Around the world, political writers begin their days hoping for an opportunity to attack the elected officials with whom they usually agree. They do this because writers are ever afraid of bias, and because not even the greatest human animals can’t stand to be improved by the occasional bout of…
American fellow-feeling has been going down the shittah since mid-2009 or so, and for those few remaining true believers in the power of rational discourse and basic human decency, it’s been a bum ride. Everything is political lately, it seems, and in the worst way. Left and right America agree…
With a governor who once invoked the Fifth Amendment 75 times, it’s only fitting that his administration instills Mafia codes into its office policy, which seems like something plucked straight from a Martin Scorsese film. Anyone who’s seen the classic movie Casino remembers that the guy who oversaw the “skims,”…
Marco Rubio usually says what he means. Which is why his fans — and I count myself among them, even though I disagree with just about every one of his policies — should be saddened by a small item at the bottom of his latest weekly newsletter titled “Marco Rubio…
Big institutions are sometimes a little slow on the uptake. It took until 1992 for the Vatican to recognize its mistake re: Galileo. Blockbuster Video didn’t think to start renting movies online until NetFlix was 5 years old. Success, it seems, makes us sluggish.So were my thoughts upon reading the…
Florida’s legislative attack on voter rights easily passed the House last week and looks like it will surely sail through the Senate to become law. We’re not alone, though. Our state’s attempt to disenfranchise a massive amount of its citizens is actually part of a national trend. On Wednesday, the…
Read on for the BSO report of what happened in the jail.On Tuesday night, Allen West held a “town hall” event in Fort Lauderdale, at which he took only preapproved questions. He got started by complaining about bloggers who want to “skin him alive,” then got held up by a…
It takes a special kind of person to be smug about conclusive proof of one’s idiocy, but Donald Trump has practice. He was smug about the disastrous bankruptcy that resulted from his hubristic overreach; he was smug about refusing to pay unknown millions to European creditors after the real estate…
There was an ugly scene at Allen West’s town hall meeting at Calvary Chapel last night, when a small, peaceful premeeting protest morphed into a series of increasingly angry disruptions after West took the stage. The protesters in the meeting became especially tetchy when it became apparent that West didn’t…
Florida TaxWatch, an organization not known for the generation of stimulating reading material, released an absolute eye-popper of a report this week titled “Florida Taxpayers Spend Millions Annually on Communications and Legislative Affairs Staff in State Agencies.” Not catchy, sure, but check it out: Apparently, Floridians spend a little more…
Women Impacting the Nation, or WIN, is a bunch of conservative ladies who want to, you know, impact the nation. On April 19 in Boca, Allen West told them how to do it: Raise strong men.”…what made the Spartan men strong,” said West:it was the Spartan women. Because the Spartan…
The Florida House’s self-defeating restoration of plans for a prescription drug database to help fight our state’s lethal abuse epidemic caught quite a buzz last week. But Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz began her week at a Miami rally, where she advocated for a different database, meant to fight a different…
The Florida House passed a highly controversial overhaul of election laws on Thursday, which critics say would grossly undermine the fabric of democracy and help ensure a Republican victory in the 2012 election.Supporters of the legislation say that the changes would prevent voter fraud, while the bill’s opponents bemoan its…
After Gov. Rick Scott reluctantly withdrew his opposition to a prescription drug tracking system, a House committee dropped the proposed repeal last week and restored the database into its legislation aimed at combating prescription drug abuse. By a vote of 116-1, the Florida House passed that bill yesterday. But one…
The foreign policy of a Donald Trump presidency began to take shape last weekend in Boca, where “The Donald” addressed a massed throng of Tea Partiers celebrating (celebrating?) tax day. Here’s a slide show from the Tax Day Rally. The foreign policy portions of Trump’s address were not the ones to…
Allen West sounds tired. He’s working very, very hard, and unlike just about anybody else in our Congress, he actually talks to his constituents. Constantly. They want him, he’s there. Wanna talk to him one on one? More often than not, he advertises the route he takes on his morning…
With his popularity plummeting and ethical scrutiny spreading like a bad rash, Gov. Rick Scott reached the 100-day mark of his first term last week. From the racist voting law to the ridiculous urine jug, it’s been an interesting time, to say the least. But who can really sum up…
New Yorkers with presidential aspirations have a thing for Florida. Especially the Big Apple’s two most falsely mythologized nattering nabobs of narcissism. Voters didn’t care much for Rudy Giuliani, who bet his entire 2008 primary run on the Sunshine State and finished third. But after Donald Trump spoke at a…
Four days after he took credit for solving the federal budget crisis, Gov. Rick Scott insisted that his proposed state budget provided a blueprint for President Obama to follow. During an infomercial interview about tax policy on Friday, Scott “absolutely” agreed with the inference from Fox and Friends cohost Brian…
Having read Slate’s recent article on Donald Trump’s last presidential pseudo-candidacy, I’m now a little sad to have missed “The Donald”‘s Tea Party-coordinated Tax Day event in Boca Raton. The Donald, I now understand, is a great American, and we should probably make him the leader of the free world.Isn’t…
When the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Broward County announced he was leaving the nonprofit last month, it ought to have been nothing but sad news. In his nine years in the post, Jason S. Crush has overseen the completion of more than 200 homes for the needy…
Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith didn’t actually roll up on Gov. Rick Scott like some grimy guttersnipe and punch him in the face. He threw a literary left hook. A chin check in text, if you will. But in the same way that a punch to the mouth can…
