First it was her firm opposition to SB6. Now Dockery calls out the RPOF for it’s serial misuse of donor funds and potential corruption that occured at the highest levels.

We’re supposed to be different. As Republicans we believe in fiscal restraint and personal responsibility. But in an effort to protect a few bad actors, the party leadership decided to circle the wagons, and by doing so, painted the Party in a very unfavorable light. The existence of a severance agreement signed by high-level elected officials is deeply troubling and highlights the extent to which efforts at transparency were thwarted.

“We’re supposed to be different.”

Dockery’s advancing a consistent message that will resonate with many Republican voters. The fiscal irresponsibility was just one thing to dislike about SB6, and Dockery has been able to make political hay out of it. The RPOF’s excesses, while certainly helping Democrats will not be harming Dockery and may be a winner with both independents and conservative voters alike.

While Bill McCollum will have to take hits on this from his role as State AG, he’ll be able to keep voters interest with his lawsuit attempting to overturn Obamacare.

On a personal note, I’ll admit the following: Unlike the Florida #2 race wher I’ll not favor any particular GOP-Consevative in the race, I’m rooting for Dockery. Some will say my choice is as a result of Dockery’s early opposition to SB6.

That’s part of it I admit, but with her stand, Dockery demonstrates she is willing to take principled positions that may not parallel the GOP establishment. This is leadership and political courage. Charlie Crist knew he would take heat from his own party yet took the same sort of stand. Crist is being treated as a pariah by many GOP pols and it’s clear that Dockery is willing to take on a similar burden.

Posted under POLITICS

I know it feels so good using Nieve….but you’re gonna use him up.

Let’s channel Bill Withers just because we can after 12 appearances in 18 games.

My friends feel it’s their appointed duty
They keep trying to tell me all you want to do is use me
But my answer yeah to all that use me stuff
Is I wanna spread the news that if it feels this good getting used
Oh you just keep on using me until you use me up
Until you use me up

Talking about you using me but it all depends on what you do
It ain’t too bad the way you’re using me
Cause I sure am using you to do the things you do
Ah ha to do the things you do

(an ode to Fernando)

Posted under Uncategorized

I know it feels so good using Nieve…….. but you’re gonna use him up.

Lets channel Bill Withers…just because we can after 12 appearances in 18 games

My friends feel it’s their appointed duty
They keep trying to tell me all you want to do is use me
But my answer yeah to all that use me stuff
Is I wanna spread the news that if it feels this good getting used
Oh you just keep on using me until you use me up
Until you use me up

Talking about you using me but it all depends on what you do
It ain’t too bad the way you’re using me
Cause I sure am using you to do the things you do
Ah ha to do the things you do

(An ode to Fernando)

Posted under Uncategorized

In a well-penned post on his website, conservative independent candidate Paul McKain calls attention to the extremely burdensome Maguson-Steven Act that sets hard limits on gamefish that are taken from northern Gulf waters. The limits have already had harsh affects on Northwest Florida’s fishermen and local economies. Says McKain:

“Efforts in Congress have been in the works for the past year or so to evaluate whether or not the government is using the best available scientific data on which to base its over-fishing decisions. While bills are stuck in committee, mandates from the Magnuson-Stevens Act have caused some fishing seasons (including amberjack and red snapper) to terminate earlier than originally expected. As a result, this has created financial hardship to many in our fishing communities as their income is directly tied to those fishing seasons”

Mckain points to that fact that the problem is that the regulations are faulty and that data the federal government is using is outdated:

“I will do everything in my power to ensure that our fishermen have a voice in Washington, DC and I will work steadfastly to ensure that outdated data collection methods will give way to truly scientific data collection principles so our anglers and the economies of our coastal communities no longer have to needlessly suffer.”

McKain’s words should play well along FLA #2′s coast with it’s significant commercial and sport fishing industry in Appalachicola, Carrabelle, Port St. Joe and Panama City.

Posted under FLORIDA #2

Alex Leary of the St. Pete Times is such a Democrat flack.

But maybe it’s just that Boyd’s campaign nows where to send stuff and that the GOP candidates are still operating on shoe string budgets. Leary and his boss Adam Smith obviously lean Democrat so much that they need a safety net, but Boyd’s likely to have fButull time campaign staff. All the GOP candidates still have part time start ups.

It’s really hard taking out rich incumbants with lots of cash. Even if they have a horrible record that’s contrary to his district’s values.

UPDATE (835 CDT) I’ll handicap the GOP race this weekend. I was having trouble establishing links to the current candidates sites within this post.

Posted under Uncategorized

Democrats and their media allies are not used to Republicans that play their game. Sarah Palin hits back. When her daughter is involved, don’t expect her to shrink away while the coward’s whom write the headlines and the little lefty wannabes that get their degree in journalism practice what they’ve been taught not to. It’s shameful that few, if any, within the Republican Party make an attempt to defend her. They leave it to the conservative non-traditional media to defend her.

No wonder they hate her. Republicans essentially serve as Democart enablers when they fail to rise in defending a colleague.

Republicans should realize that Democrats (MSM included) assault her because she is the antithesis to everything they hold dear. Instead of going the David Frum, Charles Krauthammer and Kathleen Parker route of arrogant elitism, Republicand should be embracing her and the standard she represents. These three and those like her have advanced a negative that empasizes their own perceptions of Palin over the positives for America she represents.

These elites sadly run the Party and operate as it’s conscience. But the Krauthammer’s, Frums, and Parkers of the world live in a seperate universe from the voters they desire influencing and proclaim to mirror in message. They’re metaphoric toss of the former Alaska govenor under ther bus serves to only seperate themselves from real conservative value voters that identify with Palin and her story of success.

Which arrogance is more offensive? Is it the Democrats’ whom pushed health care on us? Or the scholarly elites of the right that look dismissively down upon this remarkable woman and lecture her supporters?

Posted under POLITICS

I’m thanking him all the time and admittedly don’t mind my dues going to this ad. What’s it mean politically though?

Let’s ponder:

1. The Crist campaign probably knew the ad was coming. Is this the only support that he will be receiving from the FEA?

2. But why would a group so traditionally in the bag for Democrats run an ad thanking a GOP pol? There are obviously some political calculations underway. Perhaps it’s that the FEA knows that they cannot deliver enough of their membership to Kendrick Meek and know that alot of the independents in their membership will be supporting Crist whether he continues of as a Republican or runs as an independent. This could be an attempt to assuage these members.

3. Is the FEA hedging their bets? Good idea either way. They will probably hold fire at least until the April 30 deadline for Crist to opt out of the GOP. But the FEA knows that a Charlie Crist -whether he is an Independent or Republican – will be a far more easy pol to deal with than would Marco Rubio.

4. On the national level, the AFL-CIO, NEA and AFT are looking to cultivate a potential US Senator and don’t mind Independents. See Joe Lieberman. Other Republican Senators have been sympathrtic to teachers. Rubio, whom shares Jeb Bush’s education philosophy, may not even take their phone calls.

Whatever the outcome, this all is the fault of the loudmouths in the Republican Party like Jim Thrasher and Jeff Atwater. Are far too many of the rest have looked to score partisan points, either to hurt Crist or simply advance conservative talking points. Both will have consequences in the state.

SB 6 was a bad bill. While the state’s GOP decision makers are trying to blame this on the unions and Charlie Crist’s political vanity, the facts don’t hold up. This may be Crist’s last dance in politics, but at what cost to the Florida GOP? Aside from independent and republican teachers, they’ve demonstarted that the party cannot be trusted when it comes to education. Within this election cycle anyway, the GOP has created alot of one-issue voters that won’t be votong for thier candidates.

Posted under Uncategorized

It’s not been going well of late for Panama City. Already hurting from a downgrade in tourism, the losses in support jobs at Tyndall AFB and the loss of Sallie Mae jobs will be abrupt and painful to the entire community.

“Layoffs at Sallie Mae in Lynn Haven are expected to begin in about 60 days, drawing down until the facility is closed, Sallie Mae officials said. Nationwide, the company will lose 2,500 jobs. The news comes on the heels of an announcement that the F-15s drawdown at Tyndall Air Force Base will cost the area about 800 jobs.

Local officials say Bay County cannot absorb 1,500 jobs in a weak economy. There just aren’t enough jobs to go around”

Allen Boyd once at least gave the impression that he understood economics, but he’s now on the side of centralized control of our economy by government. His votes on cap and trade and health care cannot be balanced with anything resembling free market principles – that form of economics that Allen Boyd’s political party are quickly dismantling.

It’s on display in his district.

So why the change in Allen Boyd? Is it that he received promises from Nancy Pelosi to support him against Al Lawson in his primary? Was there a promise for continued farm subsidies for the Boyd family farm after he leaves Congress? A DNC desperate to hold as many seats as they can will surely come in and flood the district with cash to the point that Boyd won’t have to dip that much into his own substancial war chest.

Nonetheless, yesterday’s revelations that Republican Eddie Hendry had picked up and endorsement from a Democrat shows that the political winds have shifted quicker than Boyd would like.

Posted under FLORIDA #2

Really?

Surprising, yes. But the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) may be advancing just that.

In 2000, the NSTA Board of Directors adopted several position statements. One of these regarded the seemingly harmless, The Nature of Science. Within this statement is found the following:

•Although no single universal step-by-step scientific method captures the complexity of doing science, a number of shared values and perspectives characterize a scientific approach to understanding nature. Among these are a demand for naturalistic explanations supported by empirical evidence that are, at least in principle, testable against the natural world. Other shared elements include observations, rational argument, inference, skepticism, peer review and replicability of work.
•Creativity is a vital, yet personal, ingredient in the production of scientific knowledge

While the organization made no point in calling the long accepted scientific method outdated, archaic or wrong, some unusual signals appear in code.

First, “although no single universal step-by-step scientific method captures the complexity of doing science, a number of shared values and perspectives characterize a scientific approach to understanding nature.”

This is as close as the widely recognized and respected group of science teachers come to mentioning the Scientific Method. By itself, this is not necessarily a bad thing as the frequently stated steps often appear rigid and are difficult to fit into all scientific inquiries.

But then in what seems as an attempt to clarify and categorize acceptable variables of research, the teachers state that rational argument and inference can be weighed equally to traditional data.

The NSTA, whether or not they intended to do so, lessened the weight of peer review and skepticism with such ambiguous factors. With these words they are allowing prejudice and self motivated bias an unhindered path into Science.

Furthermore, the NSTA’s use of the term creativity as it relates to scientific knowledge is ill-fitting and opens the door for an easy path for the wide advancement of unsubstantiated research.

While the NSTA does not use the word “myth” anywhere in it’s position statement, but the word is being used now in scholarly reviews to describe the scientific method.

To what end is all of this? And how wide a swath do similar intentions cut?

Posted under EDUCATION

Democrats are hoping so, and some Republicans agree:
“As Crist scored points with grateful teachers, visiting high schools in Tallahassee and Miami, some Republicans were lamenting their party’s miscalculation.

“If teachers could pick their students, I would be for it, but you can’t pick the students,” said retired teacher Phyllis Myers, who attended a rally for Marco Rubio, Crist’s primary opponent in the Senate race, last week in Orlando.”

A fix-it or glitch bill? Just pass it? Trust us? Florida’s GOP pols continue to channel a bunch of partisan Wsahington Democrats by hurling rhetorical partisan bombs.

“Sen. John Thrasher, the bill’s chief sponsor and chairman of the state Republican Party, said Friday he had “absolutely no regrets.” He predicts the proposal will be back next year, imitated by other states, and soon “one form of this will be the law of Florida.”

“The veto was poll-driven, not policy-driven,” said Rep. Adam Hasner of Delray Beach, the House Republican leader.”

I don’t often agree with public Democrat takes on issues but I do with this one:

:”They just thought they knew best,” said Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, who voted against the bill. “It was a decision filled with hubris.”

Gelber, a candidate for attorney general, said Republicans overlooked an important constituency: parents worried about their children’s schooling.”

Posted under FLORIDA #2, POLITICS