x

x

FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

E-Mail Florida Politics

This is our Main Page
Our Sister Site
On FaceBook
Follow us on Twitter
Our Google+ Page
Contact [E-Mail Florida Politics]
Site Feed
...and other resources

 

Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

Older posts [back to 2002]

Previous Articles by Derek Newton: Ten Things Fox on Line 1 Stem Cells are Intelligent Design Katrina Spin No Can't Win Perhaps the Most Important Race Senate Outlook The Nelson Thing Deep, Dark Secret Smart Boy Bringing Guns to a Knife Fight Playing to our Strength  

The Blog for Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Holy Hipocrisy

    The St Pete Times writes today that organizations with a 501 (c) 3 tax exemption are barred from "from participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office". It seems that the IRS is being less than evenhanded in applying this provision:
    The [NAACP] investigation was prompted by the content of a single speech NAACP chairman Julian Bond gave during the group's national convention in April. One representative quote came during a section on the election debacle of 2000, in which Bond noted, "if whites and nonwhites vote in the same percentages as they did in 2000, Bush will be re-defeated by 3-million votes." ["It did not help that the IRS letter notifying the NAACP of its investigation was dated less than a month before the election."]

    Such statements, while skirting the line of partisanship, are much less overt than the e-mail the Rev. Jerry Falwell sent to supporters in August saying "people of faith are as energized behind President Bush as we have been behind any president in history." While the IRS is not compelled to give any reason for an audit, the explanation they have given for an investigation that could threaten the NAACP's longstanding tax-exempt status opens the agency to charges of unfairness.

    In February, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said Democratic challenger John Kerry should be denied communion for supporting abortion rights, and other bishops expressed similar opinions. Where is the IRS letter challenging the St. Louis diocese's tax-exempt status?

    "NAACP audit raises suspicion".

5:54 AM

<< Home