“Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.
--W.C. Fields
"I'm running against a fellow who doesn't know when the FCAT is given, doesn't know who his member of Congress is, and doesn't know Pensacola is part of Florida...This is not someone who understands the state of Florida."
--Jim Davis, November 6, 2006
--W.C. Fields
"I'm running against a fellow who doesn't know when the FCAT is given, doesn't know who his member of Congress is, and doesn't know Pensacola is part of Florida...This is not someone who understands the state of Florida."
--Jim Davis, November 6, 2006
Florida newspapers have felt a bit squeamish reporting the allegations by Bruce Carlton Jordan, the former Katherine Harris travel aide regarding his own claims that he and Crist were romantically linked.
Only when a gay-pride organization held a November 4 news conference in Tallahassee urging that Crist acknowledge his alleged homosexuality did the media begin to question the candidate.
Crist is now on the hot seat.
The issue is not about "outing" Crist's sexuality. His honesty-his integrity-are the question at this eleventh hour.
If all Floridians are so cosmopolitan about homosexuality-as the press would have us believe-then what, pray tell, is the big deal?
This is the big deal.
Many Floridians believe the Norman Rockwell image of a family. Man and woman married with children. Crist himself voiced the same. ''Marriage is a relationship like my mother and father had.'' He underlined the comment for his base with this glaring comment: ''Like I had before I got divorced.''
Crist will lose the conservative base of his party if he honestly addresses the issue of his sexuality.
The same Rep wing that resents the attempted intrusion of the government into the Terri Schiavo affair.
The Republican Party wants Crist out of the hot seat and into the governor's seat for one reason.
To continue Jeb's legacy.
A legacy that is more about power than about what is best for Florida.
Supposedly, "the debate about running this story that has raged quietly in newsrooms long before today."
The same papers that held the Mark Foley story while the self-proclaimed Protector of Children instant-messaged sixteen-year-olds from the floor of Congress. Foley, as Co-Chair of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, proved instrumental in the passage of federal legislation that may very well legally ensnare the former Florida Congressman himself.
If Foley ever checks out of rehab.
Many Florida newspapers, including The Miami Herald, The Tallahassee Democrat, and The Orlando Sentinel have endorsed Charlie Crist. To question Crist's ethical integrity following such formal endorsements-how much "egg-in-the-editorial-face" would such hardball follow-up entail?
Is Crist more hypocritical than dishonest? And if dishonest now, how much can Floridians trust his decisions as governor?
Thomas Jefferson said it best.
"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure."
As Florida stands in the dawn of a new day, in the position to shake off the neoconservative legislative impact of the Jeb Bush administration, one certainty is clear.
The Florida press stepped aside regarding it's responsibility to everyday citizens to hold politicans accountable while at the same time, keep politicans honest and ethically solid.
Floridians have been let down by those who must always stand tall between freedom and facism.
Without a free press that is truly free, we are simply doomed as a free society.
"Momentum is with the Democrat. Hold on to your hat."
--Political Wire, 11/6/2006
--Political Wire, 11/6/2006
Crist and Jeb Covered for Foley
JIM DAVIS-FLORIDA'S NEXT GOVERNOR!
Vote November 7th.
For yourself.
For the disenfranchised.
The Road to Second Chance
Smashed Frog
September 9, 2006
We all live within the parentheses of our expectations that we define for our lives.
A life lived to the fullest sometimes steps out of these self-imposed parameters, outside the black and white, a style not so easily defined by a Strunk and White grammar guide.
Our lives lead to our every moment. Often, these moments are not what we anticipated or even vaguely considered for ourselves. Whether or not we like it, life is often about dealing with the element of surprise.
Surprise can trip us up as a well-placed comma in our path or exclamation point us in the direction of a life otherwise not considered.
The proverbial fork in the road. Life has played out to this point because it was meant to be.
To make the choice to travel the road of continued surprise, is the choice to thrive "in spirit", to be inspired, to live our lives outside the parentheses of our previous expectations...to propel ourselves forward, armed with wisdom gained, to live a better life.
Our American society, as a whole, does not self-actualize so well.
We walk the walk and talk the talk, professing respect for those who pick themselves up by the bootstraps and trudge on towards a life of new inspiration.
But we are very quick to categorize and punitively restrain those who have fallen from societal expectations, to effectively cut out any chance that wisdom gained during times of surprise derailment be used to better society as a whole.
Those disenfranchised from participation in the voting process keeps our society kodachromed as a Mayberry moment.
People-families-communities-individuals are not black and white snapshots of perfection.
Life is just not that simple.
The picture America presents to the world is not of America Land of the Free, but a slide show of just who is in charge...those who have legislated morality as a way to airbrush out the disenfranchised.
The disenfranchised do not have a voice. Period.
And without such input of lessons learned translated into votes, the face-the thinking- of those elected officials we choose to represent us politically, will remain rigid and highly moralized.
My life has led me to this moment.
To this consideration.
As November 7th approaches, the general midterm elections promise to fork many incumbents toward their own personal path of the Unexpected Surprise.
As Americans, we stand at the crossroads of political philosophical change,armed with the wisdom of we-as a people-want changed.
Include all Americans in the work towards positive regrowth of our country.
Work to restore the voting and civil rights of the disenfranchised.
Support those whose lives have led them down the Road of Second Chance.
FREEDOM!
2 comments:
Such a tangled web. I'm honestly sick to death of all this who’s gay bullshit. What on earth anyone who's gay is doing as a member of the Republican Party escapes me. They are homobigots of the first water. Why on earth align yourself with hate mongers? Especially if you're a target of that hatred? Crist must be a very conflicted individual. How can he do his job effectively, if all his spare time is spent hiding who he is? Look at what happened to people who've allowed inner demons to rule their lives? Everything becomes a shambles. Everything.
You make a good point.
Why on earth align yourself with hate mongers?
Just take a look at the latest zealots to "fall from grace"...Mark Foley and this Haggard preacher..both have revealed a secret life while professing, quite publicly, their intolerance for others JUST LIKE THEM....
These types must carry some sort of deep-seated shame to crusade by night to protect everyone else, yet-when off the clock-live the complete opposite. Somehow, by fighting against what they deem wrong for everyone else, they forgive themselves for what they feel is God-forsaken behavior.
Maybe Crist has those same tendencies, maybe he doesn't....but the Reps currently in power are definitely hate and fear mongers...look at the Prez-he has a huge Daddy complex.
Every Florida voter should ask himself why Crist would align himself with such a cast of characters....it's just pathetic.
Maybe he just doesn't want to come "out" while his parents are alive-but that makes him one official hypocrite when he says "No, I'm not gay." And also, a liar.
My hope are that today, regular Americans will vote a message to each other...we are tired of being bossed about by those who have absolutely no sense of the reality in which Americans live every single day.
It's time red and blue stopped falling for this polarization crap and came together...we have been used by George, Jeb and the 109th Congress.
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