Welcoming Florida Speaks

This is just a very quick post to welcome Florida Speaks to the Florida blogosphere. This is Kenneth Quinell's new blog on national, international and other issues of interest to Florida Progressives.

Kenneth is the President of the Florida Democratic Party Netroots Coalition and the blogfather of the the Florida Progressive Coalition.

Welcome, Florida Speaks.

Shield Law a Step Closer

I posted a diary on Kos some time ago about the Bush administration attacking a proposed shield law that would also cover bloggers. It attracted very little attention from the Kos community - the ones I expected to be most interested in this new law.

The so called "Shield" has not been codified at the federal level and has always been a gray area with many journalists suffering the consequences when refusing to give up their sources.

The fact that this real Federal Shield Law might be extended to cover the blogging community should have, IMNSHO, been of great interest to the blogisphere. Well I've been wrong before and I was wrong yet again. Now that the law is a step closer to becoming a reality I hope the blogisphere will become more interested and who knows maybe even provide some support for the Law.

We have lost some ground already in that the afore mentioned Bush administration attack has resulted in limiting the shield to "ad supported" bloggers. I fear that if we do not become more actively and vocally involved, bloggers will be dropped from the Shield Law altogether.

WASHINGTON--A congressional panel on Wednesday voted, against the Bush administration's wishes, to shield journalists including advertising-supported bloggers from having to reveal their confidential sources in many situations.

Come on folks there has never been a real federal shield law much less one that recognizes bloggers as JOURNALISTS.

In response to concerns raised by the Bush administration and other politicians, the revised bill attempts to exclude the "casual blogger" from reaping those benefits by stipulating the protections apply only to those who derive "financial gain or livelihood" from the journalistic activity, Boucher said Wednesday. That broad rule could, however, include part-time writers who receive even a trickle of revenue from Google Ads or Blogads.com.

LINK to the full story by ZDnet News.

LINK to the house bill H.R. 2102

(cross posted on Kos)

Florida Legislature: What to Do, What to Do

The annual Florida Legislative session opens today in Tallahassee. The chambers of both Houses will be decked in flowers, a signal that hope springs eternal. But what do you hope the legislature will accomplish this year? Today, I'd like to start a conversation about what you would like to see the legislature accomplish this year.

Of course the big issues that everyone is talking about are the twin terrors facing property owners: insurance and taxes. The St. Petersburg Times has an excellent article today about the tax issues. Inevitably, every other issue facing the state is intertwined with the tax issue. There are education challenges both in K-12 and the university system. Managing growth and transportation issues loom large. How about crime and the cost of Gov. Crist's Anti-Murder bill?

There are plenty of challenges and opportunities facing the legislature this year. How about we get the on line conversation going? Maybe our legislators will take notice of what we say. After all, hope springs eternal.

John Edwards 2008 ???

John Edwards announced his candidacy for President of the United States in New Orleans today. To paraphrase a line from my favorite movie, Casablanca, "I'm shocked, shocked to hear there is campaigning going on here. And here are your delegates, Senator." Edwards has been practicallyliving in Iowa for the past two years. It has been paying off for him. He has been leading the polls there until being tied by Barack Obamain the most recent poll.

The line up of Democratic primaries in 2008 is very much in John Edwards favor. He is well positioned to win Iowa and Nevada. He need not worry so much about New Hampshire, but must do well in South Carolina. Winning 3 out of the 4 first contests in 2008 would make Edwards the clear favorite for the 2008 nomination. That kind of success potential should give Edwards a real leg up in the money primary as well.

The Edwards message is one that he has been honing for the past 3 years. His "two Americas" message has been reinforced by his One America PAC. He has already put a video up on >YouTubeand live blogged at DailyKostoday. He is doing a Live on Line Town Hall Meeting tonight, from, you guessed it, Des Moines,Iowa. If this is not a nod to Time Magazine's Person of the Year, you, I don't think we'll ever see one.

I was leaning towards former Virginia Governor Mark Warner until he took himself out of the running before the 2006 mid term elections. Since then, I have been sitting back trying to see if someone will really grab my attention. In 2003, I was intensely curious about Howard Dean. But when it became clear that Bob Graham was going to run, there was no question in my mind who I was going to support.

There are still a few more days in 2006 left. The question now is, do I become a 2006 supporter of (fill in the blank), or do I stay on the sidelines watching the game unfold? It had been my intention to wait a while to see what developed. But I have submitted a question to the Edwards Town Hall meeting tonight. I asked the same question of John Kerry in March of 2003. There is no way that Edwards can fail to give a better answer than Kerry gave, but I am going to reserve judgement until I get an answer to my question:

Senator, the Republicans win because they win a solid South. How do you
plan to win in the South?

Stay tuned.

Florida Kossacks Unite

I have been trying to put together a list of Florida Kossacks (DailyKos users from Florida for the uninitiated.) We can blame this whole thing on Susan S. She thought a Tampa Bay Kossack email list would be a good thing to put together after the election. I thought that was such a good idea that I have been trying to expand it across Florida.

Well, it's been pretty much hit or miss here so far. So, I put on my thinking cap and said to myself, "Self, how are we going to go about getting more Florida Kossacks onto this list?" Can you see the light bulb coming on now? So Self answers back, "Well you dummy, why don't you set up a blog for Florida kossacks and other interested folk?"

So, here we are at Florida Kossacks. I thought maybe if we had a central place to post our diaries maybe more Floridians would see them. I know that we have a lot to say about things of particular interest to Floridians. I don't see why you couldn't post them on DKos and cross post them here. Or maybe there are some things you would just want to post here - or whatever.

Anyway, my hope is to start something here that would be useful to Florida Progressives in coping with the problems and opportunities that we face here in the Sunshine State.

I want to invite all Florida Kossacks and anyone else who has an interest in all things Florida to drop by the blog and see what's going on. If you are interested enough to want to publish, drop me a note at:

gatordem at verizon dot net

and we'll set you up for that.

I am certainly open to any suggestions about how to do this better and / or make it more useful or more interesting or just plain different than it is. So hurt me, but not too bad.

I hope to see you all around the FL-Kossack blog soon.