In the past, TFS been criticized for being critical of the party, its staff, consultants, and vendors. I personally accept this criticism as the founder and Editor-In-Chief of this site. In the future, TFS will continue to voice its praise, suggestions and concerns as we see them. A healthy debate and exchange of open-minded ideas is a progressive value after all and imperative in our Republic.
In the past few weeks a parody twitter account has popped up mocking this website and some of our writers albeit in an uneven and largely uninteresting manner. We have also had comments on the blog of a personal nature which have attacked by name some of our loyal and dedicated readers. Some of our readers feel these comments have been directed by Democratic party staff or consultants working for the party or Democratic candidates. Speculation about this has even reached other media sources.
In the past week, sources close to elements in the party speculated about the imminent launching of a new blog being created to attack not only this site and its writers but also sitting Democratic legislators and activists. Clearly, it goes without saying that this is a foolish use of time and resources as we enter one of the most competitive and contentious election cycles in Florida history.
Fortunately the leadership of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) led by Chairwoman Allison Tant shares our concern, and TFS thanks the party leadership and staff for their professionalism in helping get us to the bottom of this to make certain the FDP nor anyone affiliated is not involved or is not responsible for trolling or creating parody sites. This election cycle is too critical for us to be wasting any more energy or time on this matter.
TFS hopes this puts a close to an era of immaturity has ended, whoever is behind it. Thanks for reading and we hope we can continue to provide stimulating and thought provoking content for our patrons. Together we can all make a difference in November 2014.
The Florida Squeeze 
One of the most important people in the course of history upset the apple cart by posting his thoughts and signing his name publicly. His name Martin Luther, his action posting the ninety five theses to the door of All Saints Church in Whittenberg, Germany. The result the Reformation. Take ownership of what you compose by signing your name. A little child may whisper behind someones back, I grew up a long time ago. Say you what mean, mean what you say.
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Well said Torrey and Kartik. No hiding behind pseudonyms for me.
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I still believe this is all party driven. This site with its truths scares the <€?}#^<{ out of them.
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If it isn’t the party itself it’s someone close to the party.
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The party and party staffers are entitled to their points of view. You guys shouldn’t shut them out of the debate. However the trolling nature which they demonstrate on Twitter towards those who disagree with them has also manifested itself in comments on this site. That is why I believe they have something to do at least with the comments on the site if not with that fake Twitter and the potential new blog site.
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For the record – Blue Dog Dem, Zurich, and A Voice of Reason as well as anyone else who for their own reasons declines to sign their work with their names. I am not tied into the FDP in any way or fashion, I can assure you that your assertions totally miss the mark. I am a member of the DEC in my home county, come join us a week from today at our monthly meeting. You might be amazed at how mundane it is. Could it be that someone close to the FDP contributes here, it is certainly possible and it is also possible I might fly to the moon tomorrow.
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The trolling has gotten really bad in Florida Democratic politics. About a year ago, there was a parody site about me personally that not only attacked me (some of the attacks were fair, I admit), but fabricated lies about me which were quite disgusting. Still, the site was only created to attack me personally (mostly through fabrication) and did not add to any debate whatsoever.
The site was so bad that I sought legal counsel in Chicago to take action against the website. Luckily for me, the “entity” who created this website used a credit card to purchase a domain name, so my attorney was able to find out who operated the website (and honestly, I was not surprised whatsoever). Luckily for them, they found out through some back-channel that I was seeking legal advice and had the site removed. The removal of the site was fine with me, and I didn’t seek to pursue it any further (though I still could according to my attorney).
I have worked in Democratic politics in Florida, Alabama, Illinois, Nevada and Utah, and I have never seen a level of personal attacks from anonymous sources as bad as I do in today’s Florida Democratic politics. In fact, in the other states (as well as the 1990s in Florida politics), I had never seen anonymous attacks at all in party politics. Most people in politics aren’t cowards, and will tell you what they think of you to your face. I guess I come from an era where we have a little backbone.
In the last three years, Florida Democratic politics has taken a childish tone. I hate to say it, but it seems to coincide with the emergence of a particular organization who has made their modus operandi one of childish electioneering, along with personal,and anonymous, attacks. It is unfortunate that Florida Democratic politics has stooped this low.
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We have seen some signs of progress from this site. However far too much is still being unwritten or misrepresented for us to go away quietly.
Let’s us assure you we are not party affiliated. We have no direct relationship with the Florida Democratic Party. We do support the party and want to make it possible for a blog site that is independent to mirror the messaging of the party. But we do not work for the party.
Part of the success in raising Rick Scott’s negatives were because we had outside organizations coordinating messaging and tactics with the party. As this website has grown in its prominence it has become less reliable to but into the parties messaging and more likely to criticize or critique.
This website and most specifically its owner has been reluctant to criticize Democratic legislators for bad votes this past session and has been unwilling to take on the troublemakers within the party. These include activists, legislators and local party officials. It is suspected in some cases and known in others that the owner of this blog maintains high-level relationships with many prominent troublemaking Democrats. We are trying to be respectful here per the established rules of this website since we’ve had multiple comments deleted in the past for naming specific legislators and specific activists. But be assured legislators that previously ran the House Caucus but have been ousted, activists backing Nan Rich,
party officials opposed to the FDP leadership and Dem legislators connected to republicans and Nan Rich have been protected here.
If we are to build a real party that can win this campaign we need to be honest about some of the people within our ranks those who’ve been working to hurt us. We need to be honest about who is backing Nan Rich and why they are backing her.
It is also not productive when this website hits consultants and vendors. The election of democrats depends on these individuals and hitting them is not smart.
Finally we should state that this site has tremendous influence. That influence is both good and bad. Regardless of what we do next whether we start a new site keep going with our Twitter or just shut this thing down it is important that you guys learn a lesson from this. Not being a team player with the party agenda means that you’re dividing us and ultimately helping the republicans.
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I thank you for being respectful and this comment was approved so our readers could see what your agenda is. The previous comments that have been deleted from this site that you reference were personal in nature towards members of the legislature, the activist community and other people in the political process. If those comments are a preview of this new blog it would be very damaging to the party you claim to want to promote and protect.
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Telling the truth about certain legislators activists or you isn’t personal. We are not saying what we will run on this new blog if iwe start a new blog.
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Here at TFS we try and focus on issues, policy, improving the party’s electoral performance and voter behavior. Personal attacks and gotcha hits on people is not what we do. We won’t engage in that. I would strongly urge all Democrats to reject the politics of personal destruction. Attacking people personally is not a progressive value, but merely a petty one.
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The trolling and vicious attacks would greatly decrease if anonymous posting was not allowed. It’s amazing how the level of discourse increases when people cannot hide behind a pseudonym.
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I had recommended to this website that people should only be allowed to post through Facebook accounts, which is happening on a number of media sites nowadays.
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The idea of making people login is pretty restrictive. What I would do is block certain IP address is start blacklisting people more aggressively.
I do have to say 95% of the comments are reasonable. It’s just that small fraction probably coming from people affiliated with the party that is problematic.
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Please don’t stifle free speech!
This is the only place that the idiots in Tallahassee and some out of control activists can be criticized and be held accountable!
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From interaction in
Tallahassee I can assure
you the things said about this
blog and activists, legislators
etc are the same things said
by members of the FDP staff in
private. I do not believe
this twitter and poster is
truly independent of the
FDP. That is b/s.
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