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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."

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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.

 

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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 Tuesday, September 06, 2005

The Slide Continues ...

    at the Orlando Sentinel. David Porter, at the Orlando Sentinel, pens this little gem this morning: "Rapper wrong about racism in rescues". Porter misunderstood what hip-hop artist Kanye West meant when he said
    "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
    We can only assume that Porter is either incredibly stupid or, more likely, deliberately misrepresented West's point. West was not talking about the color of the rescuers, yet Porter interjects the following irrelevant point:
    All of the men I saw come down from the helicopters were white. The majority of the people plucked from the rooftops were black. Yet those white rescuers didn't seem to care what the victims looked like.
    That is well and good, but beside the point: West was talking about the federal response time. To that, Porter - without any factual basis - simply parrots RNC talking points:
    - "here's a fact that can't be denied: He was not slow to prepare for last week's disaster."

    - "The nightmare conditions at the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center, where tens of thousands fled for help, wasn't the fault of the military or President Bush. That blame belongs squarely on the shoulders of New Orleans officials."
    One wonders where Porter has been the past week, perhaps wandering the halls of RNC central or Fox News, picking up story ideas, because he sure ain't in the loop: the fact is, there is a raging debate - in the MSM of all places - about the patent incompetence of the federal response. Heck, even what is probably the most right wing editorial board in the Country gets it:
    As the extent of Hurricane Katrina's devastation became clearer on Tuesday — millions without power, tens of thousands homeless, a death toll unknowable because rescue crews can’t reach some regions — President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before.

    Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage.

    A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.

    The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty.
    "Bush and Katrina: A time for action, not aloofness".

    Update: "Brown blasts federal response" ("Jacksonville Democrat: 'Why is the federal government missing in action?'")

5:14 AM

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