floridagal, Author at Progress Pond

Policing morality and the bankruptcy bill. Two letters that were not printed.

Since my husband and I became politically active in 2003 early on, I have had 10 letters to the editors printed in area papers. That is not too bad considering the conservative area in which we live. However, there are two that weren’t printed. I consider them both to be better than anything I had printed, but they are pretty outspoken.

I really do understand why the first was not printed, but I think the second one was not printed because they were too lazy to research to see if it was correct. So since they did not get printed, I thought I would just do a DIY.

The first one I gave a title of America does not need to be policing morality.

I am shocked at the attempts by tax-exempt religious groups to control the morality issues in our country via the government. I say that as a person who was raised in Southern Baptist churches in this area. I feel my criticism carries legitimacy because I am a Christian with high moral standards.

My parents were the finest Christians I ever knew. If they were alive today they would be appalled that the church they served in called my husband and myself unpatriotic for not supporting the Iraq invasion. Their faith was real and deep, and they would have seen through this blind rush to attack another country. They would be upset at the edicts coming forth from the churches.

In a speech to Dallas Baptists on October 29, Jerry Falwell said “I’m not a Republican today; I vote Christian. I vote for the man or the woman who follows most closely what the Bible teaches.” He also announced to the GOP that he had the votes to get them elected.

Bob Jones, III, of Bob Jones University told George Bush: “If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them.”

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon calls for an end to divorce, voluntarily childless couples and marital infidelity. Moon’s ties to our congress are no longer in dispute. Some of our congress were with him at a ceremony in the Dirksen Senate building . According to the Washington Post, June 23, 2004, more than a dozen lawmakers attended a congressional reception last year honoring Moon in which he declared himself the Messiah.

More Christian leaders, including a Utah professor, Bryce Christensen, are agreeing with Moon, saying ….” if we don’t address cohabitation and casual divorce and deliberate childlessness then I think they’re futile and will be brushed aside.” Now they are coming for unmarried couples, divorced couples, and those who choose not to have children. What next, I wonder?

Pharmacists in some areas are refusing to fill contraceptive prescriptions, even for rape victims, because of their anti-choice views. It is my understanding they can do this legally in some states.

I often see on TV a church leader I taught when he was a young boy. He is now a pundit who declares unfit for heaven anyone who disagrees with his church’s creed. I cringe. I am a Christian who recognizes that not all share my views, nor should they.

We are in danger of a few determining the morality standards for all of us. That is called a theocracy. America does not need morality police, and we don’t need to wonder who might be targeted by them next.

I was told it was too long at first, shortened it a little, but that was not the real reason. The next day they printed two twice as long as mine. I mentioned my parents in this one because they were well known in the church community here.

The second I wrote about the bankruptcy bill. This bill upset me so. After I got off the phone with all my senators and representatives who voted yes, I wrote this. I have never seen anything in our local papers about this bill, and I think most people do not have a clue what it is about. I called this Guess what is not in the bankruptcy bill.

Guess what is NOT in the bankruptcy bill. There is a lack of exemptions for the ill, the disabled, the elderly who might have large bills from ill health….nothing to protect their homes and cars.

It does not exempt debtors whose financial problems were caused by serious medical problems from means testing. It does not provide protection for medical debt homeowners. Homes and cars could be lost under this new plan if you have medical problems.

It does not preserve existing bankruptcy protections for individuals experiencing economic distress as caregivers to ill or disabled family members.

There is no provision that would insure elderly people in financial trouble who seek bankruptcy could keep their homes. Republicans voted down a provision for it, and 3 Democrats from states with big credit card industries joined them.

Making the minimum payment on a credit card can often cause you to go further in debt with the credit card company. An amendment was voted down by all Republicans and a few Democrats that would have required this disclosure on the danger of minimum payments.

On March 10, both of Florida’s senators voted for this harmful bill. It goes to the House soon. They have guaranteed it will pass. Pray for good health.

And of course we all know what happened in the House vote.

Dean: president’s meeting with his economic team was a meaningless gesture.

This statement deserves a diary….Dean tells Bush like it is.

I am linking to the Washington Times because Howard’s statement about Bush’s economy is well worth it. Bush is so deserving of this statement.

Bush Plays up the “strong” economy

President Bush yesterday tried to reverse public disapproval of his handling of the economy by taking credit for a robust economic expansion, notwithstanding high gasoline prices.
“The economy of the United States is strong,” Mr. Bush told reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, after meeting yesterday with his principal advisers on domestic policy.

“My policies allow more Americans to keep more of what they earn, to have more control over their daily lives — from health care to education to their retirement,” he added. “I’m pleased to report that the strategy is working.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said the president’s meeting with his economic team was a meaningless gesture.

“A combination of rising interest rates, rising debt and fewer good-paying jobs are making it harder for America’s families to make ends meet,” he said. “The president should use his Texas vacation to spend time overhauling his economic policies, not staging photo ops.”

I know, we should not just post articles, especially ones from that paper….but this just struck me right tonight. Made me feel good…Go Howard. That is the kind of fight we have been needing.

Will Marshall and Peter Ross Range…two articles that irritate.

Two articles at the DLC website have irritated me this week beyond words. The first one belies the statements by the DLC supporters who say they don’t support privatization of Social Security. However this article by Will Marshall, PPI/DLC certainly shows that he definitely supports it. It also shows his contempt for Bob Borosage, whom I greatly respect.

Social Security Pledge failed Democrats 2002
Social Security Pledge failed Democrats in 2002
Will Marshall goes after Borosage and The Campaign for America’s Future in 2002. He says Democrats did not lose because they did not have a message.
Just a portion of his “blather”.

SNIP..”The pledge is the brainchild of the Campaign for America’s Future, a union-backed organization that is to Social Security and Medicare what the Inquisition was to medieval Christiandom. Its latter-day Torquemadas enforce New Deal-Great Society orthodoxy and ferret out heresy with religious zeal.

Their goal is simple: to preserve Social Security and Medicare as nearly as possible in their original 1935 and 1965 incarnations. And with the Pledge they encouraged Democrats to make this profoundly conservative, even reactionary, stance the centerpiece of their midterm election campaign.

Don’t believe all the post-election blather about Democrats losing because they had no message. In fact, party leaders could not have been more consistent or coherent, declaring over and over again that the election would be “a referendum on Social Security.” Egged on by pollsters and consultants, Democrats lambasted their GOP opponents for scheming to privatize the system. …”

This second article that irritated me slid by me in May. I saw TPM Cafe and Kos going after him for more recent remarks, but I did not see this one where he absolutely, positively insults Dean supporters. He uses that nice Pew research study which said we were open-minded and intelligent…and he turned it against us for being those things. Another thumbs down to Mr. Range.

Wake-Up Call by Peter Ross Range
Wake-Up Call

“Listen to the numbers: Among these liberal faithful, only 1 percent are black compared to 22 percent in the rest of the party. Of those polled, 79 percent have college educations; in the Democratic Party, only 25 percent have college degrees. In this activist community, 29 percent have annual family incomes above $100,000; that’s nearly three times the percentage among Democrats as a whole. Fully 38 percent of the activists say they have no connection to organized religion, and don’t go to church. In the Democratic Party, that figure is only 10 percent.

I know these people. These are my people. I am, for all cultural and demographic purposes, one of them: white, well-educated, secular, a heavy news consumer, regular NPR listener, reader of political magazines, constantly online — the list goes on and on. The Pew poll is, in fact, a perfect description of the liberal ghetto, a kind of prosperous intellectual’s nirvana concentrated on the bluest flecks of the political map, in places like Madison and Chapel Hill (where I grew up) and Chevy Chase (where I live now).

In a former life, I was one of these people politically, too. For decades, I cast wistful looks at Europe, where the educated elites have been able, seemingly forever, to run things pretty much to their liking. (The death penalty, for example, is outlawed in France because the intelligentsia hates it; polls show that the general public favors it.) Not so in America, and that’s the challenge of life in the liberal ghetto.

By living to a large extent in a world of academic isolation and activist enclaves (41 percent have post-graduate degrees), the liberal wing is often alienated from many traditional Democratic constituencies — even the minorities that liberals have always claimed to work so hard for. It’s painfully ironic for an old civil rights liberal like me to note that the presence of more blacks in the Pew sample would have made it much more conservative, especially on issues like gay rights and church attendance.”

Yeh, I know 4 paragraphs is the absolute limit, but I just have to put this one in:

“Indeed, because of the good old days, the liberal wing’s instinct is to try to take over the party — to force its agenda on the other parts of the Democratic coalition — as we were able to do in the civil rights era. We did it again in 1972, nominating a presidential candidate who was the clear choice of liberal activists — and was rejected by voters in 49 states in the general election. ”

Did someone think to tell Mr Peter Ross Range that we lost the presidency last year following their lead? We lost congress, too. Maybe it is time for some of you in your DLC Ivory Tower to stop insulting those of us who are the boots on the ground of the party.

Oh, and in case you missed the Pew Study on Deaniacs, here you go. I was proud to be among this group.
The Dean Activists: Their Profile and Prospects :An In-Depth Look

Yes, Greenberg, Shrum, Carville. We have lots of values. Stop saying that.

I am getting rather suspicious of Democracy Corps polling, and the statements often made by its founders, Carville, Shrum, and Greenberg.
Democracy Corps

I am going to post portions of an article from News Max today (and yes, I know it is right wing propaganda). However, they have pulled this stuff quite often,appearing to be undermining the party at unexpected times. I have a feeling this post won’t go very well with some, but I am just thinking out loud.

Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2005 5:08 p.m. EDT
Democratic Pollster: We Don’t Stand for Anything

Democratic Party pollster Stan Greenberg said Wednesday that “one of the biggest doubts about Democrats is that they don’t stand for anything.”

During a conference call with reporters, Greenberg said Democrats deal with “the same doubts they had about John Kerry” – the party’s 2004 presidential nominee. The issue arose as Greenberg discussed what Democrats need to do to stop Republican gains among Hispanic voters.

Greenberg’s comment come as Democratic leaders, including party Chairman Howard Dean, say they are trying to do a better job of telling voters who they are.

“Not that we need to change what we believe in, but need to do a better job of communicating what we believe in,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic Party spokeswoman.”

Well, can you guess where Howard Dean is heading after Atlanta? He is heading to San Antonio for the Hispanic Leadership Summit. Seems this Shrum/Carville/ Greenberg group often let out stuff like this. Right after Dean started as chair, they began this mantra of the Democrats don’t stand for anything.

Ok, so I thought maybe it was just me and some paranoid thoughts, so I did a little bit of researching. I found this interesting bit from November last year by Arianna Huffington. I would love to say “great minds”, but I am so out of her league. Anyway, here is what she said:
Are Clintonites – Shrum, Greenberg and Carville – leading us in the wrong direction?

Carville and his fellow architects of the Democratic defeat have spent the last week defending their campaign strategy, culminating on Monday morning with a breakfast for an elite corps of Washington reporters. At the breakfast, Carville, together with chief campaign strategist Bob Shrum and pollster Stan Greenberg, seemed intent on one thing — salvaging their reputations.

They blamed the public for not responding to John Kerry’s message on the economy, and they blamed the news media for distracting voters from this critical message with headlines from that pesky war in Iraq.

But shouldn’t it have been obvious that Iraq and the war on terror were the real story of this campaign? Only these Washington insiders, stuck in an anachronistic 1990s mind-set and refighting the ’92 election, could think that the economy would be the driving factor in a post-9/11 world with Iraq in flames. That the campaign’s leadership failed to recognize that it was no longer “the economy, stupid” was the tragic flaw of the race.

In conversations with Kerry insiders over the past nine months, I’ve heard a recurring theme: that it was Shrum and the Clintonistas (including Greenberg, Carville and senior advisor Joe Lockhart) who dominated the campaign in the last two months and who were convinced that this election was going to be won on domestic issues like jobs and healthcare, and not on national security.

As Tom Vallely, the Vietnam War veteran whom Kerry tapped to lead the response to the Swift boat attacks, told me: “I kept telling Shrum that before you walk through the economy door, you’re going to have to walk through the terrorism/Iraq door. But, unfortunately, the Clinton team, though technically skillful, could not see reality — they could only see their version of reality. And that was always about pivoting to domestic issues.”

Vallely, together with Kerry’s brother, Cam, and David Thorne, the senator’s closest friend and former brother-in-law, created the “Truth and Trust Team.” This informal group within the campaign pushed at every turn to aggressively take on President Bush’s greatest claim: his leadership on the war on terror.

There is more thought-provoking info at the link. This is thinking out loud stuff. I also often think out loud about Carville’s remarks on Crossfire often when he undermined Democrats. I know this is a controversial topic, but it is something to think about. We have Howard Dean being told not to set issues….hard for him since he is an issue type guy. We have no one really setting issues yet.

The DNC fall meeting in Phoenix is supposed to be about the agenda in part. But the other day, Hillary joined up with the DLC, who is going to set the agenda for us.

Meanwhile, Howard heads to San Antonio where he will probably be asked to speak on why the Democrats don’t have any values. The problem is that we do. We have lots of values. So I ask why did Greenberg do this right now? I don’t expect an answer.

A couple of notes:

I did not post the link to NewsMax because I don’t like to do that.

Also, it sounds like the above-mentioned guys are concentrating on “values” to keep us from questioning the war. They would prefer we not go there.

Is the Third Way misrepresenting support for women’s rights?

There was an article at MSNBC last night about Roe’s army. It points out that the Third Way (the DLC) is promoting involving the pro-life groups in the Democratic party. I suspect this is part of the reason that Democrats for Life, a group that did not support John Kerry, is against stem-cell research, and is against the morning after pill….got such access to the DNC. This is why there is such pressure on Howard Dean to speak in a different way about abortion.

What makes me really upset is that I think they are the ones being disingenuous about the real life support for this issue. I am posting the Media Matters summary of recent polls to show that America does support this right of women.

Here is a snip from the MSNBC article about Roe. They speak about how women who support the right to choose are getting fearful. It mentions how some of the groups are gettng militant.

Roe’s Army Reloads

Strategists at Third Way are taking a more cautious approach. For months, they’ve been quietly drafting a plan to help Democrats better connect with voters on abortion. The think tank–whose co-chairs include seven moderate Democratic senators–has been consulting with a wide range of advisers including pro-life advocates, religious leaders and former staffers of pro-choice groups. After issuing a series of memos and a major poll on the issue this fall, Third Way will roll out a new strategy to help Democrats broaden their support without sacrificing the party’s core values.”

There is a very important paragraph from this article as well, at Tom Paine. It shows that the DLC is into painting an untrue picture of American values in order to further their agendas. By the way, this is an excellent article over all, not just the paragraph I present…worth the read.

Caving on CAFTA

One prime reason for the approach they take is that the DLC has bought into the myth that the United States is a fundamentally conservative country–a recent article in their magazine Blueprint carried a subtitle reading, “Bill Clinton’s greatest achievement was advancing progressivism in a conservative nation.” Needless to say, the idea that America is conservative at its heart is one Republicans work hard to maintain. Yet it is simply false: On nearly every prominent issue, the American public supports the progressive
position. In survey after survey, the overwhelming majority of the public wants legal abortion, a higher minimum wage, strong environmental protections, strict regulation of corporations, an end to the electoral college, universal health care, a strong and unprivatized Social Security system and on and on.

Now remember the polls given at Media Matters not long ago? They show irrefutably that America supports the right to choose. Yet our own party is telling us we need to be more conservative on the issue, to talk to the heartland. This worries me, as these are a variety of polls. Here are the ones from Media Matters.

Media Matters polls

“For instance, a Pew Research poll conducted June 8-12 asked: “In 1973 theRoe versus Wade decision established a woman’s constitutional right to anabortion, at least in the first three months of pregnancy. Would you like to see the Supreme Court completely overturn its Roe versus Wade decision, or not?” Sixty-three percent responded “No”; 30 percent responded “Yes.”

Similarly, a Gallup poll conducted July 7-10 asked the same question to half
of its respondents; 68 percent said, “No, not overturn,” while 29 percent responded, “Yes, overturn.” Gallup asked the other half of respondents a different version of the question: “Would you like to see the Supreme Court overturn its 1973 Roe versus Wade decision concerning abortion, or not?”Sixty-three percent responded, “No, not overturn,” and 28 percent responded, “Yes, overturn.”

A Gallup poll conducted June 24-26 found that nearly two-thirds of respondents want a new Supreme Court justice who would vote to uphold Roe. Gallup asked: “If one of the U.S. Supreme Court justices retired, would you want the new Supreme Court justice to be someone who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade — the decision that legalized abortion — or vote to uphold it?” Sixty-five percent responded, “Vote to keep it,” while 29 percent responded, “Vote to overturn.”

In addition, a CBS News poll conducted July 13-14 asked: “More than thirty years ago, the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe versus Wade established a constitutional right for women to obtain legal abortions in this country. In general, do you think the Court’s decision (to uphold Roe) was a good thing or a bad thing?” Of the 632 adult respondents, 59 percent called the decision a “good thing,” and 32 percent called it a “bad thing.”

“It should be noted that “pro-choice” and “pro-life” are vague terms, and different respondents surely understand them differently. A May 12-16 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll asked a more specific question: “Which of the following best represents your views about abortion — the choice on abortion should be left up to the woman and her doctor, abortion should be legal only in cases in which pregnancy results from rape or incest or when the life of the woman is at risk, or abortion should be illegal in all circumstances?” A majority, 55 percent, said the choice should be left up to a “woman and her doctor”; 29 percent said abortion should be legal only in cases of rape, incest, or a threat to the life of the mother; and 14 percent said it should always be illegal.”

One of the main talking points of those on the blogs who are strongly pro-DLC (assuming that is who they are…not some who are not as they seem to be) is that we have to be more moderate and conservative to win. It is like a mantra. I wonder why they do it, and I wonder what the goal. I am not sure I fully understand its purpose.

Ricochet, Fat Boy, and Death Star…over 3 years ago.

I really do have to stop going through these old files.

Hard to believe the California Energy Crisis with the interesting names was over 3 years ago. Hardly anyone remembers it anymore, almost like it never even happened. Pretty apropos since the energy bill which not really an energy bill passed this week.

We are an amazing country now in our ability to forget all the outrages, and just move right along. Here are 3 articles on the topic. I used to have the audios of the executives just laughing over their coup, but I can’t find them now.

Smoking Fat Boy by Paul Krugman
Smoking Fat Boy

SYNOPSIS: It is now almost certain that energy companies in California manipulated prices, but no politician seems to want to prevent it from happening again

An old joke: A farmer hears suspicious noises in his henhouse. “Who’s there?” he calls out. “Nobody here but us chickens,” replies the thief. Satisfied, the farmer goes back to bed.

That about sums up the behavior of federal regulators during California’s electricity crisis. As I’ve been pointing out for more than a year, there is powerful circumstantial evidence that market manipulation played a key role in that crisis. Energy companies had the motive, the means and the opportunity to drive prices sky-high. And the crisis exhibited exactly the features you would expect if market manipulation was playing a big role: much of the state’s generating capacity stood idle even as wholesale electricity prices went to 50 times normal levels.

Death Star and Fat Boy
Death Star and Fat Boy

The gang that looted California is coming to a state near you.
The traders used fraudulent maneuvers to which they gave juvenile but revealing nicknames: “Death Star,” “Fat Boy,” “Ricochet,” and “Get Shorty.” (The point of such pseudo-combat names for intra-company operations, of course, is to impress bosses and colleagues with one’s mercantile ruthlessness.)

Briefly, here’s how a few of the scams worked:

“Death Star”: Enron would overschedule its expected power transmissions to create the illusion that the state’s grid would be overloaded, then receive state payment for “relieving” the congestion. The beauty of this con, the company’s memos noted, is that “Enron gets paid for moving energy to relieve congestion without actually moving any energy or relieving any congestion.” It’s the sort of protection deal that would make Tony Soprano proud.

“Fat Boy”: This scam (aka “Inc-ing”) also involved overscheduling power transmission — for example, to a company subsidiary that didn’t really need all of it. Then Enron would sell the “excess” power to the state at a premium.

“Ricochet”: Also called “megawatt laundering” (by analogy to money laundering), Ricochet was the power equivalent of a real-estate land flip: buy in-state power cheaply, flip it out-of-state to an intermediary, then re-sell it to California at a highly inflated “imported” price.

Shorty is Alive and Well
Shorty is Alive and Well

“It turns out from internal documents made public last week that Enron energy traders pursued strategies they dubbed “Fat Boy,” “Death Star” and “Get Shorty” to manipulate wholesale electricity prices at the height of California’s energy crisis, in order to inflate profits.

The state of California reckons that complicit companies may have looted as much as $30 billion during a six-month period in late 2000 when local energy prices rose ten-fold.”

“The Bush administration is scrambling to show that it has behaved according to the old Texas dictum often attributed to Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson before he became president: “If you can’t drink their whiskey, screw their women and still vote “no,” you don’t belong in politics.”

Eminent domain and "blight"…a Florida paper gets alarmed.

Back on my kick about “blight” and “eminent domain”.

Earlier I posted this diary.
Eminent domain is all about the meaning of “blight.”

It goes into the way it is mostly done in Florida, as well as a few other states. The secret words are Community Redevelopment Agencies…CRAs. They are able to grasp control of areas they decide are blighted, and they appear to have the power of eminent domain in the name of city planning. Do a search. Florida is filled with them, even more than the last time I searched on the term. Many of the websites for city agencies look brand new.

This time I found a Florida newspaper is concerned as well with the implications of who gets to define blight. This is the key here in Florida, and apparently in other states, the definition of blight. Later I will post Florida’s critieria. First the article.

Eminent domain abuse should worry Floridians

“Florida home and business owners were in grave danger before Kelo, and they are even worse off now. Despite repeated claims by the attorney general and others, Florida citizens have very little protection against eminent domain abuse.

The U.S. Supreme Court took away what little protection they might have had by ruling that the U.S. Constitution is no barrier to the use of eminent domain for private profit.”

“Florida municipalities routinely use eminent domain to take property for private development or to intimidate the rightful owners into selling “voluntarily.” Boynton Beach, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville Beach, Jacksonville, Charlotte County, Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach all have used or threatened eminent domain for private development in the past five years.

The justification is always that the current homes and businesses are too shabby (i.e. “blighted”), and something newer and more expensive would be a better use of the land.”
Then the Tallahassee Democrat offers a website that has been set up to help homeowners fight. It is called Castle Coalition

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

It has a great kit for homeowners called The Eminent Domain Abuse Survival Guide.
Image hosted by Photobucket.com

It is designed to give practical suggestions for attacking the condemnation of your property outside of the courtroom.

Our city presently has 4 CRAs. They are all older neighborhoods near business districts, but they are not all blighted. Some are poor neighborhoods with high crime, but in the middle there are pockets of well-kept homes. Not fancy, but loved and cared for by their owners.

The picture of this lady moved me so when I saw it in our paper. Her home was bought by the CRA apparently, but I doubt she knew who they were. They told her rent would never go up as long as she was alive….I guess they failed to tell her home was being destroyed to make room for high-priced condominiums. She said they could just shoot her if she had to leave.
Image hosted by Photobucket.com

From the website of a CRA in Fernandina Beach, Florida, here is the Florida definition of “blight”. I believe the Tallahassee article refers to the fact that now there need only be one of these to qualify, before there were two. I may have misunderstood.

“Blighted” definition per State Statue, Chapter 163.340

(8) “Blighted area” means an area in which there are a substantial number of deteriorated, or deteriorating structures, in which conditions, as indicated by government-maintained statistics or other studies, are leading to economic distress or endanger life or property, and in which two or more of the following factors are present:

(a) Predominance of defective or inadequate street layout, parking facilities, roadways, bridges, or public transportation facilities;

(b) Aggregate assessed values of real property in the area for ad valorem tax purposes have failed to show any appreciable increase over the 5 years prior to the finding of such conditions;

(d) Unsanitary or unsafe conditions;

(e) Deterioration of site or other improvements;

(f) Inadequate and outdated building density patterns;

(g) Falling lease rates per square foot of office, commercial, or industrial space compared to the remainder of the county or municipality;

(h) Tax or special assessment delinquency exceeding the fair value of the land;

(i) Residential and commercial vacancy rates higher in the area than in the remainder of the county or municipality;

(j) Incidence of crime in the area higher than in the remainder of the county or municipality;

(k) Fire and emergency medical service calls to the area proportionately higher than in the remainder of the county or municipality;

(l) A greater number of violations of the Florida Building Code in the area than the number of violations recorded in the remainder of the county or municipality;

(m) Diversity of ownership or defective or unusual conditions of title which prevent the free alienability of land within the deteriorated or hazardous area; or

(n) Governmentally owned property with adverse environmental conditions caused by a public or private entity.

“However, the term “blighted area” also means any area in which at least one of the factors identified in paragraphs (a) through (n) are present and all taxing authorities subject to s. 163.387(2)(a) agree, either by interlocal agreement or agreements with the agency or by resolution, that the area is blighted. Such agreement or resolution shall only determine that the area is blighted. For purposes of qualifying for the tax credits authorized in chapter 220, “blighted area” means an area as defined in this subsection.”

Kneecapping Howard, Fringe activists, and the party’s soul.

I have been going through some old files today, and I thought…why not? Why not post these incredible, awesome Dean/DLC battles from 2003. Everyone else is irate today on the topic, and maybe it won’t hurt to remember a little.

His voice stirred my husband and me out of a depression about our country. We have occasional moments of despairing again now and then, but DFA activities keep us fairly sane.

Sometimes I fear the right wing in the party, with their passion for political correctness and careful words that say nothing…..will hurt us still in the future. Then Howard Dean makes a TV appearance, and he says things that are clear and thoughtful. We breathe easy and hope again. We need clearness so much now.

Anyway, here is a compilation of the DLC memos in 2003 toward the fringe activists…that’s me and most of you. Howard took up for us, but most never knew that. So here goes. Below the fold.
In 2003 Howard Dean stood for activists when the DLC called us “fringe”.

Dean Statement in Response to DLC’s Charge that Public Servants are
“Fringe Activists”

“Once again, the DLC has chosen to put their own political agenda ahead of the progress needed to unite the Democratic Party. This election has barely begun, and the DLC has repeatedly dismissed people who attend caucuses, who get out the vote, and now the 1.3 million members of AFSCME as `fringe activists’ who do not reflect `the mainstream values, national pride and the economic aspirations of middle-class and working people.’

“The DLC staff can say what they want about me, but they owe an apology to the 1.3 million members of AFSCME. Our teachers, our health care workers, and our state and local public servants don’t need a lesson from Washington insiders about the needs and concerns of middle- and working-class families. What they need is a Democratic Party that will stand
up for them.”

Posted by Mathew Gross at 04:27 PM
Dean stands up for us

Howard Fineman on the DLC Memo

Howard Fineman hysterical about DLC memos

Quoting because the archives are hard to read:
Fineman is referring to “activists” who are being blasted by From.

“FINEMAN ON THE DLC MEMO

I went and read the memo. It’s hysterical. I don’t mean funny. I mean, it’s hysterical. He calls them everything but a plagiarist, an elitist, an activist. It’s like, it’s a compliment to Howard Dean. They’re reacting like Howard Dean has already won the nomination. Howard Fineman, on the DLC memo attacking Howard Dean, on Hardball, 5/15/03
Posted by Mathew Gross at 10:25 AM

Former DNC-Chief Steve Grossman to DLC: “Creating Conflict is Not
Leadership.”

Grossman to DLC: You are creating conflict

SNIP..”FORMER DNC-CHIEF STEVE GROSSMAN TO DLC: “CREATING CONFLICT IS NOT LEADERSHIP.”
On Wednesday, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) released a memo in which the DLC argued that traditional Democratic values are an aberration and that the thousands of grassroots Democrats inspired by Governor Howard Dean’s message to take back our party are activist elites and not real Democrats. Former DNC chairman Steve Grossman wrote to members of the Democratic National Committee in an email sent yesterday, criticizing the DLC:

Having served proudly as National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, I was disappointed by recent statements by the Democratic Leadership Council that disparaged Governor Howard Dean’s record of fiscal discipline and social compassion. I was particularly distressed because DLC leaders chose to label tens of thousands of grassroots Democrats who are energized by Governor Dean’s message as elitist. “

Liberal Oasis on Howard Dean and the DLC

Kneecapping Howard Dean

SNIP..”May 16, 2003 PERMALINK
The “Smear Dean” Campaign Is On
(posted May 16 2:15 AM ET)
(minor edit May 16 12:45 PM ET)

SNIP…”The DLC memo is titled “The Real Soul of the Democratic Party.”
But it should be “Kneecapping Howard Dean.”

However, it is so ludicrously ham-handed, Dean trumpeted it himself on his campaign web site. (A smart rapid response that bodes well for the future.)

If the memo was a principled argument over what the party should stand for, that would be fine. You can have honorable disagreements within one’s party.

But the memo is nothing but a string of half-truths and contradictions designed to ward off insiders from backing Dean, while at the same time undermine Dean’s support from the Left…..”

And the recriminations began against many who were in leadership positions and backed Dean. It was real and it happened. Long article here, very good.

And finally, here are the memos that started the conflict:

“Activists Are Out of Step” From and Reed 2003
Activists are Out of Step

SNIP…”These days, Democrats act as if they’re so far gone they’ve forgotten where they’re from.

Every weekend, yet another special-interest group hosts a candidate forum to pressure the presidential candidates into praising its agenda. Some of the candidates seem intent on running applause-meter campaigns, measuring success by how many times they tell the party faithful what they want to hear.

There’s one big problem with this strategy: Most of those party activists the candidates are trying so hard to please are wildly out of touch not only with middle America but with the Democratic rank and file. The great myth of the campaign is the misguided notion that the hopes and dreams of party activists and single-issue groups represent the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. They don’t.

The fact is, “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,” as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean likes to call it, is an aberration, a modern-day version of the old McGovern wing of the party, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist interest-group liberalism at home. That wing lost the party 49 states in two elections and turned a powerful national organization into a much weaker, regional one. …..”END SNIP

“The Real Soul of the Party” DLC 2003
The Real Soul of the Party

SNIP..”But the great myth of the current cycle is the misguided notion that the hopes and dreams of activists represent the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. Real Democrats are real people, not activist elites. The mission of the Democratic Party, as Bill Clinton pledged in 1992, is to provide “real answers to the real problems of real people.” Real Democrats who champion the mainstream values, national pride, and economic aspirations of middle-class and working people are the real soul of the Democratic Party, not activists and interest groups with narrow agendas.

SNIP..”What activists like Dean call the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is an aberration: the McGovern-Mondale wing, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist, interest-group liberalism at home. That’s the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one…”END SNIP

After all the blog activity this week about Hillary going over to the DLC side…..I felt I just had to say that Howard Dean still speaks for us. He is the leader of the party in our minds.

Florida Democrats for Life did not endorse Kerry.

[From the diaries by susanhu.] I knew something was gnawing away at my brain today. All the sudden attention to the Democrats for Life agenda, and the legislation they are offering this summer just was not sitting right. I was not sure why.

One reason was the way the Catholics and Baptists in our area knocked an openly gay candidate out of the primary waters here. The candidate who was endorsed by the Democrats for Life was totally incapable of running a campaign. However he was more pro-life than our very conservative GOP congressman.

SO I did a little research. Finally I came up with this.

Florida Democrats Unable to Endorse Kerry
MORE BELOW:

Florida Democrats for Life of America, Inc. (Florida DFLA), an affiliate of Democrats for Life of America, Inc., would like to offer our “Top Ten” reasons why we cannot endorse John Kerry for President of the United States.

Florida DFLA is committed to advancing the right to life in the Democratic Party. John Kerry is not. Proof: John Kerry is the first presidential candidate ever to be endorsed by Planned Parenthood Action Fund which boasts that “John Kerry’s support for a woman’s right to choose has never wavered.”
Florida DFLA is committed to advocating for pro-life legislation and government policies. John Kerry is not. Proof: John Kerry says he personally believes life begins at conception, but an “article of faith” should not translate into public policy.

Florida DFLA is committed to preserving the dignity of the human person. John Kerry is not. Proof: John Kerry has promised to reverse regulations that prevent the National Institutes of Health from funding research on “cell-nucleus-transfer techniques” (in other words, human cloning for the purposes of biomedical research).
Florida DFLA is committed to promoting public awareness of all issues surrounding fetal tissue research. John Kerry is not. Proof: John Kerry voted against the ban on fetal tissue research from abortions and the disclosure of fetal tissue research from abortions.
Florida DFLA is committed to reducing the number of abortions by ensuring that parents have the right to know when a minor child is seeking an abortion. John Kerry is not. Proof: John Kerry has voted at least three times against requiring parental notification.
Florida DFLA is committed to promoting positive assistance to developing third world nations which helps to lift families out of their poverty. John Kerry is not. Proof: John Kerry has promised to reverse the Mexico City Policy as his first Executive Order. This action will provide organizations with taxpayer money to promote abortion, birth control, and forced sterilization in nations where America wishes to “control” population growth.
Florida DFLA is committed to supporting the appointment of judges who will interpret the Constitution without first having to submit to the Roe v. Wade litmus test. John Kerry is not. Proof: John Kerry stated he would only support nominees who pledge to uphold Roe v. Wade.”

There are more of this reasons given, and they just make me livid.

But this is the most outrageous of all, and I say kudos to John Kerry and shame on Florida Democrats for Life. Talk about one issue? Tell me these folks are really Democrats!

Here you go, and I can’t wait to see folks come out of the woodwork to excuse this.

“Florida DFLA is committed to identifying and promoting Democratic candidates and electing officials who support the right to life. Because of his past voting record and public pronouncements regarding, but not limited to, all the above issues, John Kerry has disqualified himself from receiving our endorsement. Florida Democrats for Life of America, Inc., can only remain true to its convictions by urging Floridians to vote “ABK” – Anybody But Kerry!”

I had forgotten this until they starting pressuring Howard Dean. This is inexcusable. This group helped give us the worst president ever. Shame on them.

Can you see what I wrote!!?? This group who wants to get the control of the party’s agenda…..said ABK. Anybody but Kerry.

Am I mad? You bet.

Dean video: "Just barely learning to be a minority party."

Cross-posted at Kos.
Slightly paraphrased from a TV interview Howard gave in Denver.

“We are just barely learning to be a minority party. When you are a minority party you have to fight back. For example when they say we are pro-abortion, we need to make it clear that no one is for abortion, that we believe the woman should make up her own mind about her health care…they think Tom DeLay should do it.”

Here is the link to the close to 15 minutes video with Aaron Harber in Denver. This was the only intervew granted while he was there. His intelligence shines right through.

Dean interview in Denver

Here is a quote from a Denver paper by Harber about Dean, can not find the link now:

“Harber was impressed with Dean, who is not, he emphasized, a raving maniac. “He’s a smart guy. He comes across as very level-headed, very reasonable.” Harber wasn’t unfamiliar with Dean. “He married a college classmate of mine and I interviewed him seven or eight times on my radio show. It was an easy interview to do.”

No, Mr Harber, he is no raving maniac. I gather you meant that as a compliment.

More below which I transcribed pretty closely from the video.
He talks about more stuff on the agenda coming out in Oct. probably about stances for the party.

He says the platform will not be formed in DC, but will include views from all over.

President has not done a good job of keeping us safe from terror. He’s focused on the wrong targets, he’s not keeping us safe at home. He spent 200 billion dollars on a war which created more terrorism.

Discusses a lot about the values added tax, which I do not understand.

Spends a lot of time on how the president’s tax cuts for his friends could have given us a good health care system and education system.

Goes into the fact that a national health care system by the Democrats would not be a cadillac system, but no one would ever have to worry about bankruptcy if they were ill.

Tax code is too complicated…throw the whole thing out and start over. Says flat tax is like the value added tax, does not think it would work. Would hurt middle class too much.

He points out that the president has taken tons of money out of the Social Security program to give to his friends….

He goes into how his state tried privatizing Medicaid near the end of his term….said it was much more expensive than if the government ran it. And the government did a better job. Says Bush is doing a very bad job running the Medicare system…referred to CMS which is in charge of the programs. Said he would put a doctor in charge of it, someone who worked with patients.

Goes into GAP, which I gather he meant something like generally approved accounting practices….says the Bush admin does not do that. His Wall Street background and his time as governor show through a lot here.

Package our goals in concise statements of values and principles. One main thing is we believe if you work hard in this country, you ought to get a fair shake.

When asked how we lost under the circumstances last year, he says we were afraid to lose. If you are afraid to lose you can’t win.