Category National Politics
The demise of the Val Demings Campaign yields important lessons for Democrats
Val Demings’ withdrawal from the Orange County Mayoral Race was a shock to most observers of Florida politics. It seems all so surreal because after years of misfiring Democrats had actually landed a highly-touted recruit for a big race in the state of Florida. Local Democrats had recruited a superstar, someone capable of commanding tremendous […]
Everyday sacrifice more than a holiday – A call for bipartisanship in veterans and foreign affairs
By Tara Laxer and Kartik Krishnaiyer This being Memorial Day weekend we can think of no better time to make a call for a return to bipartisanship in both veterans affairs and foreign policy. The goal should be to protect United States interests abroad rather than partisan electoral interests at home. Each year we thank […]
Monday Musings: FEA Endorses Crist, Matt Gaetz’s reefer madness, Infrastructure development, Anti-Americanism and Islam in India post election , RPOF (again) obstructs redistricting investigation
The Florida Education Association endorsed Charlie Crist for Governor on Saturday. The recommendation was long expected. The state’s teachers’ union has been concerned about the continued assault on public schools under the Scott Administration and the current legislative leadership. However, many activists have questioned the FEA’s endorsement based on Crist’s previous record on issues related […]
Brown v Board of Education – Separate But Equal
On this the 60th Anniversary of the momentous Brown decision, I would like to strongly recommend one of my favorite TV movies ever-Separate But Equal. This is the story of the court battles that led to the final Supreme Court decision, with Sidney Poitier playing Thurgood Marshall and Burt Lancaster in his final film role playing […]
Friday Quick Hits – New Scott Ad a postive change, Indian Elections, Sexism in news rooms and Ukraine
After weeks of bashing presumptive Democratic nominee Charlie Crist on various charges, the Let’s Get to Work Committee has actually released a positive ad entitled Grandpa. It’s a change in tact from a committee that has failed to raise Crist’s negative substantially enough to change the shape of the race, while the Governor’s negative numbers […]
Thursday Bookshelf: My Generation of War and The Rising Trend Of Military Privatization
Authors Note: In addition to these books, please make sure you check out the latest from Jeremy Scahill: Dirty Wars both the book and documentary that examine the “Obama Doctrine” in this new type of warfare involving drones, and Restrepo the documentary based on the book War by Sebastian Junger. My generation is the new war generation. […]
Congressional District 13: Disastrous debacle sets Pinellas Democrats back
[FL-13 is] the most botched House race of 2014. – National Journal Pinellas County is unlike any other metropolitan county in Florida. In stark contrast to neighboring Hillsborough, the three Central Florida urban counties and southeast Florida, Pinellas tends to be less transient and more insular in many ways. Yet the local Democratic Party seems […]
Monday Musings – Pinellas mess, Boko Haram, School “choice”, Indian elections, NBC, Manchester City and Baseball in Palm Beach
We led off last week’s column talking about the debacle in Pinellas County RE: CD-13. The hope was this situation would have subsided by now. However, the opposite has occurred as the fallout has only intensified over the last week as the Pinellas County DEC and its Chairman Mark Hanisee have reacted defensively about the situation. […]
The Benghazi scam
First off let me establish my views of Benghazi. I believe it was a tragedy and unlike many Democrats I am willing to admit it reflects poorly on this administration and a certain degree of stonewalling took place because it was an election year. But to somehow equate Benghazi the way the GOP and FOX […]
Thursday Bookshelf: The Conscience Of A Liberal Krugman and Wellstone versions
Today we look at two books with the same name: The first by Clark Medal Medal and Nobel Prize winning Economist and now syndicated New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and the other, from the late Progressive Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), that in fact share the same title, serve the same purpose: a response to […]
The Florida Squeeze 