Could it be that we are seeing the renewal of our three distinct branches of government?

Could the House actually disagree with the governor?

Our entertainment possibilities are definitely going up.

In the past two decades, the agency's culture of conflict has spit out agency heads like a revolving door. Many have left because of scandal, ridicule or tragedy. Bush's first DCF secretary, Kathleen Kearney, resigned after two years on the job in the wake of the disappearance of Miami foster child Rilya Wilson.

[T]wo weeks ago, Hadi canceled the contract of the vendor of DCF's latest computer system, HomeSafenet, which is $200 million over budget and years late.... In 1992-93, she was deputy secretary of management systems at HRS and served on a steering committee overseeing implementation of a massive reorganization of the department's computer system that later became the subject of a grand jury investigation.

According to a copy of the grand jury report at the time, in 1992 she authorized the procurement of a major piece of computer equipment without proper review.

"This conduct can only be considered improper and wrong,'' the report stated. Hadi displayed conduct that ``amounted to a violation of departmental policies, procedures, procurement rules and regulations."

[o]n Friday, Hadi blamed the problems at HRS on poor timing and politics.

"I was the one of the elephants following the parade. I didn't have anything to do with the process. It was just timing," she said. "Sometimes in public service, you just fall on your sword."

In 2003, while at DCF, Hadi also came under fire for firing six workers at a Hialeah welfare office where a state senator's grandmother alleged she was mistreated.

Her appointment is also a sign of Lt. Gov. Toni Jenning's growing influence in the governor's office at the end of his final term. Hadi worked for 16 months as Jennings' chief of staff, helping the lieutenant governor put in place the state's welfare-to-work initiatives, and was a close advisor to Jennings during her four-year tenure as Senate president.

"Every independent legal expert who has looked at this case has said there is absolutely no credible federal issue," said Felos, who represents Michael Schiavo.

The legal arguments that Bush's attorneys make in their petition are so frivolous that the Florida Supreme Court justices did not allow them to be discussed when Connor and Destro appeared before them in August, Felos said.

"The Florida Supreme Court thought so little of the governor's due process argument that they didn't even address it," he said.

One of Bush's chief arguments, that the original 2000 trial over Terri Schiavo's end- of-life wishes was not fair because she was not represented by an independent guardian, has been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, Felos said.

Bush, after vetoing the uninspired pre-K effort by the last Legislature, has been keeping an unusually low profile this time. Two weeks ago, his own Board of Education proclaimed that it no longer wants to administer the new pre-K effort, as though the program was really child care and not education. The reversal is also peculiar in that it directly conflicts with the recommendations of Jennings' task force.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, seem entirely too eager to let day care center operators write the law. Many of these centers may be capable of providing quality pre-K, but their business interests don't always align with the educational interests of 4-year-olds. There is a reason day care operators are fighting the requirement for teachers with degrees: virtually none of their teachers possess them. But the point of pre-K was to provide a high quality learning environment for young children, not a state-subsidized day care center.

The [Broad & Cassellaw firm's] bill so far: $3.3-million and counting, more than the company that designed the system says it is owed....

[T]he law firm also was paid a half-million dollars for work on other lawsuits involving congressional redistricting, a parental notification abortion law and a cost-of-living adjustment paid by the Legislature to urban school districts.

If [David] Brown [who is chairman of the law firm of Broad and Cassel] had not volunteered for former President George Bush's re-election campaign in 1992, he probably would not have been introduced to the president's son Jeb. If Brown had not befriended Jeb Bush and helped him win election as governor in 1998, the lawyer probably would not have been appointed to the Florida Transportation Commission in 1999. Had Brown not been appointed to that nonpaying position, he probably wouldn't have been meeting privately with the governor in Tallahassee last spring, privy to the musings of an officeholder and power broker, when the subject of biotechnology arose.

'06 FL SEN
Rep. Katherine Harris (R-13)
Rep. Dave Weldon (R-15)
Rep. Mark Foley (R-16)
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-06)
New Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-14)

'06 FL GOV
Rep. Jim Davis (D-11)

The Supreme Court Monday dismissed without comment an appeal from a conservative Florida group that sought to overturn the ruling of Massachusetts' highest court that gave gays and lesbians a right to marry.

The Florida lawyers maintained that this state decision violated the provision of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees to each state "a republican form of government." They suggested this means key decisions must be made by elected legislators, rather than judges.

Among the many dysfunctions in Florida's voting system, none so flagrantly contradicts principles of universal suffrage as the revocation of ex-felons' voting rights. Up to 600,000 felons who've served time in Florida but are now free have no civil rights, including voting rights, pending long, difficult and, more often than not, fruitless clemency proceedings. Only six other states deny ex-felons such rights even after their sentence is completed. In Florida, the proportion of disenfranchised ex-felons, relative to electoral rolls, is the highest in the nation by far.

Ideally, lawmakers will consider a way to let voters put statutes, not just constitutional amendments, on the ballot. Other states have done this, letting voters send a message to policymakers, but without cluttering the constitution with ideas and desires that have nothing to do with the structure of government or personal rights.

Statutes could eventually be amended by lawmakers as time passed and problems arose, or when they needed clarification -just as they can do with all other laws.

Before Gov. Bush took office in January 1999, the average felon regained voting rights with a hearing five years after being released, the Herald found. Now, the average is eight years. Recently released felons who don't qualify for administrative review won't vote for president until 2012 — if their three minutes goes well. If clemency is rejected, the applicant won't be told why. Under laws designed to protect witnesses, he can't review his own file to find out if it is accurate.

47 percent of John Kerry’s voters think God created humans as they are now, compared with 67 percent of Bush voters.

To cope with rising Medicaid costs, Florida is working on a health care program similar to the one Tennessee adopted, which is ready to implode.

Look beyond the national results of the November election to the voting process itself, and this becomes clear: Much more must be done to make voting a uniform and fair process for all.