Nine Florida candidates among DFA's Grassroots All-Stars

Democracy for America's 2008 Grassroots All-Stars vote is underway, and I was thrilled to find nine candidates from Florida in the running, including my personal favorite, Clint Curtis! You may already know Clint as the election integrity advocate who challenged Tom Feeney (R-Abramoff) for the FL-24 seat in 2006. And there's great news - Clint just received the endorsement of the local Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) regularly honors Mr. Feeney as one of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress.

Clint is taking on Feeney again this year, and in addition, must defeat two other Democratic challengers in the primary: Suzanne Kosmas, a former Florida state representative and realtor in New Smyrna Beach, and Gaurav Bhola, a business development specialist with no public service experience.

Make no mistake - Clint is the true grassroots candidate, and his success in the DFA All-Star competition will provide a tremendous boost to his campaign and help him kick "Teflon Tom" Feeney to the curb.

Therefore, I humbly ask that you vote for Clint as one of DFA's 2008 All-Stars. And I'll totally be your best friend and everything!

Our friend Christine Jennings (FL-13) is also in the running. Ms. Jennings hardly needs an introduction here, as it's impossible to forget the debacle that was the 2006 FL-13 election, in which 18,000 votes went mysteriously unregistered. Ms. Jennings is not giving up, though, and she has been endorsed by EMILY'S List. FL-13 is currently held by Vern Buchanan, who was seated by the Florida legislature despite the lack of resolution on the vote irregularity issue.

As I reviewed the other Florida candidates, I was especially pleased that two of them put the environment high up on their priorities lists. Stephen Blythe (FL-15), is a lifelong environmentalist and Sierra Club member. Florida's natural bounties are increasingly under threat from overdevelopment, poor land use planning, and climate change, and we need representatives in Congress who will fight to protect them and all of America's environmental treasures. Dr. Blythe is also a physician, and must know firsthand the struggles uninsured patients contend with; he supports a national health care plan. Dr. Blythe is challenging Republican incumbent Dave Weldon.

Next up is Corbett Kroehler for FL-08, currently held by Ric Keller. Mr. Kroehler is a member of his local Nature Conservancy chapter, as well the local Sierra Club chapter, for which he serves as Chairman of Energy Issues on the Executive Committee. He's studied climate change thoroughly and understands the dangers faced by everyone on Earth if we don't act quickly to curb it. Mr. Kroehler has also been endorsed by the Greater Orlando PDA.

Other Florida DFA All-Star candidates include:

• Lawrence Byrnes in FL-14
• Bill Mitchell in FL-09
• Samm Simpson in FL-10
• Mike Smith and Quoc Van, both in FL-08. (Lots of folks sure seem to want to get rid of Ric Keller!)

Although I didn't elaborate on some of the candidates, this in no way means I don't think they're worthy. I just wanted to focus on the particular ones who matter most to me: Clint Curtis, because I live in FL-24; Christine Jennings, because of Kossacks' outrage over the FL-13 voting problem; Dr. Blythe and Mr. Kroehler due to their strong environmental focus, which is also my top concern. I trust all of you to research the other potential All-Stars and decide which three are most deserving.

As long as you make one of them Clint Curtis! ;-)

Stupidest email yet from Tom Feeney (R-FL-Abramoff)

While I certainly don't enjoy hearing from Tom Feeney in any medium, the sad fact is, he's my Congressman and I need to keep track of what he's up to. I've been subscribed to his email list for a couple years, and when I see his name in my inbox, can always count on being amused, annoyed, disgusted, angered, confused, or some combination of those emotions. Not to mention, he's been known to make factual errors and misrepresentations in these emails (shocking, I know), and I've even been compelled to write back to him with corrections on a couple of occasions. The most recent one was earlier this year when ol' Tom perpetuated the childish misnomer "Democrat Party." I gently informed him that the correct phrase is "Democratic Party" and suggested he have his staff more carefully proofread these emails before they get sent, because otherwise his constituents just might think he's ignorant.

Tom regularly rails against teh ileegul imagrintsOHN0EZ!@@!! and is proud of his anti-SCHIP vote. But this week's email really took the cake. My first reaction on seeing the subject line was, "The hell?" as it made no sense to me whatsoever. Anyway, here it is in all its glory, for your own WTF?ing pleasure:

TOM FEENEY
Member of Congress
24th District, Florida

Financial Services Committee
Judiciary Committee
Science Committee

Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 11, 2007

Contact: Pepper Pennington
202-225-2706
202-593-1253

Capitol Architect No Longer Censors Architect of the Universe

(Oviedo, FL) - U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Oviedo) was pleased that the Architect of the Capitol, Mr. Stephen T. Ayers is now allowing "God" on flag certificates. Earlier this week, Rep. Feeney expressed his frustration with reports that flag certificates using the word "God" were being censored by the Architect of the Capitol. Mr. Ayers had reportedly informed several congressional offices that the use of the word “God” violates the Architect’s rules prohibiting religious references on flag certificates.

"I'm pleased that the Architect of the Capitol is no longer censoring the Architect of the Universe. Fortunately, he responded to congressional pressure and public outcry and decided that 'God' may now be used in flag certificates.

"I was outraged earlier this week to learn that Americans are censored because they want to fly a flag over the Capitol and express their faith or even say something as simple as 'for the love of God, family, and Country.'

"I want to thank my colleagues for joining me to sign a letter to Speaker Pelosi that reminds the Architect of his authority and the scope of his office. The Capitol contains many religious symbols and now Speaker Pelosi needs to condemn the censorship," said Feeney.

Rep. Feeney's office offers a flag service to constituents. This is a very popular service where Central Floridians can purchase flags to be flown over the United States Capitol. The flags are also accompanied by certificates from the office of the Architect of the Capitol that details the date and the occasion that the flag was flown.

Rep. Feeney signed a letter to Speaker Pelosi asking for an immediate review of the authority under which the Architect is making these rules, as well as the reversal of this policy which censors our citizens’ right to expressions of their faith.

When I first read that subject line prior to opening his email, all that came to mind was Masters of the Universe. Now, I freely confess to never being a particular fan of the MOTU franchise, but I do at least know He-Man, She-Ra, and Skeletor. But which one was the Architect, and what powers did he possess? Could he speed-read blueprints? Mix thousands of tons of concrete with his bare hands? Keep the nation's infrastructure from collapsing? (That last one certainly would come in handy these days!)

Then I realized, of course, that Tom was talking about God. What a buzzkill, especially after momentarily thinking our crumbling infrastructure would be mysteriously repaired overnight, with the only clue as to whom accomplished this monumental task being "AotU" scrawled into the cement before it dried. (He couldn't have used just "AU," of course, lest the credit mistakenly be ascribed to Americans United.)

It never hurts to remind everyone that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has listed Feeney among its most corrupt Congressmen since practically the day he took office. I'm still supporting Clint Curtis for FL-24, and there's now a DCCC-recruited challenger, former FL state Representative Suzanne Kosmas.

I look forward to one of these candidates winning FL-24 in 2008 and thus relieving me of further WTF? email moments, as least as far as Tom Feeney is concerned. I get too many of those moments without his help.

Race tracker wiki: FL-24

[crossposted to my Daily Kos diary]