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Note To Readers
Happy Thanksgiving. Posts will resume Sunday.
"Jeb!" Flip Flops
The Miami Herald's investigative series on the clemency system this month exposed the following about Florida's treatment of felons:• The Clemency Board has rejected more than 200,000 civil rights applications since Bush took office in 1999, the highest rejection rate in at least 16 years.
• Nearly 80 percent of the 50,000 felons released from custody between 2001 and 2003 still can't vote. Many are nonviolent offenders whose crimes warranted little or no prison time.
• The backlog of people waiting to appeal directly to the Clemency Board for their civil rights has quadrupled since Bush took office. Clearing the cases could take three decades.
• An estimated 50,000 felons since 1980 have not had their civil rights restored because of an oversight in state law: They did time in county jail, not state prison.
• The Clemency Board has restored voting rights to murderers, rapists, batterers, drug traffickers and corrupt public officials, at the same time it barred thousands of lower-level criminals from the polls.
Since Bush took office, the board has adopted some of the harshest rules ever. Among other things, felons are not allowed to get their rights back quickly if they have ever been convicted of one of more than 200 crimes -- even if the convictions are decades old. Now, after having declined to be interviewed by The Herald for the series of stories, we read that "Governor supports clemency revisions for felons". Don't hold your breath.
As an aside, I wonder if the media will call "Jeb!" a flip flopper on this issue?
"Gotcha"
In 1998, voters approved changes in the state Constitution that made the state responsible as of July 1, 2004 for picking up the entire tab for the state court system. The change was intended to relieve the counties of the costs of running the trial courts and create a seamless statewide court system that offered uniform services. But the Legislature was so angered by these new fiscal responsibilities that it included a "gotcha" in the budget, transferring onto county shoulders the obligation to pay for juvenile detention centers - a cost shift of $90-million annually.
This month, a circuit court judge shifted the cost back to the state. And that's where it should stay. ". . . And a budget 'gotcha'".
Privatization Follies
Bill Nelson's going after some big GOoPer contributors who have been repaid with government contracts; good luck Bill, you'll need it:U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson wants computer giant BearingPoint to be banned from new government contracts pending an investigation of the collapse of a $472 million prototype computer system at Bay Pines veteran's hospital. "Nelson calls for BearingPoint suspension from federal contracts". Recall, however, that BearingPoint has "close ties" to our "Jeb!" andBearingPoint, formerly KPMG Consulting, and its employees have given more than $117,000 to the 2000 and 2004 Bush election campaigns, more than any other major Iraqi contractor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group that tracks campaign contributions."Questions raised about ethics of Iraq contract".
A Handful of Green Initiatives Pass . . . Big Deal
Florida may be a "red" state when it comes to presidential politics, but voters in seven counties and one city went "green" by approving $436-million in bond issues for parks and conservation lands, say officials with the Trust for Public Lands. "Conservation, parks bonds voter favorites".
Tennis Anyone
Curious:Former tennis great Martina Navratilova today branded President Bush a "liar" and admitted she may consider a career in politics once she hangs up her racket for the last time....
But one thing Navratilova has ruled out as a challenge too far is to battle President Bush's brother Jeb for his job as governor of the state of Florida. She said: "Would I challenge Governor Jeb Bush? No. I don't think I am up to that." "Navratilova: Bush is a liar". Someone ought to clue Martina to the fact that "Jeb!" can't run for Gov again, so the seat will be open.
If She Said It, It Must Be True
"No person was denied their right to vote in the 2004 election," Hood noted.
"Ang[ry] Bush" Doesn't Get It
"Two suits opposing Scripps site anger Bush". "Jeb!" just doesn't get it:For reasons that have less to do with Scripps and more to do with the huge real-estate project that would be built next door, the governor does not understand the implications of pressing ahead blindly at Mecca Farms. Based on his earlier comments and the meeting he had last week with County Commissioner Karen Marcus, the governor does not understand the serious issues that have drawn lawsuits over the Mecca site. His silly characterization during their meeting of the lawsuits as "legal terrorism" reflects, at best, a dangerous misreading of the situation. "Seek fresh perspective on new site for Scripps".
Felon List - Hood Cleared of Wrongdoing
Regarding the felon list:A new audit shows that Florida's attempt to rid the voting rolls of felons this past election season was marred by lax oversight by the Department of State, which failed to follow legal settlements and relied on seriously flawed data when it put together the controversial felons list. However, the audit determined thatno evidence exists to suggest that state officials deliberately intended to purge black voters more aggressively than Hispanic voters. Wait a second . . . could that have had something to do with the fact that the "audit" wasconducted by Kirby Mole, the inspector general who reports directly to Secretary of State Glenda Hood . . . "Felons list audit faults state". See also "Audit sees flaws in felon-list effort".
The two stories cited above advise the reader that the "audit" was conducted by an individual who reports to Hood, and thus should be viewed with a grain of salt. By contrast, the AP wire story - at least the version that appeared in Hood's hometown Orlando Sentinel this morning, "Probe finds no Hood plot" - nowhere mentions that the audit that clears Hood was conducted by a Hood subordinate.
Felon List - A New Bureaucracy
GOoPers are preoccupied with making sure folks don't vote, so Glenda has come up with a new idea: "Job for new bureau: statewide voter list".
King of the Hill
As public attention focused on House Speaker Allan Bense's swearing-in last week, a power struggle was brewing behind the scenes over who would be speaker in 2008.
The race between Reps. Ray Sansom of Destin and Bill Galvano of Bradenton intensified when most Miami-Dade Republicans pledged their votes to Sansom after days of backroom talks in the Capitol.
But two Miami lawmakers, Reps. Juan-Carlos Planas and Marcelo Llorente, called it a premature decision. Both lawmakers backed Galvano instead, prompting Sansom loyalists to accuse the pair of breaking a commitment to support their colleagues in a collective choice. "Deal fails in rivalry for 2008 speaker".
"Inoculate Ourselves Against Despots"
Precisely when did "Jeb!", a failed water pump salesman* and all purpose "businessman"**, become a constitutional law scholar?Gov. Bush keeps trying, but he can't find a court to agree with him that the state can shift tax money to religious schools. His latest loss came at the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. All the judges gave him the courtesy of hearing his case, rather than restrict it to three random members of the court — who had already ruled against him.
A spokesman for the governor says he still thinks the state's original school voucher plan is constitutional. Of course, that is not the governor's call. Courts decide constitutionality. It's one of several ways we inoculate ourselves against despots. "Jeb picks wrong voucher fight". I think we can expect continued, and escalating, attacks on Forida's judicial system by "Jeb!" and his fellow GOoPer constitutional scholars in the Legislature.
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*Recall the brief attention given "Jeb!"'s tenure as a water pump saleasman, including this 1999 St. Pete Times piece:MWI, which stands for Moving Water Industries, in 1992 sold Nigeria $74.3-million-worth of giant water pumps and other equipment in a deal made possible by a loan from Export-Import Bank of the United States. Nigeria is about $23-million behind on its payments, and as the Miami Herald reported last year, many of the pumps were unaccounted for or sitting idle. From 1989 to 1993, Bush and Eller co-owned a company, Bush-El, that marketed MWI pumps, which are used for flood control and irrigation. Bush traveled to Nigeria to help push the pump sales, and as son of the president, received red-carpet treatment. "Some say probe tests ties to GOP backer". The Miami Herald put it this way:It was 1991, dad was in the White House, and Jeb Bush was hopscotching through Nigeria in a corporate jet, on his way to meet government officials he hoped would buy $74 million worth of water pumps from his South Florida business partner. On the jet with Bush was a Nigerian associate in the deal, Al-Haji Mohammed Indimi, who carried several heavy Hartmann suitcases. At least one of the bags, the airplane's pilot says, was packed with cash to bribe the Nigerian officials. Did Jeb Bush know about the cash in the suitcase? Did he understand what the money was for? Bush declined to be interviewed for this story. His campaign emphatically denied that he knew anything about suitcases full of bribe money. Water pump sales . . . it's a tough business.
**"Jeb!" as "Mr. businessman" is detailed in the Miami Herald's "Bush and business: Fast success, brushes with mystery".
"Not Yet in the Red"
Does Florida still swing, or has it turned red?
After this month's convincing Republican election victory, a look at the numbers could call into question Florida's reputation as a swing state. Some question whether it's now one of the ``red states'' considered reliably Republican.
Even Republicans are cautious about making claims that Florida has left the swing state category but still say their win Nov. 2 was a harbinger.
"I'd certainly like to think so," said U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris of Sarasota, who has said she expects to run for the U.S. Senate, possibly in 2006. ``If you put fiscal conservatism in the Republican category it's going to track that way. But in many cases it has more to do with our values and solutions, it's not so much `R' and `D.' ''
A few of the Election Day numbers that cause this kind of speculation . . . "State Swing Is Not Yet In The Red".
Hipocrisy
"Jeb!" is all for redemption:In a letter to the [Miami Herald] editor ["Jeb!"] wrote, "I do believe in personal redemption and that people who learn from their mistakes . . . deserve a second chance." Nice words, but our "Jeb!" is saying one thing and doing quite another:Today nearly 500,000 ex-felons who have paid their debt to society remain without rights. They are the largest number of disfranchised in any state, disproportionately black and a measure of the clemency system's failure. Gov. Bush declined to speak to Herald reporters. "No redemption for state clemency system".
Privatization Follies
The state payroll system used to work, but now we read that "State-payroll snags abound". Why spend $350 million on a private Ohio company and fire 900 hard working state employees to get a system that doesn't work?
"Little Optimism"
Wrapping up a distinguished yet often frustrating 18 years on Capitol Hill, Florida Sen. Bob Graham says he foresees an ideological Bush administration forcing its will on a polarized Congress while international terrorist groups continue to gather strength abroad. "Graham leaves Washington with little optimism for Bush's second term".
Room to Improve
A Herald analysis showed that new technology dramatically cut the number of discarded ballots in the Nov. 2 election. But there is still room to improve, experts said. "Touch screens reduced spoiled ballots". See also "Report: Rates of discarded ballots drop this year from 2000".
Colorado a Model for Florida?
When Democratic state chairmen gather in Florida next month to lick their wounds from the Nov. 2 election, their agenda will include a careful study of one bright spot in a generally sorry performance: Colorado, a solidly red state that went almost completely blue this year. "In Colorado, the GOP is doing the hand-wringing".
Freshmen
The 19 representatives . . . are introduced to dealing with lobbyists, the members' lounge and their Tallahassee offices. "Freshmen get first taste of life at Capitol".
GOoPer Air
The tax-supported South Florida Water Management District maintains a fleet of aircraft at an annual cost of $1.8 million. Among the fleet's uses: Ferrying water managers and politicians to the airport, to a funeral and to the occasional party. "Costly air fleet a real pick-me-up for VIPs".
Canary in the Coal Mine
When Floridians went to the polls on Election Day, women showed their clout: They made up more than half of all voters.
But two weeks later, as state lawmakers gathered in Tallahassee to swear in new members and choose leaders, that clout was harder to see. Women dotted the House and Senate chambers, making up less than a quarter of the Legislature.
This fall's elections followed a nearly decade-long pattern of women failing to increase the number of seats they hold in Tallahassee. "Fewer women lawmakers brings less influence".
We'll See
I hope Dyckman is right about this: "Lee's message for the lobbyists".
"Haves and Have-Nots"
The Sun Sentinel is correct:The gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing ever wider. The median price for homes across South Florida is hitting record highs. Family income is crawling upward at a fraction of the pace.
It doesn't take a mathematician to see the worsening equation spells disaster for more and more families looking for decent, affordable homes. Worse, little is being done to address the ensuing crisis before it spirals out of control. However, their heads are in the sand if they think this is any way to solve the problem:[Jeb!] Bush has set up a task force of bankers, state officials and housing experts to advise state lawmakers on how to build more affordable housing. "Time To Stop Talking And Act". Call me cynical, but I don't have a lot of faith in those "bankers" closing that "gap between the haves and the have-nots".
Don't Forget
Police at last year's Free Trade event in Miami weren't trying to keep the peace, but to stifle dissent, critics say. "A year later, protest bitterness still lingers".
Drumbeat
The Miami Herald has kept the drumbeat on the felon issues (see today's stories below); today the editorial board does it again:We have long argued that Florida should automatically restore the rights of felons once they complete their sentences. The Herald's investigation has shown that flaws riddle the current clemency system, which stacks the odds against restoration of rights for a majority of ex-felons. The Legislature should require that ex-felons sentenced to local jails get the same automatic clemency referral and assistance now provided to those released by the Department of Corrections. Give a break to people with lesser offenses. "Do less-serious crime, lose rights for life".
Time to Pay Back the Preachers
Buoyed by polls showing that moral values influenced the election, officials from the White House to the statehouse are planning to draw more faith-based groups into services traditionally provided by government.
But organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union caution that government zeal to contract with religious groups for everything from pre-school to prisons to nursing homes could run afoul of the separation of church and state.
In Florida, the constitution expressly forbids the use of government money to aid religious organizations.
Florida lawmakers may be grappling with such issues in the upcoming legislative session, thanks to an order Gov. Jeb Bush signed last week creating a Faith-Based and Community Advisory Board. Its first task is to draft legislation by February so it will outlive Bush's remaining two years as governor.
Bush has had an advisory group since last year that tries to encourage people of faith to volunteer with government programs. But he thinks that formalizing a board in state law will give faith-based groups a chance to compete for state contracts and get more things done, especially in the area of social services. "Lawmakers set for faith-based issues".
Someone Ought to be Arrested for This
The Miami Herald has sunk its teeth into the felon thing: In a state that denies voting rights to tens of thousands of nonviolent felons, violent criminals and crooked public officials have slipped past the Clemency Board with their civil rights restored.
Florida's Clemency Board has restored voting rights to murderers, rapists, batterers, drug traffickers and corrupt public officials -- at the same time it barred thousands of lower-level criminals from the polls, a Herald investigation has found. "Violent felons' rights restored while lesser offenders waited". In the meantime, problems have tainted Florida's clemency system since 1991, when the state scrapped its policy of automatically restoring civil rights to felons released from custody.
Thousands of civil rights applications were lost because of faulty computer programs. Overwhelmed clemency investigators said they rejected applicants when criminal records were missing or cases were complicated. No one notified felons when they were denied their rights, shutting them out of the process without telling them they could reapply.
Although hundreds of felons convicted of violent crimes got rights back in recent years [see above], a decade of bureaucratic missteps blocked thousands of felons who should have qualified for clemency under the state's own rules. And what does "Jeb!" think about all this? Well, he doesn't see a problem:
Bush, who leads the Clemency Board, says he has fixed the troubled system. He declined to be interviewed for this report but in a previous statement wrote, "Florida has removed barriers and burdens for felons who want to regain their rights." "Errors followed state policy shift".
Private Sector Contractors Need Work Too
Demand for such space was high a few years ago, but as the need dipped, construction went on. "Juvenile prisons sit unused around state".
S, Fla. Budget
As Congress neared passage of a 2005 spending bill, money for some Florida projects held the line or grew. Other projects weren't so lucky. "Budget is mixed bag for S. Florida".
The GOoPers' "Air Everglades"
Frequent fliers? Oh, it has some of those, too. Usually, they are politically connected folks with no ties to the agency and high-ranking district officials whose "fares" — $445 an hour for a helicopter and $765 an hour for the airplane, by the district's own estimates — are paid for by taxpayers.
Welcome to "Air Everglades," the South Florida Water Management District's fleet....
[A]mong the hundreds of flights reviewed, some stand out:
• On Jan. 11, 2003, a Saturday, U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, took a water district Bell helicopter at PBIA for, according to the flight request, a "flyover of projects." Three hours later and after a stopover in Tampa, Voinovich was dropped off at Charlotte County Airport near Punta Gorda, on Florida's west coast, and the chopper returned to PBIA.
Why Punta Gorda? Property records show that Voinovich's wife, Janet, owns a beachfront condo there....
• On the same Saturday, another chopper picked up Kathleen Shanahan, then the governor's chief of staff, near a state office at Florida International University in Miami. [District Executive Director Henry] Dean accompanied her to Key West, where Shanahan was dropped off for the weekend....
Shanahan, who now works for the consulting group Public Strategies Inc., said she took the tour to learn about Everglades restoration. And she spent the weekend in Key West, she said, for work. "I wasn't in Key West for a vacation," she said. "I was there to prepare a meeting between the governor and Navy commanders."
• On Feb. 3, 2003, Dean, Governing Board Vice Chairwoman Pamela Brooks-Thomas and six district staffers took the eight-seat Beechcraft King Air plane to Tallahassee to attend the governor's Black History Month reception. Two hours later, they headed home. Cost of that flight: $2,486.
• On June 14, 2003, a helicopter picked up newly appointed Governing Board member Kevin McCarty, husband of Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, at Boca Raton Airport. The flight was to familiarize bonds-trader McCarty with the district and included three agency officials.
But listed on the flight manifest with McCarty was Jackie Dheere. McCarty did not return calls to explain why he took Dheere along. Dheere described herself as a 20-year-old student who, at the time, was working on "a science or English" term paper for a class at Palm Beach Community College.
"I just asked Kevin if I could come because I thought the flight could help me write the paper," Dheere said. She did not remember anything about that paper.
As it happens, Dheere worked on Mary McCarty's 2002 campaign for commissioner, herself ran unsuccessfully for another commission seat and was the local college coordinator for this fall's Bush-Cheney campaign. Cost of the flight: $1,335.
• This past April 15, a chopper flew out of West Palm Beach to pick up Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz for a "flyover of Dade/Broward counties," according to the flight request. Diaz boarded at the Watson Island helipad in downtown Miami and was dropped off at Fort Lauderdale International Airport 15 minutes later, according to the manifest.
District officials explained the trip was not just to give Diaz a ride to the airport, where he had a plane to catch, but to allow the newly appointed district operations chief, Bob Howard, to meet Diaz, the commission's de facto liaison with the district. "Everybody met during the flight," said Diaz's spokeswoman, Jeanette Rodriguez. Diaz did not return calls for comment.
Diaz hasn't been shy about using the aircraft. On Oct. 6, 2003, he and three district officials took the mayor and the port director of the tiny Colombia city of Buenaventura on a three-hour aerial tour of Miami.
The flight request read: "To give a special environmental tour to educate our Hispanic brothers by touring the Everglades." The chopper took off from Watson, dropped off the Colombians at Fort Lauderdale International, returned to Miami to drop off Diaz, then returned to West Palm Beach. Total cost: $1,335.
• Others not affiliated with the water district who recently have flown include: state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, who took a special flight solo from PBIA to Key Largo for a presentation to the water district board; former state Rep. Joe Spratt, R-LaBelle, who hitched a ride on the King Air for a funeral; and Steve Hart, aide to U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, who traveled on the state agency's plane to Tallahassee on federal business. Hart is the husband of WMD deputy executive director Pam Mac'Kie. "Water district flights strain tax dime for some brass, bigwigs".
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