Good Crist

Wow, Crist loves the trial lawyers, doesn't he? Good for him. It's a good thing to sue people who do bad things:

Gov. Charlie Crist has asked three trial lawyers to build a case for a possible class-action lawsuit against property insurers, alleging that the industry hasn't passed on savings to consumers as required by a new Florida law...

"I would give the insurance industry an F, a dead F, because I think they have failed not only what the law requires, I think they have morally failed the people of Florida."

Good Crist

Gov. Crist is right on the money on this one:

Gov. Charlie Crist joined a chorus of colleagues across the nation today in condemning a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block them from imposing tougher auto emission rules than the EPA requires.

He needs to follow through on this one to the highest levels. It's ridiculous for the Republicans in Washington to violate their own "states' rights" beliefs in order to provide corporate welfare to their buddies in the auto industry. This policy is so extreme that Republican governors are opposing it.

Crist and Browning Hate Democracy, Fair Elections, Reality

Pursuing the bogus voter fraud problem at the expense of people's constitutional rights:

Tuesday, a federal court blocked Florida's "no match, no vote" law after finding it violated voting rights, just six weeks before the state's presidential primary. The so-called "common-sense anti-fraud measure" required election officials to match voter registration application information - including names, birthdays, driver's license and Social Security numbers - against federal databases before registering a person to vote. Although the error-prone procedure put hundreds of thousands of Floridian registrants at risk of disenfranchisement each year and a federal court struck down a similar Washington law for the very same reason, Secretary of State Kurt Browning said he would "immediately appeal," according to the Associated Press.

I've yet to see any legitimate evidence showing that there is any significant incidence of voter fraud anywhere in America. There are individuals who engage in voter fraud, but it doesn't change the outcome of any elections and it isn't widespread enough to need any new solutions, especially ones this draconian. The logical thing to do would be to go with the old Republican standby of "enforcing the laws already on the books" since they seem to already have solved the problem.

Crist Hates Rule of Law, the State Constitution

Naked Politics:

Judge Kevin Davey on Thursday week struck down as unconstitutional a new system of public defenders to handle conflict cases that can't be handled by elected public defenders. The GOP-controlled Legislature during the 2007 session created a system of regional conflict counsels as a way to cut down on the costs of hiring private outside attorneys.

But the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers sued and Davey ruled that the Legislature exceeded its authority by requiring the new offices and that Gov. Charlie Crist exceeded his by appointing the five special public defenders. The court also quashed the appointments of the five attorneys who were tasked with setting up law offices.

Republicans don't have the power to do something like this. They don't care, they think that the rules don't apply to them, that they are allowed to do whatever it is they want to do. They're wrong.

McCollum Hates Reality, Science, Earth

The Buzz:

Attorney General Bill McCollum isn't buying Gov. Charlie Crist's belief that global warming is a threat to Florida and the world. Shortly before Christmas, McCollum sent a memo to Crist and the other Cabinet members, advising them that "the science is not all in" on the subject and urging them to view the enclosed DVD, a British television documentary called The Great Global Warming Swindle.

The science is all in. Global warming is a fact. It is a threat. The chief cause of it is human activity. To believe otherwise is to be willfully ignorant at best. Scientists, by the way, never use words like "swindle," so you can safely assume that any DVD with that word in the title is nonscientific. McCollum is pandering to the worst elements of civil society.

Crist Loves Flip-flopping. And...

Blast Off:

Despite having signed a petition in favor of a gay marriage ban during his gubernatorial campaign, Florida governor and "confirmed bachelor" Charlie Crist (R) won't be actively supporting the anti-gay marriage amendment.

Good Crist

Looks like Crist is really following through on his pro-environmental policies. Central Florida Political Pulse:

Gov. Charlie Crist announced two major initiatives Monday to strengthen alternative energy in Florida: A $182 million deal for a garbage-to-electricity plant in Tallahassee and a pledge to encourage Congress to end an import tax on Brazilian ethanol.

If we can get Crist to continue to move to the left on issues like this, Florida might actually rebound from the horror the Jeb years gave us. Some of our Democratic legislators should be as liberal on some of these issues as Crist is. Some of them are afraid that if they act too liberal they'll lose. Crist's approval ratings seem to disagree.

Good Crist

Wow, Florida Republicans are fighting some of President Bush's dumber policies. Blast Off!:

Following a similar move by the House on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted a short time ago to override Drunky McStagger's veto of a water resources bill with crucial benefits to Florida. To achieve the first override of Drunky's presidency, quite a few Republicans had to support the bill, and they actually did.

"Rep. John Mica, a Winter Park conservative who votes with the president about 90 percent of the time, led the charge in the House, which voted 223-138 on Tuesday for override. Sen. Mel Martinez, who was the president's hand-picked chairman of the national GOP until recently, voted to override. And Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist took time out from a trip to Brazil to lobby Florida lawmakers to split with the president. All the Florida Democrats and 12 of 17 House Republicans voted to override Bush."

If they keep doing things like this, we might have to start thinking that some of these people are actually sane. Naaahhh, that won't happen.

McCollum Hates Reality

becoming change:

[Florida] Attorney General Bill McCollum said he remains skeptical about the climate-change debate.

Seriously, it's 2007, are we still doing the whole "global warming isn't confirmed" nonsense? Really?

Good Crist

At least verbally supporting the environment:

Gov. Charlie Crist today praised the Orlando Utilities Commission and its partner Southern Co. for halting construction of a half-billion-dollar coal plant to serve as many as 70,000 homes.

"That’s fantastic," Crist said, shortly after an appearance at a fundraising luncheon for Florida A&M University and Bethune-Cookman University in Orlando.

Earlier this year, Crist launched what has been become a nationally recognized mission to lessen the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in Florida by electric plants, cars and other sources.

"I’m very happy for the people of Florida that’s occurring," Crist said. "Coal is what it is and I know it’s been an important source of energy in the past. But you know we have solar, we have nuclear, we have wind and other alternative opportunities for energy in the Sunshine State."

I hope that doesn't mean he's going to pursue any further nuclear power...

Crist Hates the Mentally Ill

Florida is a bad place to be if you have any kind of strong mental illness:

Chief Justice Fred Lewis and Gov. Charlie Crist are both scheduled to attend a summit Wednesday where they'll release an exhaustive, 200-page report on problems Florida’s social services and court systems face dealing with the mentally ill.

One example, the court says, is that mentally ill are incarcerated so often in Florida that jails have become the top mental health care providers in many communities.

"I think we all recognize that Florida now is stuck in a vicious cycle of inappropriate behavior leading to inappropriate incarceration, again and again," Judge Lewis sad in a statement released Monday.

But Florida appears headed into a bad season for new spending requests.

If Crist wanted to, he could force this issue. He isn't doing it. Is he going to do it later? Probably not. Why not?

Crist Loves Corporate Welfare

Whew, it's a damned good thing we've gotten that whole economy thing worked out. It's good that our governor has time for things like this:

The Buzz:

Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning he has "pretty much'' pledged to do whatever he can to help the Tampa Bay Rays get political help and money they need from the state to build a new 35,000-seat ballpark on the site of Al Lang Field in downtown St. Petersburg.

It's great to cut welfare services for poor people and instead focus on getting more welfare to corporations. And this is the best type of corporate welfare, too. We give a whole bunch of tax money to a private corporation for a totally unnecessary project which those corporations will make huge profits off of and give none of it back to the state. It's a win-win! Except for the people. (And, apparently, the baseball team that can't figure out how to win no matter how hard they try).

And, yes, I know that major league teams provide some jobs. But there are many more cost-efficient ways to bring jobs to the state. Jobs that are year-round, high-paying and stable.

DEP Doing the Right Thing

Central Florida Political Pulse:

But upon closer inspection, DEP isn’t so cheerful.

“If implemented, the (plan) would starve the Apalachicola River and Bay of freshwater flows needed to keep the ecosystems, species, and economy alive,” DEP Secretary Michael Sole wrote to the Corps and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday.

Further, Sole writes the tight, two-week deadline the feds have imposed for input isn’t adequate and the proposal to cap river flow through Florida at 4,150-5,000 cubic feet per second “would not only precipitate a catastrophic collapse of the oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay but also displace the entire economy of the Bay region.”

The root of the problem appears to be overdevelopment in northern Georgia. The fishermen and women of Apalachicola should not suffer because of bad growth management in Georgia.

Good Crist

Contrary to popular belief, the point of this blog is not to make the Republican members of the cabinet look bad. The point is to draw an accurate picture of these people and let them make themselves look bad. That means from time to time, they might actually look good on certain issues:

Charlie Crist sent a letter to Florida's Congressional delegation asking them to override Bush's veto of the Water Resources Development Act.

"While I appreciate the president's concern over the total cost of the bill, WRDA 2007 authorizes several vital water projects throughout our state, including necessary Everglades restoration projects," Crist wrote.

Bad Crist

As if the budget cuts weren't bad enough, Crist is planning on making things worse by continuing Jeb's ridiculous privatization scheme, this time by privatizing toll roads and the lottery.

So Much for the "People's" Governor

With his proposed budget cuts, Charlie Crist shows his true colors.

Central Florida Political Pulse:

Gov. Charlie Crist’s office just released his list of $983.2 million in revisions to Florida’s out-of-balance budget, a day after lawmakers officially delayed their special budget-cutting session.

The list of possible cuts is sweeping. Among the proposals is a $10.2 million savings gained by delaying this year's funding for new medical schools at the University of Central Florida and Florida International University.

UCF also would lose $1.7 million earmarked for the school's new life sciences programs, expected to compliment the eventual new medical school. The governor also would cut out a $43 million increase in prescription drug payments to Medicaid patients, along with other payments to hospitals treating poor patients.

Despite the cuts, Crist said he felt he had achieved his goal in cutting carefully.

"We want to preserve the funding in education in the classroom, we want to make sure that the most vulnerable among us are protected while we reduce and tighten our belt," Crist said after releasing the blueprint. "And we want to make sure that public safety is always paramount and well-funded in our state."

Crist also got down into the weeds with some of his recommended reductions. Among them: universities would have to raise their thermostats in classrooms, while another $368,000 could be saved by allowing many Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle personnel to not wear uniforms at drivers' license offices.

The plan would actually impose about $466 million in cuts, including $60 million from environmental programs, $33 million from juvenile justice, a $104 million cut in Medicaid rates to nursing homes and $114 million less for safety-net hospitals.

“Florida has a promising economic outlook,” Crist said in a letter to House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, and Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, released Thursday. “Our economy is expected to return to a normal rate of growth (next year). While reductions need to be made, the goal is to provide a fiscally responsible bridge to a re-fired economy without hurting the people we serve.”

To that end, Crist is asking lawmakers to sweep about $245 million out of dedicated state trust funds, plus sell about $315 million in new education bonds to speed up school construction.

Crist largely spares law enforcement and public safety agencies in his plans, while making his biggest proposed cut --$375.7 million – to health care services to the poor.

Not everybody is taking the cuts lying down:

The recommended higher education budget cuts that Gov. Charlie Crist released Thursday might violate state law, maintain some education leaders.

I hope this translates into a lawsuit. Our colleges and universities are great in Florida, but they won't stay that way if they become a regular target of these type of cuts.

Crist Must Be Doing Something Right

If conservatives are comparing him to the speaker of the House:

A national conservative group, chaired by former Congressman Dick Armey, has launched a biting campaign that attacks Gov. Charlie Crist and his recent executive orders aimed at reducing greenhouse gasses.

"When people heard Charlie Crist’s promises to follow in the conservative legacy of Jeb Bush and voted for him to be governor of Florida, they didn't expect to get Nancy Pelosi."

FreedomWorks has an online petition (not the kind that would go on the ballot) asking people to tell Gov. Crist to "end his efforts to appease the far left and the liberal media, and should instead work toward reasonable and responsible energy policy that increases supply and reduces prices."

Welcome

This is a new state blog for Florida's cabinet -- governor, commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, attorney general and chief financial officer, only the latter of which is a Democrat. We'd probably include the Lt. governor, but he doesn't do anything with his time other than edit wikis. This site is designed to keep an eye on the activities of the Republicans who misrepresent us in Tallahassee.

If you are interested in posting at Florida Cabinet Watch, drop me a line at quinnelk@hotmail.com with some idea of your Democratic and/or progressive credentials and I'll add you as a blogger.