Category: Florida

The good news: Looks like this state might have finally escaped the “Flori-duh” label derisively affixed to it for its infamous ballot gaffes. The bad news: Thanks to Rick Scott, Jeff Greene and Florida’s neutered public campaign financing system, we are now “Flori-dough.”

Sorry, Bud, there are viable political gimmicks–and then there are, well, gimmicks.

When U.S. Senate candidate Lawton Chiles walked the state in 1970–from the Panhandle to the Keys–he captivated the media and the electorate and defeated the favorite, Farris Bryant. And he was meeting folks other than the usual suspects.

Now his son, Lawton “Bud” Chiles III, is trying to walk in his father’s formidable footsteps by ambling across Florida in his independent campaign for governor.

But the walk is now a retread strategy, a pure gimmick. He needs to give it the boot. It’s also a reminder that junior is not his father. That hardly helps. “This Bud’s For You” would be more original.

Sure, the meteoric political rise of Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott can be attributed to all that money he’s spending. More than $6 million of his own on TV ads alone. It speaks volumes about a system that puts name recognition and ostensible credibility for sale. But it probably says even more about the notably lackluster candidates also in the hunt.

Speaking of Scott, the uber rich former CEO of the HCA hospital chain, nobody should get credit for “taking responsibility,” such as for what resulted in HCA paying $1.7 billion in fraud fines and settlements, if they use the passive voice. Scott does. “Mistakes were made” is a parsed, clichéd, less-than-responsible response.    

Those so much as contemplating a vote for Kendrick Meek for U.S. Senate sure have a dilemma if they’re not sitting this one out.

What exactly do they overlook?  Meek’s putative, ethics-challenged side, the one manifested in his, uh, suspicious relationship with the discredited Dennis Stackhouse? Or the oversight-challenged one that indicates a level of cluelessness unsuitable even for the Senate. Or maybe just the cynically raw, political calculation that prompts this hard-core liberal to take the partisan side of influential Cuban-American hardliners.    

The dynamics of group politics and family lineage can only take you so far.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted, cell-phone-tethered drivers were to blame for an estimated 6,000 deaths and a half-million injuries in 2008. The overwhelming, specific cause: texting behind the wheel. To further quantify the ever-growing threat: more than 135 billion text messages are now sent monthly. That’s an 80 per cent increase from 2008. While the number of alcohol-related deaths has been declining over the last 30 years, the toll from cell-phoning drivers has been increasing exponentially.

The disturbing trend is why United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has issued a global call to end distracted driving. He’s already started with the U.N. Its 40,000 employees are barred from text messaging while operating vehicles on official business. At last count, 32 countries — including Brazil, France, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom — have passed laws restricting drivers’ use of hand-held devices.

In this country, 26 states and the District of Columbia now prohibit texting while driving. It’s why President Barack Obama signed an executive order banning texting while driving on federal business. It’s why Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is pushing for tougher laws and more enforcement. It’s why the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is on a mission to have legislation in place by 2013 for nationwide restrictions. And it’s why Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a bill that would require states to ban texting while driving — or else lose 25 per cent of their allocated federal highway funds. (In Florida’s case that would be about $195 million.)

Among those not yet part of the trend to rein in this menace that inevitably kills and maims: Florida. The recent legislative session, the one that relied on trust-fund raids and disappearing stimulus dollars in lieu of long-term, revenue-raising solutions, left it unaddressed. Again.

No reason, let alone rationalizations about personal responsibility and governmental intrusions, is acceptable. This is a matter of public safety. It’s also a matter that is eminently preventable. Texting drivers are not multi-tasking mavens. They are drivers who are demonstrably more distracted than if they were legally drunk.

It’s an ongoing outrage that drivers would be so cavalier and careless. It’s an absolute obscenity that those with the legislative wherewithal to do something about it, don’t.

If it’s not on your bucket list, please add it: Check out a shuttle launch. After Friday’s launch of Atlantis’ final voyage into orbit, there remain but two more. Discovery is scheduled to go up Sept. 16 and then Endeavour in mid-November. NASA plans to end the 30-year program by the end of this year.

Here’s why more than 40,000 spectators packed the Kennedy Space Center area last week. For the same reasons I was there three years ago for Discovery — after having exhausted all the usual excuses: not logistically convenient; susceptible to scrubs; easy to take for granted.    

Here’s what the scene that day looked like:

The otherwise nondescript banks of the Banana River, near Port Canaveral, about 10 miles south of Kennedy Space Center launch pads. Perhaps a thousand people, mainly couples and families, had parked two- and three-deep along State Road 528.

The ad hoc hub was an RV with a big American flag and a large antenna representing the Launch Information Service & Amateur TV Systems, part of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Its speakers were chronicling countdown information. It was also there just in case. Just in case something went horribly wrong with a shuttle that sits atop a half million gallons of rocket fuel and belches 7 million pounds of thrust. LISATS helped defray expenses by selling — for a donation — Space Shuttle Discovery Launch Witness certificates with names computer-printed. Of course, I got one and framed it.

Ninety minutes before scheduled launch, the atmosphere, although rife with anticipation, was casual and friendly. Refreshingly so. The air was occasionally punctuated with heavily-accented German, French and Spanish. Some of the English speakers were British, Australian and Welsh. Out-of-town license plates — from Oklahoma and Texas to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania — were almost as numerous as those from Florida. For some reason, North “First in Flight” Carolina plates seemed especially plentiful.

Folding chairs, blankets, binoculars and video and still cameras were much in evidence. People sat on roofs and hoods. But no music, no grills, no adult beverages and no boorish behavior. Tailgating NASA-style. Folks ready to revel with a cause.

That’s what makes it special. This is Team America accomplishing something important by flawlessly sending up another mission to the International Space Station. It’s a respite, however brief, from everything else. From everything that is wrong economically and politically. From partisanship and pandering. From natural disasters, man-made calamities and celebrity meltdowns. It’s seeing “Mission Accomplished” without the cynical, mendacious spin.

Say what you will about domestic priorities and the relative merits of travel beyond earth’s orbit, the moment you see that orange sphere separate itself from terra firma is an uplifting, patriotic rush. At that second, man realizing his potential to transcend his own limits is no mere abstraction. No more than earthly applications of space-travel technology and weightless experimentation.

We overuse and often insult the meaning of “hero.” But these shuttle astronauts redefine it. Memories of Challenger and Columbia are ever present and unspoken as eyes squint to follow the diminishing, booster-less dot and breaths are collectively held as the contrails slowly diffuse.

Godspeed, Discovery and Endeavor.

It’s worth it.

Here’s the part that everybody probably gets. A high school diploma in Florida will soon become more meaningful and more relevant. Presumably everyone, even the foremost exponents of “self esteem” curricula, will also agree that high school will have to become more challenging. That’s another way of saying “harder.”

Educating for a global economy mandates no less. Tougher math and science requirements are in.  The possibility that a diploma is a de facto good-conduct medal and attendance certificate is out.

But here’s the part that still takes me aback. Until now (actually 2011), biology wasn’t a high school requirement?

Look who’s going to Cuba next month.

According to reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it will be Georgia Gov. Sonny Purdue. He will lead his state’s trade delegation. Sure, he’s a free-market Republican, but it’s hardly commonplace for a sitting Southern governor to head to Havana. Anyone envision a Gov. Crist, McCollum or Sink making such a move? What proximity? What opportunity? What recession?

What Georgia has on its mind is obviously a trade upgrade. They want to increase their farm-product — mostly frozen chicken — exports to Cuba. Last year it was worth $42.5 million. In addition to agricultural products, U.S. law permits exports of medicines as well as medical and telecommunications equipment to Cuba.

“Georgia is strategically located to Cuba with Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and both of our ports,” explained Heidi Green, deputy commissioner for global commerce with the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Good point. Why wouldn’t Florida’s northern neighbor want to take advantage of its “strategic location?” Who, within reason, wouldn’t?

Alex Sink’s unimpressive gubernatorial campaign certainly didn’t need this. Trailing charisma-challenged Attorney General Bill McCollum — who knows a thing or two about losing a statewide race — Sink just sank a little lower. Imagine speaking at UCF’s commencement and getting booed. That’s what happens when you repeatedly refer to UCF as USF.

Not since, well, Bill McBride, has a gubernatorial candidate looked that unprepared.

So here we are in the most polarized, zero-sum political environment in memory, and Charlie Crist, the politically androgynous, ideological agnostic, still has a senatorial shot.

And even though he was chased out of the Republican primary and even though political self-interest has always been his signature trait, he has a viable shot in a three-way race. It’s the nature of three-way races. A plurality — or barely more than a third of the votes — can win it.

If enough people are as disgusted as they say they are about partisan animosities and gridlock, Crist could certainly benefit. In effect, he could harvest the “none of the above” vote. His appeal: pleasant person whose allegiance is to the people — not the party.

Of course, that only appeals to those who haven’t followed his career since he kickstarted it in 1998 by taking one for the team  against unbeatable, incumbent Sen. Bob Graham in 1998. And then haven’t paid much attention to his empty-suited, pre-veto gubernatorial stewardship.

Lack of organization and savvy party support is a critical issue for a party-less candidate. That was already apparent at Crist’s well-trumpeted debut as an independent candidate last week in Straub Park in his hometown of St. Petersburg. The 5:45 event drew an estimated crowd of 300, much of it seemingly comprised of media and family members. Crist had the opportunity to deliver an anti-partisan, anti-pandering, anti-party, pro-America, pro-Florida speech that should still be cycling on YouTube. But it was “for the people” pablum more worthy of Morgan & Morgan ads.

But he did score Dick Greco to endorse and introduce him. It was more than a DINO and a RINO. The former Tampa mayor still matters and will be helpful behind the scenes as well.

And this much is certain. As a spectator sport, this will be a lot more fun than that Rubio-Meek campaign we were almost saddled with.