florida?

1) They should be ignored. Florida’s Republican-led state government broke the DNC’s rules by moving up the primary date, so fuck the Sunshine State’s Dems.

2) Their votes from the original primary day should be counted. While the vote was clouded by a plan/threat not to seat the delegates, voters turned out in big numbers and made their preferences known.

3) They should get a mulligan. The results from a re-vote might be different from the previous vote’s, but the cloud of uncertainty will be removed.

4) They should be neutered. Florida gets half its alloted delegates, and they are evenly dispersed across the two candidates, completely nullifying the impact of voters’ preferences. (Perhaps, symbolically, two voters — one for each remaining Dem — can show up and cast a ballot, while everyone else who prefers one candidate over the other goes and fucks him/herself.)

The last option is known — according to Silent Patriot at C&L — as “Kos get(ting) it right.”

But I still love ya, C&L. And congrats on your well-earned Bloggie!

Note:  Read more 

Bring the candle over, dear,It’s very hard to see
Shine so I can see the screen of battery TV

Lights are out all over from Daytona to the Keys
Line failure’s marching through Flor’da.

(to the tune of ’Marching Through Georgia’)

Weird story, just breaking now so I suppose some confusion is unavoidable. Massive storms are hitting the northern part of the state, but this outage is in the south, I wasn’t kidding about the “Daytona to the Keys” line (although they say the Keys are coming back on. I’d like to see where the southernmost power plant is before I believe this story.)

Another cascade effect at any rate. Reminds me of the one a few years ago where literally a tree branch down on a transmission line knocked out the whole Northeast from Ohio to New York and other places.

Weren’t we going to beef up the infrastructure after that? Oh, wait…..  Read more 

Three Florida fruit-pickers, held captive and brutalised by their employer for more than a year, finally broke free of their bonds by punching their way through the ventilator hatch of the van in which they were imprisoned. Once outside, they dashed for freedom.

When they found sanctuary one recent Sunday morning, all bore the marks of heavy beatings to the head and body. One of the pickers had a nasty, untreated knife wound on his arm. Police would learn later that another man had his hands chained behind his back every night to prevent him escaping, leaving his wrists swollen.

The migrants were not only forced to work in sub-human conditions but mistreated and forced into debt. They were locked up at night and had to pay for sub-standard food. If they took a shower with a garden hose or bucket, it cost them $5.

Their story of slavery and abuse in the fruit fields of sub-tropical Florida threatens to lift the lid on some appalling human rights abuses in America today.

Between December and May, Florida produces virtually the entire US crop of field-grown fresh tomatoes. Fruit picked here in the winter months ends up on the shelves of supermarkets and is also served in the country’s top restaurants and in tens of thousands of fast-food outlets.  Read more 

It’s a shame. It seems that remediation just isn’t possible. I mean, they think Katherine “I’m not melting!” Harris belongs in the Senate:

“The die-hard Republican voters, they love her,” said Jennifer Duffy, editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election newsletter. “They think she got a bum rap in 2000.”

Most recently, she was criticized for calling separation of church and state “a lie we have been told,” and she angered many by saying: “If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.”

Well, that’s what The Base believes, so no wonder they voted for her.

And part of election 2006 is turning The Base into losers, and making sure everyone understands that:  Read more 

It must be tough to be liberal and have the temerity to speak out.

The point, though, is that Grapski started spending more and more time at City Hall researching the absentee ballots. At first, he was given free rein to examine them as closely as he pleased. Then he was told he was no longer at liberty to make photocopies. Shortly afterwards, Henderson told him he would be allowed no more than an extra hour to go through the ballot pile, and if he wanted to scrutinize them further he would have to pay the city for the trouble of watching over him as he did so.  Read more 

Good news for the long-suffering residents of Florida! They are in a position to save vast amounts of money, time, aggravation from being subjected to campaign ads and answering polling phone calls, and have local news airtime freed up from election coverage to focus on people fallen overboard from cruise ships, eaten by alligators, run away from weddings, and other more significant topics. They can just cancel the next gubernatorial election right now, as the winner has already been declared*:

A reverend who introduced Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist during a breakfast with other pastors Monday said the Lord came to him in a dream two years ago and told him Crist would be the state’s next governor.  Read more