Extreme Republican social legislation going nowhere in Florida

[seafan]

Forced ultrasounds before abortions; school prayer; decrying the teaching of evolution; forced pre-marriage education courses...

These people will NEVER quit pushing their rigid social agenda into people's private lives.


For too many consecutive years, Florida has been held hostage to an arrogant, authoritarian Republican extremist Legislature with delusions of grandeur. It's time for ALL of them to GO.



GOP agenda loses traction in Florida Senate

By Shannon Colavecchio, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
April 12, 2009

TALLAHASSEE — Legislation that would open the door to school prayer and discourage teaching evolution has been declared dead. Prospects don't look good for a proposal to require ultrasounds for first-trimester abortions. Same goes for a bill to make marriage licenses more expensive for couples who don't take a premarriage education course.

Conservative Republicans' hallmark legislation, some from sessions past, is stagnating this session, victim of the all-consuming state budget deficit and the political realities of a Senate that is Republican, but moderately so.

"Some of these things would definitely pass in the House," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. "But in the Senate, the numbers just aren't there."

.....

Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, sponsored the ultrasound bill last year, along with a controversial measure against the teaching of evolution in schools. This year, she is proposing legislation that promotes a premarital education course. Like the evolution bill last year, it is backed by the conservative Florida Family Policy Council. Storms also is sponsoring a bill to allow for "inspirational messages," including student-led prayer, at public school events.

.....

"It's clear we have moved few substantive bills this session," Flores said. "While the budget is not the only thing, it certainly takes up a lot of our time."

Fasano and Flores believe socially conservative legislation might have better chances at passing in coming years, as term limits create more turnover and more Republicans jump from the House to the Senate.

"As a result of term limits, we've already seen a very quick shift in the makeup of the House," Flores said. "And we'll see the full effect of term limits in 2010 with both chambers."

Flores said she'll be ready to try again with her ultrasound bill when the political air is ripe.

"If we can't do it this year, we'll try again next year."

Conservative legislation going nowhere

SB 2396: Evolution — Requires that public school instructors teach a "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution."

SB 1360/HB 533: Inspirational messages — Gives school districts authority to allow for an "inspirational message," including prayer or invocation, at noncompulsory high school events as long as a majority of students participating request the message and select a student to deliver it.

SB1854/HB983: Abortion — Would require all women seeking a first-trimester abortion to get an ultrasound exam. Doctors must allow the woman a chance to see the scan, unless she signs an opt-out waiver. Doctors also would be required to provide information on fetal development.

SB2310/HB1185: Premarital education — Raises the marriage license fee by $100, unless the couple completes a premarital preparation course.

[madrchsod]

1. people have more pressing issues than the "conservative agenda"

the people the conservatives rely on to support these issues are the ones being hit the hardest in this economy.in these times moral indignation is a luxury they can not afford

[islandmkl]

2. Ronda Storms: think Michelle Bachmann...

with a lower IQ...

[glowing]

3. Yes, she's Michelle Bachmann.. and she's vindictiv as all hell.

[seafan]

4. Miami Republican slips stealth language into budget to kill stem cell research at FL universities.

Marc Caputo in the Miami Herald exposes Miami Republican Representative David Rivera's covert tactics to halt stem-cell research at higher-education institutions in Florida by stripping state money from their budgets.


April 10, 2009

TALLAHASSEE -- A ban on embryonic stem-cell research. A prohibition on Cuba travel. More money for Florida International University.
These hard-to-spot House budget add-ins inserted by Miami Republican Rep. David Rivera have a distinctly hometown flavor that might not survive the legislative session.

But they'll likely live in his campaign for state Senate in a 2010 primary race where the voters tend to be older Catholic Cuban-Americans.
Democrats are bashing Rivera for wasting his time, promoting bad scientific policy and turning the budget into a campaign document. Republicans are crediting Rivera for crafty maneuvering.

.....

''With Obama in the White House,'' Rivera said, ``it's particularly important that Florida be ready to exercise its prerogative in policy areas where he tries to impose his extreme leftist view of the world on our citizenry.''

.....

Democrats are fighting the proposed embryonic stem-cell ban. Democrats knew nothing of the language, which appears as two lines in the 111-page House bill, until it was reported on a Tallahassee blog called The Fine Print.
''He's using the state budget to push his own personal political agenda,'' said House Democratic leader Franklin Sands of Weston.
''It seems Rep. Rivera is determined to take us back to the 19th century,'' Sands said. "Embryonic stem cell research has the ability to put thousands of Floridians to work and he says no.''

Even fellow Republicans are a little concerned with the stem-cell language. Miami Republican Rep. J.C. Planas said that "for those of us with families suffering from diseases this research could cure, this isn't the way to debate this.''

.....

And (Rivera's) Republican Senate-race rivals, Miami representatives Anitere Flores and Marcelo Llorente, are staying out of the fray.

Not any more:

Flores' Easter embryo message, April 10, 2009

Miami Rep. Anitere Flores is picking up where Republican rival David Rivera left off when it comes to banning public funding of embryonic stem-cell research. She issued the following letter to for Science and Ethics Chair Claire Thuning-Roberson:

Dr. Roberson –

I hope that you have received the news about Rep. Rivera’s recent effort to write language into the state budget that would prevent state funding of embryonic stem cell research. It is gratifying that our efforts over the past few years are paying off and that more legislators are getting involved in our fight. As we continue to move through the budget process, there will be skeptics who will try to derail this effort. Can you please help us get the word out to CSE and all of the partner organizations that we need concerned Floridians to call their legislators and ask them to support the language in the budget to halt any funding for embryonic stem cell research. Especially with what has recently transpired at the national level, this is our opportunity to make a definitive statement on the issue in Florida.

The facts are clear. Adult stem cell research is working. Embryonic stem cell research is not, and carries with it huge ethical and moral liabilities. We need to get all research dollars focused on adult stem cell research, and efforts like these are a great step forward.


God bless and have a wonderful Easter,

Anitere

Again, Floridians, we know what we have to do.

[tosh]

5. "we know what we have to do"

Indeed we do.

[seafan]

6. Federal judge strikes down 2008 state law that punished FL travel agencies for arranging Cuba trips.

From the Miami Herald Naked Politics blog:


April 14, 2009

A federal judge Tuesday morning overturned a 2008 state law that increased registration fees and requirements for travel agencies specializing in trips to Cuba.

U.S. District Court Judge Alan S. Gold's decision comes just a day after the Obama administration announced lifting several travel restrictions to Cuba …allowing Cuban exiles to visit the Island more than once a year, pushing for use of cellphones on the island and easing requirements for
remittances to relatives.

In question was the 2008 Sellers of Travel Act approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist. The act required travel agencies in Florida selling trips to Cuba to post up to a $250,000 bond and pay up to $25,000 in registration fees.

Local travel agencies decried the measure as unfair because their financial requirements were nearly 10 times he amount of agencies not selling trips to Cuba or any of the countries listed as terrorist nations by the U.S. State Department.

Tuesday's decision was celebrated by the 13 local travel agencies that tried to stop the measure from going into effect by filing a federal law suit against the state in July.

"We felt all along that justice would prevail and that the judge would see how irrational and unjust this law was,'' said Armando Garcia, owner of Marazul Charters Travel.

Despite Gold's decision, Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican, who sponsored the law, said any decision could potentially be appealed.

"I don't see this ending here,'' Rivera said after a Friday afternoon court hearing on the issue.

Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami


Once again, these arrogant, punitive Jeb Bush disciples think their self-proclaimed *morally superior* agenda will prevail.


Republicans don't have much farther to go to reach complete annihilation. We can help.

Diaz-Balart brothers: Obama commits serious mistake regarding Cuban dictatorship, April 13, 2009


MIAMI — U.S. Congressmen Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) issued the following joint statement today describing as a “serious mistake” President Obama’s decision to unilaterally increase travel and remittance dollars for the Cuban dictatorship.

“President Obama has committed a serious mistake by unilaterally increasing Cuban-American travel and remittance dollars for the Cuban dictatorship.

.....

And, some of these detractors are Democrats, namely Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Kendirck Meek, who is running for Mel Matinez's Senate seat next year.



Rep. Kendrick Meek opposes remittances to Cuba, April 14, 2009

Miami Democrat Kendrick Meek said he will be among six members of Congress traveling with President Barack Obama on Air Force One this week to the Summit of the Americas -- though he disagrees with part of the administration's new Cuba policy.

At a Monday morning rally for his U.S. Senate campaign, Meek said he supports curbing the amount of money Cuban Americans can send to their relatives because the communist government takes a 20 percent cut.

.....

He later issued a statement that said free-flowing remittances would amount to ``further propping up a regime that suppresses human rights, freedoms and personal mobility. . . . To have remittances meant for family members in Cuba siphoned off by the regime in Havana would be a deep insult to Cuban Americans everywhere.''

Other members of Florida's delegation share Meek's concerns, reflecting Cuba's status as one of the issues that unites Democratic and Republican politicians from a state that is home for hundreds of thousands of politically influential exiles.

Republican Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami said in a statement that Obama made ''a serious mistake by unilaterally increasing Cuban-American travel and remittance dollars for the Cuban dictatorship.'' Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston suggested doubling the $1,200 annual limit instead of lifting the cap. But other Democrats in Congress and the White House argue that the restrictions have failed to weaken the regime and instead hurt the Cuban people.

Meek represents one of the most Democratic districts in the country, and his stance on Cuba stands out against a mostly liberal voting record.

.....

Why won't Wasserman-Schultz and Meek get with the Obama program instead of repeatedly siding with their right-wing Republican friends from Miami?