Republicans Are Pushing Bad Bills Through the Legislature at Warpped Speed

[FayeforCure]

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE: BY THE NUMBERS

Florida Senate

28 Republicans

12 Democrats

24 votes required to propose amendments to the state Constitution

27 votes required for two-thirds super majority to override a veto, limit debate or expel a member. (Some votes require two-thirds of senators present)

Florida House

80 Republicans

39 Democrats

1 vacant

60 votes required to limit debate

72 votes required to propose a constitutional amendment

80 votes required to create public records exemptions, override a veto, impeach officers.





Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/10/2159558_p2/tallahassee-a-lonely-place-for.html#ixzz1J8iUXHVa

[buckethead]

One pint of swill, coming up!

I didn't see a single fact other than senatorial demographics presented in the entire article.

Hard to see any other point than "woe is me" from the Dems.

[FayeforCure]

One pint of swill, coming up!

I didn't see a single fact other than senatorial demographics presented in the entire article.

Hard to see any other point than "woe is me" from the Dems.

Oh, I guess you don't consider the Republican attack on women ( 18 anti-women bills currently going through "our" state legislature), and the attack on our middle class while giving corporations that set up shop in FL FREE Electricity, and an elimination of all corporate taxes, bad legislation.

“Week One: Florida House passes Unemployment Compensation legislation punishing out of work employees by rewarding Wall Street’s Corporations ... Pafford, recorded vote â€" Against.”

The bill passed 81-38.

“Week Three: Florida House approves the slush funds which decreases transparency in the process and revives pay to play politics ... Pafford, recorded vote â€" Against.”

The bill passed 81-39.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/10/2159558_p2/tallahassee-a-lonely-place-for.html#ixzz1J8te0ArV

Can Democrats do ANYTHING to stop any of this nonsense?

NO

The silver lining, Democrats hope, is that Republicans anger enough people (including Republicans in the middle class) to swing the 2012 legislative elections, when all 160 seats will be in contention.

“They are the best (thing for) Democrats right now, because they’re going so far, so fast,” said Dwayne Taylor, D-Daytona Beach. “It’s going to be easy for a lot of them to be replaced.”

That, and when a small victory goes viral â€" like saying “uterus” on the House floor.

The story, how Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, said his wife should incorporate “her uterus” to avoid regulation, and how Republicans said he shouldn’t say the word “uterus,” went all the way to Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/10/2159558_p2/tallahassee-a-lonely-place-for.html#ixzz1J8u07DEn

[buckethead]

Not that I don't trust the Miami Herald as a reliable source of information, but the language of the bill might lend a bit of credibility to the claims.

[BridgeTroll]

Can Democrats do ANYTHING to stop any of this nonsense?

Not until they actually show up to vote...

In Faye's defence... plenty of republicans felt the same way when Mr Obama swept into office along with majorities in the house and senate.

Elections have consequences Faye... That's why we have em.

[FayeforCure]

Not that I don't trust the Miami Herald as a reliable source of information, but the language of the bill might lend a bit of credibility to the claims.

buckethead, go at it and do some research............then try to summarize it in a short article.

Find some positives to say about the Republican "Slash and Burn" of our Middle Class.

Remember:

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105

[FayeforCure]

Can Democrats do ANYTHING to stop any of this nonsense?

Not until they actually show up to vote...

In Faye's defence... plenty of republicans felt the same way when Mr Obama swept into office along with majorities in the house and senate.

Elections have consequences Faye... That's why we have em.

Gerry-mandered distrcts make it that elections don't matter in Floriduh

[buckethead]

They aren't my claims to research... That would fall to the Miami Herald, or anyone who would forward these claims as fact.

Not that I don't believe Republicans wish to further subjugate women and minorities.

[BridgeTroll]

Can Democrats do ANYTHING to stop any of this nonsense?

Not until they actually show up to vote...

In Faye's defence... plenty of republicans felt the same way when Mr Obama swept into office along with majorities in the house and senate.

Elections have consequences Faye... That's why we have em.

Gerry-mandered distrcts make it that elections don't matter in Floriduh

Sure thing Faye...

[Jaxson]

I think that this legislative session is a serious lesson to voters that elections do have serious consequences.  If voters do not show up in 2012, we get the state government that we deserve.

[FayeforCure]

Can Democrats do ANYTHING to stop any of this nonsense?

Not until they actually show up to vote...

In Faye's defence... plenty of republicans felt the same way when Mr Obama swept into office along with majorities in the house and senate.

Elections have consequences Faye... That's why we have em.

Gerry-mandered distrcts make it that elections don't matter in Floriduh

Sure thing Faye...

Oh I bet you are one of those Republicans who LOVES to rail against Corinne Brown's district...........!

Corinne's district serves 2 purposes for Republicans:

1. It gives them something to rail against

while distracting from the fact that:

2.  by creating her district (80% Dems-20% Rep), they were able to create 5 solidly Republican districts (60% Rep-40% Dem)

Her district snakes alongside John Mica's solidly Republican, all the way from Jacksonville way into Orlando!!

Gerrymanders: Brown's district a GOP creation
Source URL: http://jacksonville.com/opinion/letters_from_readers/2010-03-16/story/gerrymanders_browns_district_a_gop_creation


The front page article about Rep. Corrine Brown being "unbeatable" was factual, but misleading.

The reader is left with the impression that Democrats are responsible for her gerrymandered district.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Gerrymanders created by the Republican Party of Florida are keeping every North Florida incumbent "safe" from upstart challengers.

After the 2000 census, the Republican leadership in the Florida Legislature loaded District 3 with Democrats to ensure that four other North Florida congressional districts would be "safe" for Republicans.

In other words, Republican strategists picked their voters.

Tea party activists take note: Conservative Republicans created this polarized, partisan mess, not liberal Democrats.

Conservative Republicans stacked the deck against mainstream Democratic candidates from Jacksonville to Gainesville to Ocala to Brooksville.

Republican strategists gerrymandered 240,655 Democrats, but only 72,282 Republicans into District 3.

They cherry-picked Democratic precincts in downtown Jacksonville, Gainesville, Ocala and Orlando to create the oddly shaped district.

They ensured that Republicans would enjoy significant numerical advantages in congressional districts occupied by Rep. Cliff Stearns (8,701 in District 6), Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (District 5), Rep. Ander Crenshaw (15,279 in District 4) and John Mica (22,394 in District 7).

Stearns was given the smallest margin. He has the biggest standing balance in his campaign account, more than $2.3 million, and he makes effective use of his franking (free mail) privilege.

Had the 168,373 Democratic majority in District 3 been distributed fairly according to geography rather than political party, the face of the Florida's congressional delegation would be very different than it is today.

Maybe every representative would deliver.

These good old boys should be more concerned about representative and functional government and less concerned about staying in power.



DAVID E. BRUDERLY

Gainesville

The same is true of state districts, that have the same disasterous UNDEMOCRATIC consequences at the state legislature level.

Hence voters overwhelmingly passed Fair Districting amendments by a vote of 60%. Yet Rick Scott has the gall to single-handedly putting a halt to the voter's expressed election results, similar to how he handled HSR!!

[FayeforCure]

Can Democrats do ANYTHING to stop any of this nonsense?

Not until they actually show up to vote...

In Faye's defence... plenty of republicans felt the same way when Mr Obama swept into office along with majorities in the house and senate.

Not at all true. Republicans were in fact very successful obstructionists and ended up watering down and delaying ANYTHING Obama wanted to get through congress.



They successfully obstructed using: The Fillibuster

"Republicans have ratcheted use of the filibuster up to completely unheard of levels. Look at the things that the House (of Representatives) has passed that can't make it through the Senate. The list just keeps growing," said Norman Ornstein, an expert on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right policy organization.

The list includes legislation to overhaul health care, which has stalled and isn't a good bet to be revived; global warming legislation; and a bill to overhaul financial regulation. Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada scaled back a bipartisan jobs bill, fearing that a larger package would get tied up in a filibuster.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/12/84487/senate-republicans-filibuster.html

Democrats in the Florida Legislature CANNOT do anything at all:

Rep. Jeff Clemens, a freshman Democrat from Palm Beach County, walks into the state Capitol each day, waits for an elevator to his barren 14th floor office, and over the hum of his minifridge thinks:

Who are we sticking it to today?

“The list gets longer every week,” he says. Unions, teachers, cops, firefighters, the middle class.

Clemens would love to stop it. Stop something. Slow it down even.

He can’t.

Life in the minority party in government is always challenging. But for Democrats in Florida this year, it’s oppressive.

Of the 164 people elected to serve in state government, less than one-third â€" 51 â€" are Democrats. And one Democrat has missed most of the session because of health issues.

The result is predictable. As the Republican-dominated Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott accelerate through an agenda filled with controversial and sweeping changes to what seems like every crevice of government, Democrats can only sit in the back of the room, watch and shrug.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/10/2159558/tallahassee-a-lonely-place-for.html#ixzz1J9iSsifB

They have absolutely no tool at their disposal to obstruct the killing of our middle class!

[Garden guy]

The republicans have no modern credibility...they'be taken our state to the brink of poverty and this idiot leader wants to end all corporate taxes in our state...what are we going to do? I just cant understand how the republicans are to blame for all of this shit and they walk away smelling like roses...it sickens me...

[Timkin]

Most Politicians sicken me. If they don't enter office crooked, somehow they end up that way.  :/

[Garden guy]

It's the damn EGO....it'll get you everytime i guess...