VOTER SUPPRESSION BILLS FAST-TRACKED IN TALLAHASSEE

VOTER SUPPRESSION BILLS FAST-TRACKED IN TALLAHASSEE
by Kindra Muntz, President
Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections (SAFE)

Citizens groups from all over the state rallied yesterday in opposition to two voter suppression bills being fast-tracked through the Florida legislature.

Voter Suppression – for all the details click here.

Keep your calls going to legislators all over the state to VOTE NO on SB 956 and House companion bill PCB-EDCA 09-08.

Be sure to call House Speaker Larry Cretul  850-488-1450 and Senate President Jeff Atwater 850-487-5100 to stop the bills from going to the floor of the House and Senate, which could happen as early as Tuesday, April 21st in the House and Wednesday, April 22nd in the Senate.

Call your Representative and Senator to VOTE NO on the bills if they get to the floor.

FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR HERE:

List of House of Representatives

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/representatives.aspx?SessionId=61

List of Senators
http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index.cfm?Tab=legislators&CFID=129871154&CFTOKEN=38926163

Call Representative Dorothy Hukill at 850-488-6653, the presenter of the bill in the House, to withdraw her sponsorship.
Call Senator J.D. Alexander at 850-487-5044 and Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla at 850-487-5109 to withdraw their sponsorship of the Senate bill.

Then call Governor Charlie Crist at 850-488-4441 to VETO the bill, no matter how it is amended, if it gets to his desk.

These bills are bad for voters, bad for election integrity, and bad for democracy.

 

PRESS RELEASE: ONE MORE DAY UNTIL JOE REDNER DOCUMENTARY HITS TAMPA!!!

“Strip Club King: The Story of Joe Redner” will finally have it’s highly anticipated Florida Premiere in Tampa at the Gasparilla Film Fest tomorrow night, Friday, March 6, 2009 at 10:40 PM.

Tons of new press coverage in anticipation of the Florida Premiere, see below:

1) Tampa Tribune online:
http://www2.tbo.com/conten..t/2009/mar/05/redner-film-..screens-friday-festival/

2) St. Pete Times online:
http://blogs.tampabay.com/..movies/2009/03/strip-club-..king.html

3) The Tampa Tribune article above will be in print tomorrow Friday, March 6, 2009.

4) If your in the Tampa area and have Brighthouse Cable, check out Bay
News 9 some time today(Thursday March 5), they are running a story and
interview with chris and me about the film’s Florida premiere all day every hour. We will post the video on our MySpace page in a few days.

5) 970 WFLA radio will be running a phone interview I did with them all tomorrow morning(Friday Maarch 6) during the morning show from 6 – 9 am.

6) Savannah online article for the Psychotronic Film Fest a few weeks back:
http://www.connectsavannah...com/gyrobase/Content?oid=..oid%3A12395

“Strip Club King: The Story of Joe Redner”, directed by Shelby McIntyre and produced by Chris Woods, two Tampa, Florida filmmakers, takes a journey into the life and career of one of Florida’s most famous and outspoken personalities, Joe Redner. Joe Redner is the 1st Amendment fighter and owner of the most famous strip club in the world, the Mons Venus.

The self-made millionaire who started with nothing, dropped out of school in the 10th grade, has been arrested 150 times, sometimes up to 4 times a day, had his clubs raided hundreds of times, earned his GED in jail at the age of 40, became an avid student of the law, got clean and sober, and is a constant 1st Amendment fighter and political candidate.

The Tampa crowd will be treated to the on-screen appearances of many recognizable local personalities through interviews and archival news footage such as: Tedd Webb, former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, State Senator Ronda Storms, former Tampa City Council member Bob Buckhorn, Biblical Research Center’s Larry Keffer, John Wilson, Kelly Ring, Kathy Fountain, Gayle Sierens, Reginald Roundtree, Brendan McLaughlin, Warren Elly, Mike Deeson, Jack Harris, Chris Krimitsos and more!!!

“Strip Club King” will also have it’s North American DVD release in May 2009 with Passion River Films and has international representation with Aspect Film LTD in England.

For more information please contact Shelby McIntyre at:
shelbyvmcintyre@yahoo.com or 813-944-7013

Below are links of interest.

Gasparilla Film Fest profile and to buy advance tickets:
http://gasparilla.bside.com/2009/films/stripclubkingjoeredner_gasparilla2009

http://www.stripclubkingmovie.com/
http://aspect-films.com/strip-club-king-the-story-of-joe-redner/

View Trailer:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=19629005

 

By the Authority vested in me…

EXECUTIVE ORDER — ENSURING LAWFUL INTERROGATIONS

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to improve the effectiveness of human intelligence gathering, to promote the safe, lawful, and humane treatment of individuals in United States custody and of United States personnel who are detained in armed conflicts, to ensure compliance with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Geneva Conventions, and to take care that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed, I hereby order as follows:

Section 1.  Revocation.  Executive Order 13440 of July 20, 2007, is revoked.  All executive directives, orders, and regulations inconsistent with this order, including but not limited to those issued to or by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from September 11, 2001, to January 20, 2009, concerning detention or the interrogation of detained individuals, are revoked to the extent of their inconsistency with this order.  Heads of departments and agencies shall take all necessary steps to ensure that all directives, orders, and regulations of their respective departments or agencies are consistent with this order.  Upon request, the Attorney General shall provide guidance about which directives, orders, and regulations are inconsistent with this order.

via

Pretty awesome, not even there a week and already on the ball!!!  Frankly I am amazed he is acting so quickly.  I guess the last 8 years have given me a bad case of cynicism.  I may recover if this keeps up.

 

Sections of Tennessee’s Emory River Contaminated by Billion-Gallon Toxic Sludge Spill!

A coal ash waste dumping pond in Tennessee ruptured this past December, unleashing toxic substances known to cause cancer, birth defects and other health problems in animals and humans.

Despite this horrendous accident and the ecological threat posed by coal ash waste, the EPA is not doing anything to regulate it! Take action >>

As a result of the spill, 1 billion gallons of sludge containing the heavy metals arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium were leaked into the Emory River. What’s more, there are more than 1,300 dump sites similar to the one that failed in Tennessee, putting innumerable areas in danger!

It is the EPA’s job to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment. Urge the EPA to regulate coal ash waste that threatens water supplies and human health >>

Coal ash waste isn’t just detrimental to people. It is also responsible for diminishing populations of birds and frogs near dumping areas. The remaining animals are at risk of developmental problems, like tadpoles without teeth and fish with deformed spines.

Thank you for speaking up on behalf of ecosystems that lay in the shadow of unregulated coal plants!

 

Obama’s Changes in the first days

Obama’s first days:

Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.

What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.

“It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.

…team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software.

But….All is not lost and the change begins Now!

WASHINGTON – In a first-day flurry of activity, President Barack Obama on Wednesday set up shop in the Oval Office, summoned advisers to begin dealing with war and recession and ordered new lobbying rules for “a clean break from business as usual.”

He also froze salaries for top White House staff members, placed phone calls to Mideast leaders and had aides circulate a draft executive order that would close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year…

…Unveiling ethics rules that he portrayed as the fulfillment of a major campaign promise, Obama said that “the way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable.” The rules are needed, he added, “to help restore faith in government, without which we cannot deliver the changes that we were sent here to make.”

The pay freeze affects the roughly 100 White House employees who make more than $100,000 a year. “Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,” Obama said…

…In an attempt to deliver on pledges of a transparent government, Obama said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act. He said he was directing agencies that vet requests for information to err on the side of making information public — not to look for reasons to legally withhold it — an alteration to the traditional standard of evaluation.

Just because a government agency has the legal power to keep information private does not mean that it should, Obama said.

via

 

McCain/Palin call Obama’s Economic Plan “Socialism”

but is it?   What does the christian bible say about it?

Republican John McCain used the phrase “that’s not America” yesterday to describe Democrat Barack Obama’s plans for a middle-class tax cut, and Obama said McCain is “throwing everything he’s got at us, hoping something will stick”

McCain may not know it, being that a lot of christians simply do not know what their own bible says, but we think Jesus was “for” socialism.   Click now and find out why we think that.  Joe Redner explains socialism in the bible.

 

The Despicable Executives of the Bailout – er… “Rescue”

Just days after the “rescue”  AIG is partying!

White House press secretary Dana Perino had harsh words for the insurance giant after it was revealed this week that AIG held a $440,000 retreat for employees at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., shortly after it was propped up by taxpayer dollars last month.

AIG sent its executives to the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government that it needed to stave off bankruptcy. The resort tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees, according to invoices the resort turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Nice!!!  But, now that is out and all the executives are relaxed, check out the new meeting coming up!

AIG Plans Meeting at California Ritz-Carlton Resort Next Week
By Erik Holm

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc., the insurer facing criticism for hosting a $440,000 event at a California resort less than a week after a federal takeover, plans another gathering for its brokers at a Ritz-Carlton hotel next week.

The event, in Half Moon Bay in northern California, is designed to “motivate and educate” about 150 independent agents that sell AIG coverage to high-end clients, spokesman Nicholas Ashooh said. “These sorts of sales meetings are an essential function,” he said. “We have them around the world all the time.”

About 50 AIG employees will also attend the meeting. Ashooh said he didn’t know the cost of the event or whether the agents AIG is hosting would stay overnight.

So, how are you feeling about the “rescue” now?   I wasn’t very happy about it before, now I am furious!

Call your representatives and let them know if this kind of thing ticks you off too!

 

Chilling? You Betcha!

By Dana Milbank CLEARWATER, Fla. — “Okay, so Florida, you know that you’re going to have to hang onto your hats,” Sarah Palin told a rally of a few thousand here this morning, “because from now until Election Day it may get kind of rough.”

You betcha. And the person dishing out the roughest stuff at the moment is Sarah Palin.

“I was reading my copy of the New York Times the other day,” she said.

“Booooo!” replied the crowd.

“I knew you guys would react that way, okay,” she continued. “So I was reading the New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack’s friends from Chicago.”

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama “pals around” with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin’s allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

“Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” Palin said.

“Boooo!” said the crowd.

“And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'” she continued.

“Boooo!” the crowd repeated.

“Kill him!” proposed one man in the audience.

Palin went on to say that “Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers’s living room, and they’ve worked together on various projects in Chicago.” Here, Palin began to connect the dots. “These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes — remember that’s what Joe Biden had said. “And” — she paused and sighed — “I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America, as the greatest force for good in the world. I’m afraid this is someone who sees America as ‘imperfect enough’ to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.”

What’s chilling is this republican campaign stirs up hate and racism and incites violence, nay, murder: and then does not condemn the behavior of their constituents.

I am embarrassed and frightened for Florida, for the republicans and for America.  I can see why the world thinks badly of us at this point.

Go to the polls and vote for America, Vote Obama.

 

Palin was against Darfur before she was for it.

During the Palin-Biden Debate  Palin said she helped Darfur while she was Governor, but Alaskans beg to differ with her.  Check out this story at the Huffington Post.

Sarah Palin was called on to divest State Funds from Sudan in 2006 by Congress. She did nothing.

Sarah Palin was aware of the press coverage and postcard campaign in 2007. She did nothing.

Sarah Palin knew when the Save Darfur Coalition met with her staff in 2007. She did nothing.

Sarah Palin found out when House Bill 287 was filed in 2008. She did nothing. She changed her position in 2008, a year and a half after first being asked.

So, Governor Sarah Palin, in fact, took no leadership role to fight for Darfur divestment. She dismissed pleas for help.  (Until it was convenient for her politically)

And Now, with that all important spin machine, and she is potential VP looks like she was for it all along………

Lordy, Liar Liar, pants on fire!!  Do they ever stop?

 

Bush Backs Unlimited Compensation For Disgraced CEOs

Bush Backs Unlimited Compensation For Disgraced CEOs: Now Is Not The Time For ‘Punitive Measures’

Today, the White House released a statement criticizing Congress’s potential plan to limit CEO compensation at the companies the federal government is bailing out, firmly standing against any “punitive measures”:

We certainly understand and are sympathetic to the sentiment regarding the pay of CEOs and senior management of these firms, but we have to focus on the problem, and the problem is that we need these firms to participate in the program and sell us this debt. Having punitive measures would provide a disincentive for firms to participate, and that would make the program much less likely to succeed.

CEO compensation and corporate governance in public companies are very important issues — especially when receiving taxpayer support — but we need to be focused on fixing this problem in our markets right now. We can and should return to those issues once we get this legislation passed.

President Bush also released another statement earlier today warning Congress against inserting any “unrelated provisions” — such as help for struggling homeowners — in the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

The Bush administration’s position is unjustifiable. As ABC News reported:

In 2007, Wall Street’s five biggest firms — Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley — paid a record $39 billion in bonuses to themselves.

That’s $10 billion more than the $29 billion loan taxpayers are making to J.P. Morgan to save Bear Stearns.

Those 2007 bonuses were paid even though the shareholders in those firms last year collectively lost about $74 billion in stock declines — their worst year since 2002.

In short, the Bush administration wants zero punishment for these wreckless CEOs who lost shareholder money and are now costing each person in the United States $2,000. In return for $700 billion, the White House has yet to name any ways that it will hold these corporations accountable or institute safeguards to ensure that this irresponsible lending and borrowing won’t happen again.

Furthermore, the White House is demanding that Congress give up its oversight powers for this deal and “place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.”

———

If not now, tell us when!  When will be the time to punish crooks that happen to be in the right wing base?  When?  When?  Or shall the rest of the nation eat cake?

I love this comment over at think progress:

---

Sez the WH –

“Having punitive measures would provide a disincentive for firms to participate, and that would make the program much less likely to succeed.”
___________

Excuse me, you mouth-breathing morons from Hell… billionaire Wall Street execs FU to the degree they’re about to take the world economy down for years to come, and “punitive measures would provide a disincentive”???

WTF are we worried about these executives leeches’ feelings for?