Florida's original school voucher law violates the state constitution because it allows tax dollars to be spent on religious schools, the full First District Court of Appeal ruled Friday.

The decision is the third such ruling against the 1999 law, which lets students attending public schools that earn failing grades two years out of four to attend private schools on state vouchers.

"This is a big win for the people of Florida who believe in separation of church and state," said Ron Meyer, a lead attorney for voucher opponents.

A spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush said the governor was disappointed in the decision and believed the law was constitutional.

The [United Health Foundation] says Minnesota, which gave us Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, is the healthiest state in America.

Call it a coincidence, but Minnesota also is the only state that forbids for-profit HMOs.

Minnesota is followed by New Hampshire, Vermont and Hawaii -- all blue states. The first red state on the list is Utah at No. 5. Mormons stress healthy diets and exercise, which must counteract whatever it is about being a Republican that kills you.

The only other red state to crack the top 10 is North Dakota at No. 7. So, if you must be a conservative, either become a Mormon or grow wheat and shovel snow.

Utah and North Dakota represent only nine electoral votes.

Meanwhile, the 16 unhealthiest states in the nation are all red states. They represent 181 electoral votes, or about 63 percent of Bush's total. People in Louisiana are in the worst shape, followed by the residents of Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas and Georgia.

Nine of the top 10 states in smoking rates are red states.

The bottom 10 states in high-school graduation rates are red states.

Nine of the bottom 10 states in percent of residents covered by health insurance are red states.

Nine of the bottom 10 states in child poverty are red states.

The bottom 15 states in total mortality are red states.

Although blacks overwhelmingly voted for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, Bush made considerable inroads.

Even in South Florida, the state's Democratic stronghold, Bush garnered more of the black vote than he did in 2000, when he received 4 percent. This year, he gained 3 percentage points in Broward and improved his black support slightly in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

"Values" must have also been a big factor, too, and that's not just the gay marriage thing that everyone has focused on since Nov. 2. Florida didn't have the kind of "defense of marriage" referendum that 11 states did. Bush and the Republicans must have been perceived to be tougher on terrorism, stronger for families, more in line with personal convictions of self-sufficiency and responsibility - how voters see themselves, rightly or not, in places like Bonifay and Mayo.

Liberals, with the smug condescension that's caused some of your more advanced societies to put a bounty on them, sneer at those values

Read his lips: Gov. Jeb Bush really, really isn't interested in succeeding his brother in the White House in 2008.

Bush reiterated Tuesday that he is not going to run for the Senate when Florida has a seat up in 2006, and said he has no designs on the presidency four years from now.

And he is getting awful tired of the question.

"Might you change your mind?" asked a reporter.

"No!" governor said. "Why am I not believable on this subject? This is driving me nuts."

But he dodged a question on whether he might "eventually" run for president.

"Eventually, what's that?" Bush asked after a sigh.

The governor's second and final four-year term ends in January 2007.

Jeb has been slotted by the CW to run for president in '08. Republicans would rather he make a bid for the Senate

And as the lone Florida Democrat holding statewide office, Nelson is wearing a huge target on his back.
Republicans, emboldened by Election Day victories across the South, are already seeing Nelson's seat as one they could put in GOP control in 2006.

"All across the country, Republicans realize that Florida Republicans have a good ground game and a lot of strong leadership," said Dan Allen of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "The Democrats are going to continue grasping for straws." [...]

Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia's Department of Political Science, contends that Republicans, coming off "two great election years in 2002 and 2004 in Florida," are wasting no time in gearing up to take out Nelson.

With that enthusiasm building for 2006, many Republicans would like to see Gov. Jeb Bush, who must step down as governor in two years because of constitutionally mandated term limits, run for the Senate. Such a move could keep him in the national political limelight and in reach of a run for the White House to extend the Bush family dynasty in the Oval Office.

Bush insists he's not interested, telling the South Florida Sun-Sentinel emphatically on Friday, "I am not running for the United States Senate in 2006." He also has repeatedly said he won't run for president in 2008, preferring instead to return to the private sector in Miami.

Let's hope the financial lure of the private sector trump the Bush need for power. Jeb would be a dangerous Senate opponent.

Republican Gov. Jeb Bush weighed in on the explosive issue of same sex marriage Tuesday, saying he might support a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage if the courts open the door to such unions in Florida.

Some states have started to backslide on other health indicators as well, including Florida.

Florida has never ranked above 38 in the report and lost ground this year in several categories. For example, the percentage of uninsured people in the state rose from 17.3 percent in the 2003 report to 18.2 percent in 2004, along with an increase of children living in poverty from 18.8 percent to 19.2 percent during the same time period.

And Florida, one of the nation's least-fat states, saw that problem inch up in the 2004 report, with the percentage of the population considered obese growing to 19.9 percent from 19.4 percent in 2003.

The state also saw an increase in smoking (from 22 percent of the population in the 2003 report to 23.9 percent in 2004) and its own infant mortality rates, which climbed from 7.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2003 to 7.5 deaths in 2004.

A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda.

A loss to Sen. John Kerry would have decreased the "marketability for the Bush name" for future aspirants such as Jeb, the 51-year-old governor of Florida, [author Kevin] Phillips said.

Jeb Bush has said numerous times of late that he would not run for president in 2008. But he is unquestionably the Bush clan member most likely to next carry the torch, and Florida political observers believe he has not completely ruled it out.

"My guess is that Jeb would take a stab at it next time out," said Susan McManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida. "He certainly would never say that, but there is a lot of talk here about a Senate or presidential run."

Jeb Bush is young, McManus said, and "is very much his own man." He could bide his time until he thought the moment was right before trying to be the third Bush to occupy the White House.

His biggest obstacle, ironically, may be his last name.

It could just be, even in the minds of ardent Bush family supporters, that the public is suffering a measure of "Bush fatigue."

Matt Simmons, a Houston investment banker who was one of the president's chief energy policy advisers, said it "probably is in everybody's best interests for the time being if Jeb lays low."

"I was relieved to hear him say he has no intention of running for president," said Simmons, the head of Simmons and Co. International.

"It hurts the Bush family. It's a fabulous family of really good people. If Jeb Bush ran now, there would be an anti-Bush groundswell. There is ample time for other Bushes to do things in politics."

If Jeb Bush does decide not to seek the presidency, there is no dearth of remaining Bushes in the next generation who could become an up-and-coming star who could carry on the dynasty.

A state constitutional ban on same-sex marriages will soon go before the Legislature and voters for approval if the state's Southern Baptists get their way.