where Draft Gore forces have planned a blitz of radio ads to air next week and are lobbying the state's Democratic Party chairwoman to put Gore on the ballot for the Jan. 29 primary.

Gore has stopped short of saying outright that he will not run, but he has expressed that he does not intend to and has reportedly told former President Jimmy Carter to stop calling him about it.

His challenges would be numerous -- and time is short. The deadline to get on the Florida primary ballot is Oct. 31, and the state's top Democrats offered no indication Friday that they were considering adding his name.

Getting on the Florida ballot is easy compared with the challenges Gore would face in fundraising and in building an organization to challenge the eight Democrats already in the race.

Polls show Hillary Clinton is ahead 27 percentage points in Florida among the Democratic candidates, and about 26 points nationally.

Whew! ... Intangibles Tax Repeal Intact

"Florida lawmakers sent Gov. Charlie Crist a budget-cut package that trims $1.1 billion in spending on schools, healthcare and environmental programs." "New cuts may lie ahead, lawmakers warn". See also "$1 Billion Sheared Off State Budget" and "Water programs and schools first to suffer $1M in cuts".

"After clawing and scratching over $1 billion in state budget cuts, the Republican-controlled legislature adopted the reductions on a party-line vote Friday. But it may serve as only a warm-up for more slashing in January." "Budget session ends, property tax session begins".

"Taking their worst toll on our national soul"

Stephen Goldstein: "It's supposed to get us out of a jam, but it's really a scam: privatizing toll roads. One of these days, drivers everywhere in Florida may have to pay a Dubai-based company, or its equivalent, to cruise down our current toll roads. Everyone knows in his gut that it's un-American to privatize public highways. No less a Republican nationalist than Dwight Eisenhower created our toll-free, interstate system so parts of it could double as airstrips during war or emergencies."

But the message hasn't reached "your taxes will drop like a rock" Gov. Charlie Crist, "we'll never raise your taxes" Florida Republicans, and the "government, bad; business, good" crowd. They want you to believe that one of the richest states is so poor, it has to balance its budget with a fire sale.

R's are hell-bent on handing over roads paid for with your taxes to corporate carpetbaggers, who can only make money by making you pay higher tolls. That ain't entrepreneurship or free-market capitalism — but cozy cronyism; a state-sponsored, private monopoly. It's a shell game: R's pass the buck to make a buck — and you get stuck. It's carte blanche for investors to bilk the public purse and laugh all the way to the bank in (possibly) Bahrain. ...

Republicans know precisely what they do: ballyhoo that they lower taxes, then sock us with fees. While they can't wait to sell our roads to the highest bidder, they're taking their worst toll on our national soul.

The check's in the mail

"House and Senate Republican leaders were so confident Friday of a tentative deal to pass an $11 billion property-tax package that they announced a final vote at the end of next week."

Both chambers took a quick vote on $1 billion in cuts to the state's ailing $71 billion plus budget, ending a special session that began last week. Then they immediately convened another to deal with property taxes.

Minutes after yet another special session of Florida's Legislature was gaveled to order Friday to consider a retooled package of property tax cuts, leading Democrats indicated a carefully crafted consensus might be unraveling.

Senate Democrat Leader Steve Geller, of Cooper City, said members of his party were grousing that Republican legislators have been slow to provide details on a property tax-cut package being pushed by Gov. Charlie Crist, and valued at $11 billion over four years.

Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, are planning for a final vote Wednesday or Thursday, but must win over Democrats because a three-fourths majority is needed to place the issue on the Jan. 29 ballot.

Laff Riot

"“Free W.D.—Political Prisoner”?".

"Stunned"

"The not-guilty verdicts for the eight defendants charged in the death of Martin Lee Anderson sent a shock wave through part of the Florida Legislature. Lawmakers ending a budget-cutting special session reacted swiftly with anger and disbelief." "'We were stunned'" ("Tallahassee Sen. Al Lawson shouted into a bullhorn to some 250 student protestors who converged on the Capitol to shout 'No Justice! No Peace!'").

More: "Decision brings anger, relief" ("An all-white jury decided in 90 minutes the seven former Bay County drill instructors and camp nurse were not guilty of manslaughter in the 14-year-old boy's death").

Running government like a business

"A top state prisons official resigned during an investigation of an alleged scheme to change files to help speed up the transfer of some inmates to different prisons." "Corrections official steps down amid inmate transfer probe". See also "State corrections official quits over inmate transfers" and "Corrections official steps down amid inmate transfer probe".

Dubya's Florida "Jaunt"

"President Bush scooped up $1 million for the national Republican Party on a quick jaunt through Pinellas Park before heading off to Miami to give a speech on trade Friday." "Bush Trip Nets $1 Million, Touts Trade".

Klein Kash

"Look for freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein to report Monday that he raised more than $500,000 in the third quarter and has $1.4 million in cash on hand for his 2008 reelection bid. The only Republican in the race, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Allen West, has raised $20,528 so far and has $12,761 on hand." "Congressional money mismatch".

Allen Update

"After clearing up confusion over a defense motion, a Brevard County judge rescheduled state Rep. Bob Allen's sex-solicitation trial for Nov. 5 in Viera." "Rep. Allen's trial set for Nov. 5".

Mom-and-pop

"Proposed measure aims to help mom-and-pop motels and marinas that are rapidly disappearing because of development pressure." "Lawmakers consider tax breaks for beachside businesses".

Florida is still smarting from a governor, Jeb Bush, who treated education as a battlefield on which teachers were often branded the enemy. Worse, that culture of warfare spilled over into the Department of Education, the agency that is supposed to provide professional oversight and support to schools. The previous state Education Board chairman would tell people "we're under attack," as though it inspired him.

Bush's political differences with teacher unions were obvious, but DOE used them as a license to discount the views and motivations of all teachers. As a result, policies were often formulated or administered with no sense of their true impact on schools.

the worst Bush legacy at DOE may be the extent to which career education professionals were purged. Within DOE, dissenting opinions were viewed as enemy attacks, and Winn surrounded himself with those he deemed true believers. His polarizing K-12 chancellor Cheri Yecke, who had hoped to succeed him, is one jarring example.

Crist's latest tax-reform proposal doesn't change lawmakers' earlier, misguided focus. It only narrows it, leaving the larger problem with Florida's tax system untouched. That's no solution. The Crist plan, and an even worse plan hatched by House Speaker Marco Rubio, would exacerbate inequities and make Florida a less welcoming place for business, including tourism, whose tax bills will reflect more burdens shifted from those of homesteaded homeowners.

Bought and Paid For

"Florida's ailing gambling industry, betting on the Republican-led Legislature to come to the rescue, has anted up $800,000 to the state party in the past three months".

Nearly $600,000 of the GOP haul was delivered to the party within one week in late July, the same time House Republicans held ''Havana Nights'' fundraisers in Coral Gables and Miami Beach. The events featured a yacht cruise, salsa lessons, dinner at the former Versace mansion and personal concierges available 24/7.

Rubio's argument -- that the tribe is entitled to nothing more than slot machines -- echoes those made by the parimutuels, especially those in Broward, which say that granting table games to the Seminole gives them an unfair advantage.

''Why should we be put in a position of paying taxes to compete with them when we are given a lesser product?'' said Daniel Adkins, president of Mardi Gras Racetrack and Gaming Center in Hallandale Beach.

Currently, the tribe pays no state taxes and offers only Class II slots and poker.

Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican who helped organize the Havana Nights fundraisers, which took in $1.4 million for the state GOP, said Rubio's position on the Seminole compact is not linked to the gifts.

''Whether [parimutuels] supported the event had nothing to do with the House having antipathy toward the compact,'' he said. ``There's zero correlation.''

Lawyers in Love

"Despite her 11-year romantic relationship with a prominent Tallahassee tax attorney and lobbyist, Florida's newest Department of Revenue chief said her agency's reputation won't suffer when she takes the reins next week." "DOR chief says relationship not a potential for conflict".

GOPers "gutting the university system"

The Palm Beach Post editors: "The legislation to be voted today raising tuition 5 percent at Florida's 11 public universities and 28 community colleges, and tying annual increases to inflation, is a start. It is not a solution to the chronic shortchanging of higher education in the state. More typical, it's legislators' attempt to dodge the question of authority over the university system. Perhaps the Republican-dominated Legislature finally has seen how its miserliness is gutting the university system. That's doubtful, given that based on the past 10 years' 1.6 percent to 3.4 percent national inflation rate, the annual increases would be even less than the 5 percent that lawmakers have approved in recent years." "Remedial tuition increase".

Dead enders

"The president will dine with donors who have paid $25,000 to attend the Pinellas Park event." "Bush visits for lunch fundraiser".

Laff Riot

"The Florida Republican Party is set to begin what Chairman Jim Greer describes as a major effort to reach out to minority voters, including a planned conference next month in Tallahassee for thousands of black Republicans and independents."

Some black Floridians - even black Republicans - say they've heard before about GOP attempts to become a viable political force in their community, and haven't been impressed.

No-Fault

"Crist Signs No-Fault Bill".

"Locked up"

"Hillary Clinton may be unstoppable in Florida and could beat Republican Rudy Giuliani in the general election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. In Florida, 59 percent of Clinton's supporters are unlikely to change their minds, according to the poll. Many Democrats polled -- 44 percent -- think she has the nomination 'locked up.'" "Poll: Clinton, Giuliani still Florida favorites".

"Budgetary 'crumbs'"

"In cutting college funding this week, lawmakers are blaming economic conditions and the $1.1-billion state budget shortfall. Higher education has been getting what former Gov. Jeb Bush once called budgetary 'crumbs' even when times were good. The very formula the Legislature uses, which bases funding on previous years' enrollment, ignores the cyclical nature of community colleges. When the economy is rough, workers often look to improve their skills to qualify for better jobs. They often do so at a community college. When the open-door institutions are faced with the prospect of closing doors, Florida is shortchanging both its students and its economic future." "Colleges' doors starting to swing shut".

GOPers getting desperate

GOPers are struggling to make inroads with minorities in Florida. "On the plus side" for Florida GOPers:

•Crist, a Republican who chose Greer for the chairman's position, has had unprecedented success with minority voters. Exit polls showed Crist with 18 percent of black votes in last year's election.

By comparison, Republican Jeb Bush got 14 percent in his 1998 election - considered a record at the time - but dropped to an estimated 8 percent in his 2002 re-election.

•There has been a slow trend in Florida and nationally of black voters gravitating toward the GOP, said University of South Florida political scientist [with a GOP bent] Susan MacManus, who studies demographic trends in politics.

MacManus said blacks remain "the most solidly Democratic vote out there." But some are changing because of increasing black economic prosperity, a corresponding rise in black entrepreneurship and the sizeable number of black voters who favor private school tuition vouchers.

•Republicans still benefit from the highly organized, active Cuban-American community in South Florida - the reason the GOP has long dominated among Florida Hispanics - while Democrats win among Hispanics nationwide.

•Large numbers of Democratic-oriented immigrants from Puerto Rico, Mexico and Latin America are beginning to overshadow the Florida Cuban community. In 2006, exit polls showed Crist and Democrat Jim Davis tied among Hispanics.

•Fervent hatred of Fidel Castro, which motivates South Florida Cubans toward the GOP, is declining among younger generations. The climate could change further after Castro dies.

•The recent controversy over immigration, in which Republicans have taken hard-line, anti-immigration stands to please the party's conservative base, has alienated Hispanic voters. Democrats hope for a bumper crop of Hispanic votes as result.

Republican presidential candidates have made headlines this year by declining to attend two Hispanic candidate forums - one held by the National Association of Latino Elected Officials in Orlando, and one by the Hispanic television network Univision.

And yes, Southern white exceptionalism is about race, much more than it is about moral values, religion, support for the military or other explanations sometimes offered. There’s a large statistical literature on the subject, whose conclusion is summed up by the political scientist Thomas F. Schaller in his book “Whistling Past Dixie”: “Despite the best efforts of Republican spinmeisters to depict American conservatism as a nonracial phenomenon, the partisan impact of racial attitudes in the South is stronger today than in the past.”

That's our Charlie

"Florida’s Crist Works Hard to Spread GOP Liberalism" (via The Buzz).

Killing them softly

"The state Supreme Court is considering the fairness of both the lethal injection process and of keeping secret the identities of officials who carry out the process." "Court weighs fairness of death penalty steps". See also "Death penalty may go on hold".

the outcome was never in doubt, but it was interesting to see the Florida House split along party lines when state Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee, tried to save 14 jobs in the Department of Management Services. ...

Among the cuts were 11 positions from the Florida Commission on Human Relations staff and seven from the Office of Supplier Diversity - which Richardson proposed reducing to three cuts for the human-relations panel and one for the diversity office.

Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, said she was especially worried about the proposed staff cuts of the new Council on Efficient Government. The council was created to prevent the kind of "outsourcing" fiascoes that have marked privatization of state personnel services, and problems with purchasing and accounting contracts.

are an annoyance for the businesses that fill GOP campaign coffers.

"Another 'only in Florida' moment"

The Sun-Sentinel editors: "Democrats can be a feisty, and at times self-defeating, bunch. Still, the idea of a national political party forcing its members from an influential state to sue them on the eve of a presidential election is another 'only in Florida' moment." "Florida Democrats make federal case out of presidential primary". More: "Florida Democrats say primary politics much ado about nothing".

Marco's Muse

While slashing positions in agencies tasked with preventing "the kind of 'outsourcing' fiascoes that have marked privatization of state personnel services, and problems with purchasing and accounting contracts", House Speaker Marco Rubio's House [also] cut $5,000 from the Florida Supreme Court chief justice's discretionary fund and $1,828 to Nova Southeastern University to help balance the state's budget, [yet at the same time] he continues to pay a well-connected GOP consultant $10,000 a month, even though she produced no written work in the month of September."

Donna Arduin, once former Gov. Jeb Bush's budget chief, was rehired by Rubio, R-West Miami, starting Sept. 1.

He had paid her firm $70,000 for seven months of work, ending in June, to help articulate his plan to reduce or eliminate homestead property taxes and instead raise the sales tax.

This time her job is to provide "consulting services" on the budget cut bill that passed the House Friday. But she has provided no written reports, analyses or recommendations since her contract was renewed, according to Rubio's office.

Her partners are Arthur Laffer - known for the Laffer Curve, made famous as the underpinning for President Reagan's massive tax cuts in 1981 - and Stephen Moore, former head of the anti-tax Club for Growth.

In recent years, Arduin and her firm have worked for a number of proponents of the "fair tax," which would replace income taxes and property taxes with increased sales taxes.

Many other economists, most Democrats and some Republicans, including Florida Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, call the sales tax regressive because it proportionately affects the poor and the middle class harder than it hits the rich.

"It's a pretty right-wing idea that's horrible policy," said House Democratic leader Dan Gelber of Miami Beach.

Eliminating the property tax would require the state to raise its sales tax from the current 6 cents on the dollar to 13.5 cents, making an already regressive system intolerable. Yet Donna Arduin, a [Property Tax Reform] committee member who was the former budget director for Gov. Jeb Bush, acts as though fairness is a quaint concept. "The property tax system we have now isn't exactly the opiate," she told members, according to published reports. "Let's not just use the old adage 'regressive' and dismiss it."

With such flippant discourse, the committee last month agreed to keep the issue alive and undermined their credibility as a competent, realistic panel.

Who is Donna Arduin? She is a principal in Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics ("ALME"). See also "Former aide to governors forming consulting firm". Yes, that "Laffer": namesake of the Laffer Curve, referred to in this New York Review of Books piece by Jason Epstein as "the crackpot theory that led Ronald Reagan to believe that huge tax cuts in federal taxes would lead to federal surpluses, when the actual outcome proved to be a cumulative deficit of $3.5 trillion." It seems her company is also in the business of attacking Democratic initiatives. See, e.g., "Michigan: Evaluating the Granholm Tax Plan".

Perhaps most importantly, Arduin is a cheerleader for the wingnut Fair Tax proposal to change "United States tax laws to replace the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and all federal income taxes (including AMT), payroll taxes (including Social Security and Medicare taxes), corporate taxes, capital gains taxes, gift taxes, and estate taxes with a national retail sales tax, to be levied once at the point of purchase on all new goods and services." See ALME's "A Macroeconomic Analysis of the Fair Tax Proposal (.pdf)". Donna apparently thinks sales taxes are good and all other taxes are bad.

Bushco Disses the 'Glades

The Miami Herald editorial board: "President Bush has a peculiar way of showing his support for the environment. While campaigning in 2004, he toured an Everglades wildlife reserve and said, 'My administration is committed to conserving Florida's natural beauty.' Yet now he threatens to veto a water-resources bill that could jump-start funding for the stalled Everglades cleanup." "Everglades deserve strong support".

A Horror Film

"Lights! Cameras! Chads!". Check out the Buffy connection, which seems apt for some reason I can't quite put my finger on: "Stars' roles for 'Recount' flick hanging like chads".

The Nursing Home Resident Lobby Falling Down on the Job

The Tampa Tribune editorial board: "Large private investment groups wouldn't be buying up nursing home chains if there wasn't big money to be made. And there is nothing wrong with that. But it unconscionable that to maximize profits some firms neglect the needs of the frail and elderly in their care."

Both state and federal regulators need to respond to alarming trends in the nursing home business.

A recent New York Times report detailed how private investment firms have bought up nursing home chains and created nearly impenetrable webs of affiliated companies that minimize any one firm's responsibility for what happens in a home.

The Times showed that at 60 percent of the homes bought by large private equity groups from 2000 to 2006, managers cut the number of clinical registered nurses, sometimes far below legal requirements.

Those homes also typically scored worse than national rates in 12 of 14 indicators that regulators use to track ailments of long-term residents.

It is dismaying the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the state's chief nursing home regulator, seems unconcerned about the Times's finding. ...

Molly McKinstry, chief of AHCA's Bureau of Long Term Care Services, says the state agency hasn't analyzed how health and safety citations correlate to nursing home ownership since these new corporate structures emerged.

Gov. Charlie Crist should order such an analysis immediately and determine if the state's current laws and standards - touted as the best in the nation - remain sufficient.

The government shouldn't fool itself: How these companies are structured does affect patient care. Firms that seek to enhance the bottom line by recklessly reducing staff and maintenance should be held accountable.

Citizens

The Palm Beach Post editorial board: "Here's a flash from Florida's insurance agents: Coverage from the state-run insurer isn't perfect. Gee, thanks. And the alternative would be ... ?" "Imperfect, and essential".

Florida's Booming Economy

Florida's dirty little secret, well at least one of them:

Almost four in every 10 jobs in the state are in fields known for moderate pay — retailing, education or health services, and government, according to July figures from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. Across all industries, Florida has proportionately fewer positions in high-paying management than the rest of the nation.

The state also continues to lag in how much it pays workers. The average employee made $35,820 last year compared with $39,190 nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By population, Florida is the fourth largest state, yet 19 other states have a higher per person income than Florida, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the U.S. Department of Commerce. And there's the wage issue. ...

Florida's wages long have been below national averages. But because it was a preferred place to live and the cost of living was about equal to or sometimes below the rest of the nation, people were willing to accept low wages.

All that began to change around 2003, says University of Florida economics professor David Denslow.

"What's happened is house prices have risen so much — and apartment rents to some degree — more than the rest of the Southeast and the Midwest," he said. "We have now become a high-cost state with high amenities."

The "Peoples' Governor" at Work

"For all of Gov. Charlie Crist's talk about how 'the people' run the Capitol, it was clear that last week's debate over auto insurance was being run by groups of lobbyists with gang-like nicknames ... ."" "People absent in battle over no-fault insurance".

A Long Story

"To understand how Florida Democrats tumbled into purgatory over their presidential primary, it helps to go back to April 2003, to the Washington office of Michigan's senior senator." "Florida's primary problem".

Isn't Charlie Fab

John Kennedy and Aaron Deslatte:

In one week, Gov. Charlie Crist demonstrated the power the chief executive holds over state lawmakers when they are gathered under his pulpit in Tallahassee.

Unlike Gov. Jeb Bush -- who sought to beat his enemies down with superior intelligence [sic] and brute force -- Crist prefers to schmooze. And for a leader who has long battled a "lightweight" image, Crist in recent days has proved effective when he throws his weight around.

Bad Deal?

Michael Mayo: "The state released the latest draft of a proposed 25-year gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida last week, but it didn't include the most important thing: the amount of the state's cut. And the proposed compact has a disconcerting number of escape clauses that could allow the Seminoles to stop paying the state while still offering Vegas-style slot machines, blackjack and baccarat at its seven casinos." "Tribal compact could be crapshoot for Florida".

MIA

"Florida's Democratic and Republican parties will have major events this month in Orlando, designed to rev up their bases heading into the state's presidential primary election just three months away. But one thing will be missing from the Democratic rally: presidential contenders." "Political events are like night and day".

"Florida's Twisted Tax Structure"

The Tampa Trib editors are a bit on the optimistic side today:

It's time to stop playing games with Florida taxpayers. Offer them clear choices and they'll vote for the fair, modern tax system the state deserves.

One game is the Legislature's current attempt to patch over inequities in property-tax laws by hiding from voters the loss of the Save Our Homes tax cap for new buyers. A judge was right to kick the question off the ballot. What will happen next is uncertain because lawmakers can't decide if they dare risk telling voters the truth.

Even if the proposed "super" homestead exemption is rewritten and approved by voters, additional reform will remain essential. Florida tax laws are in such a mess that they're hurting the state's economy.

Never Mind

Will property taxes "drop like a rock" as Good Time Charlie promised? "State lawmakers gave cities and counties an out: Local governments could pass tax rates higher than those dictated by the Legislature with a supermajority vote of their council or commission. ... [Also, a] growing number of cities are turning to fees for added revenues without raising taxes." "Property-tax cutbacks won't extend to everybody".

Yet Another Fine Jebacy

"Five years ago, state Sen. Ken Pruitt sounded a dire and prophetic warning about Florida's future."

"The sales tax must be reformed if it is to meet our needs in the years to come," Pruitt warned fellow lawmakers as he called for sweeping changes to the tax system.

The plan Pruitt embraced in 2002 would have lowered the statewide sales tax rate from 6 percent to 4.5 percent and expanded the sales tax base to include billions of dollars worth of tax-free professional services.

It was an audacious move. After all, many of the services Pruitt and fellow Republicans said should be taxed were used by wealthier people - everything from accounting to safe deposit boxes, dry cleaning to charter fishing boats.

The idea, launched only months after the 9/11 attacks had bruised tourism in Florida, failed miserably under fierce opposition from Gov. Jeb Bush and a cohesive business lobby, who called it a back-door tax increase.

Now, five years later, Pruitt, a Port St. Lucie Republican, is president of the Senate and in the midst of a special session to trim more than $1-billion from this year's budget - and at least that much next year.

"Strange Choices"

Beth Reinhard - "The ever-spiraling conflict over Florida's Democratic presidential primary has come to this:"

When 3,000 Democratic activists from the Hispanic-rich state gather in Orlando later this month, Bill Richardson -- the only Hispanic contender -- will be about 955 miles away in Michigan. Talking to Arab Americans.

Richardson is going to the Arab American Institute's annual leadership conference. That wouldn't be news -- except for the fact that most of the Democratic candidates signed a pledge to boycott Michigan and Florida for running roughshod over the national party's carefully staged primary calendar.

The big-state jockeying so infuriated four smaller states anointed to have the earliest primaries -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- that they goaded candidates into the boycott.

The powers-that-be in the four states made one exception: for the Arab American Institute. And in an only-in-Florida coincidence, the AAI gathering is the same weekend as the Democrats' annual convention in the nation's biggest battleground state. ...

Richardson is the only candidate who has agreed to attend so far, but others are expected. The candidates seem so panicked about upsetting the four leadoff states that they're even balking at sending their spouses to Orlando.

the persistence and savvy of the group's founder, James Zogby, brought it K-Street respectability in Washington. Zogby serves on the Democratic National Committee and works with his brother, well-known pollster John Zogby. Before the 2004 election, the Democratic contenders and a representative of President Bush all courted the group.

One can't help but wonder if Zogby's well-honed powers of persuasion softened kingmakers in the four early states, whom Florida Democratic Chairwoman Karen Thurman once referred to as a ''selfish, four-state alliance of party insiders.'' The Democratic leader in the Florida Senate, Steve Geller of Hallandale Beach, called them ``terrorist, rogue states.''

Sloppy Work

The Palm Beach Post editors: "State Republicans slammed together property-tax reform in a matter of days. They tried to right an off-kilter system with tax caps and a poorly conceived constitutional amendment. They acted as if real-estate values would rise forever." "Values down, taxes up? Yes. Don't make it worse".

FCAT Follies

The Tallahassee Democrat editorial board - while more circumspect than the "Jeb!" dead enders at the Orlando Sentinel - are nevertheless drinking the high stake testing kool-aid:"It's far too soon to declare victory - especially when Florida lawmakers are still prowling for a $1 billion budget cut - but recent math and reading results indicate that efforts to narrow achievement gaps are paying off." "Signs of progress".

Portability

"Now, near the top of the menu of options, and a favorite of South Florida lawmakers from both parties, is 'portability' — granting Florida homesteaders the right to transfer the important tax protections of the Save Our Homes clause of Florida's constitution from one home to another."

"[Portability] is the biggest thing we can do to restart the market along with finding a way to help first-time home buyers," said Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller, of Cooper City. Since the debate began on how to rewrite the rules for taxing Florida real estate, Geller said he has received "thousands" of letters, many complaining that the existing system bars them from moving or others from buying their home.

Geller has been working with Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, a former classmate at Florida State University, to make portability an ingredient in whatever alterations to the property tax laws the politicians in Tallahassee agree to. And it may work — though in the past, top Republican lawmakers have questioned whether portability would violate the U.S. Constitution's guarantees of equal protection. Crist, who has promised Floridians to make their property tax bills drop "like a rock," wants state legislators to meet again in special session before the end of October to come up with another approach on property taxes that could be put to voters in January.

Live ... From Estero ... The 911 Show ...

Rudy scrambling for Florida's wingnut vote: "Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani charged Saturday that Democrat Hillary Clinton has failed to state clear policy goals for dealing with the Iraq war and Iran's nuclear ambitions. The former New York mayor, in an hour-long town hall meeting in southwest Florida, continued his attack on the Democratic front-runner, also calling her out for proposing what he says amounts to socialized medicine and a recent proposal to send a savings bond to every baby born in the United States." "Giuliani says Clinton is unclear about policies on Iraq war, Iran".