US Senate: HELP IN Georgia and Minnesota!
Keep your fingers crossed for Alaska recount and help out if you can in Georgia runoff and Minnesota recount.   Read More »

Google has introduced a new web browser called "Chrome" that competes with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

With campaign tools such as this PartyBuilder, VoteBuilder and MBO (My.BarackObama.com) moving to the web, the ability of the browser to excecute Javascript becomes increasingly important.

For example, if you do "View/Page Source" of a PartyBuilder page you will likely see a line that includes: type="text/javascript".

According to Wired Magazine's Steve Levy:

Speed may be Chrome's most significant advance. When you improve things by an order of magnitude, you haven't made something better â€" you've made something new. "As soon as developers get the taste for this kind of speed, they'll start doing more amazing new Web applications and be more creative in doing them," Bak says. Google hopes to kick-start a new generation of Web-based applications that will truly make Microsoft's worst nightmare a reality: The browser will become the equivalent of an operating system.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-10/mf_chrome?currentPage=3

How much faster is Chrome? Again, according to Wired Magazine's Steve Levey, quoting the Google developers:

"We just did some benchmark runs today," Bak says a couple of weeks before the launch. Indeed, V8 processes JavaScript 10 times faster than Firefox or Safari. And how does it compare in those same benchmarks to the market-share leader, Microsoft's IE 7? Fifty-six times faster. "We sort of underestimated what we could do," [Danish computer scientist and developer of the "V8" Javascript engine used in Google's Chrome Lars] Bak says.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-10/mf_chrome?currentPage=3

Google described Chrome in a "comic book" for developers.

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

As we close in on 60 days to E-day Chrome is unlikely to impact this cycle, but like many weapons introduced in the closing period of a conflict, it looms large in the next conflict.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

The Orange County, Florida canvassing board had a 7 AM logic and accuracy test this morning. Two words got me out of bed, "butter-fly ballot."

A lesson of 2000 is that if you are offered the opportunity to preview part of the voting process; take it or you will regret it for the next 8 years.

The DS200 is a scanner that is slightly larger than a laptop computer that has a flip up LCD screen. The DS200 scans a voter inserted paper ballot and the ejects the ballot into a ballot box.

Three issues:
1. OVERVOTE OVERRIDEIf there is an over vote the machine returns the ballot with an informative message and the voter is offered two on screen buttons, "Accept" or "Return." If the voter touches "Accept" the over voted ballot is done the over voted ballot is accepted (but not counted), if the voter touches "Return" they can have their ballot spoiled and be given the opportunity to vote again (up to three times under Florida law). The override is a little too easy and may lead the type of problems we had at Catalina Elementary where a clerk simply pressed the override switch and accepted overvoted ballots.

2. WRONG PRECINCT/CRYPTIC ERROR MESSAGE - During Early Voting a ballot on demand (BOD) is printed along with a pink sheet that the voter has to sign, acknowledging their address and specifying their precinct and ballot type number. The precinct has to be hand typed into the DS200 and then the inserted ballot has to match. If the number typed into the DS200 does not match the ballot a cryptic error message appears that only refers to a sequence error -- not to the precinct number.

3. RECOUNT LAW -- Under Florida Statute 102.141(7) if the vote is within one-half percent or less the ballots are "recounted" by feeding through the scanners again. Under Florida Statute 102.166 if the vote is within one-quarter of one percent, the canvassing board shall order, "a manual recount of the overvotes and undervotes cast in the entire geographic jurisdiction of such office or ballot measure. A manual recount may not be ordered, however, if the number of overvotes, undervotes, and provisional ballots is fewer than the number of votes needed to change the outcome of the election. "

There is no law requiring a complete manual recount. There is also and audit that takes place only after the results have been certified by the canvassing board. The audit is not part of the election results. The certified results can be contested in court.

One the whole the machines and processes seemed pretty good. The scanners did reject ballots with small creases and during the test at one point the DS200 was a fickle as a dollar bill changer machine rejecting paper money.

The machines are programmed by a USB (flash memory) stick and the USB port is behind a locked panel, so the USB stick would not be casually replaced.

The DS200 plugs into a wall AC power outlet, but are battery powered like a laptop computer. There is an icon on the LCD screen indicating that it is plugged in and the status of the battery power. SOE testing indicated the DS200 had a 3 hour battery life under heavy use.

On power up a message indicates the DS200 has a VIA technologies main board. Also at power up the DS200 indicates it is zeroed out on a paper tape similar to an adding machine or cash register, except that the tape is thermal paper. The DS200 also has a brief onscreen message saying it is zeroed out. The Orange County Supervisor of Elections (SOE) has a detailed checklist for the poll clerk to use, "DS-200 INSTRUCTION MANUAL." Step 30 is "DO NOT REMOVE THIS ZERO TAPE!!" Step 31 is "make sure the tape reads zero counts then roll up the tape using a paper clip. Initial on the "Ballot Box Report" on the Election Media Control Form."

The DS200 reports its results by both modem over the phone and by hand delivery of the USB stick. During the day, a voice line and a laptop computer are plugged into phone jacks in the wall of the polling location. After the polls close, the laptop is unplugged and the DS200 is plugged into the phone jack so the DS200 can modem in the results. The DS200 is NOT connected to the phone network during the election and thus is not vulnerable to direct dial up attack. Social engineering attacks are another issue, but at least it is not connected to a communications network until after the election is over.

Jim Callahan
acting as in my capacity as
Board Member at Large of the
Orange County, FL Democratic Party
Orlando, FL

At the National Urban League conference this past week, the refrain was "Registration and Verification." Register to vote and verify your voter registration.

Under Florida Law (FL Statutes 97.055) in order to vote, you have to register 29 days before the election.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0097/SEC055.HTM&Title=-%3E2008-%3ECh0097-%3ESection%20055#0097.055

For the upcoming Florida Primary election on Tuesday, August 26th, book closing was Monday, July 28th.

For the Tuesday, November 4th Presidential election book closing is Monday, October 6th.
http://www.ocfelections.com/2008%20Book%20Closing%20and%20Early%20Voting.htm

Book closing voter registration voter lists and statistics are targeted to be available one week from today on Monday, August 11th -- which also happens to be the first day of early voting.

I am placing an order for the latest voter file today.

Greg Palast claims, "In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives â€" overwhelming Black voters."
http://www.gregpalast.com/section/interviews-chats/

With the books closed, it is time to shift from registration to verification.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

URGENT for users who import large data files into MS ACCESS 2007 data base.

Microsoft admits a problem, "Access 2007 takes more time to import large [30 megabyte] .csv files than Access 2003 does," but claims slow import is fixed in MS Office 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1).   Read More »

New databases are prone to coding errors, so preliminary results are to be taken with a grain of salt. A very odd result from a crosstab:

Looking only at Orange County, FL voters registered since January 1, 2008, in some African American precincts, the "Socialist of Florida" party (Party=9) appears to be out registering Republicans!!!

A very, very preliminary result subject to verification next week.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

If you didn't have reason enough to join an Obama voter registration drive this 4th of July, check out this PDF of a Republican Party of Florida(RPOF) voter registration flier posted on the Miami Herald "Naked Politics" blog.

Blog:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2008/07/gop-voter-broch.html

Flyer PDF:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/files/gop_voter_registration_flyer.pdf

nothing positive or warm and fuzzy about the GOP but, as a harbinger of the negative tone of this campaign season, the Republican Party mailer is a predicably filled with scare tactics. For example, if Obama wins the White House he will:

"put the safety and security of Americans at risk both abroad and here at home....businesses will face greater bureaucratic regulations...The tax and spend Democrat machine in Washington will continue spending at alarming rates...Floridians will be forced into a system of socialized medicine...and (liberals will be) creating special rights for special interest groups."

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

The Obama Fellows (interns) are doing a major voter registration drive. Their efforts in addition to efforts of other groups such as ACORN are producing impressive results across the country, but particularly in Florida. It will take a special effort to stay in touch with these voters.

In Orange County as of mid-June are about 14,000 more Democrats than there were on January 29 resulting in a 43,000 registered voter advantage over the Republicans.

I discussed this in more detail on June 15:
http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/JBCallahan/Cxbm

VOTER CONTACT
The DNC has produced a great national voter contact database, VoteBuilder (also known as VAN). But, we need to closely monitor the latest voter registration date in the database for a given state or county. In Florida, there is a three to four month lag in the monthly CDs we get from the Florida Division of Elections. If this lag carries over to VoteBuilder we will have a three to four month blindspot where we will be unable to contact newly registered Obama voters.

The campaign intends to remedy some of this problem by keeping track of the names of the people they register the limits of this approach is twofold:

#1 The Obama campaign will know its own voters, but it won't know who other organizations such as ACORN have registered and it can't just ask ACORN for its list because that would be illegal coordination and would jeopardize Project Votes' tax status.

#2 Keeping track of names before you turn you in doesn't tell you which eligible voters actually made it on the voter registration rolls (glitches could include that if the drivers license number or the last 4 digits of the social security number don't match their voter registration could fail). This is Florida! Strange things happen to the voter registration rolls! Trust, but verify.

To know all of the newly registered voters (not just the ones registered by Obama campaign) we have to rely on public records. Although by law the State of Florida maintains the official roll, in Orange County, Florida the Supervisor of Elections posts a monthly list of registered voters here:
http://www.ocfelections.com/Public%20Records/New%20Voters/New%20Voters%20Homepage.htm

The list is posted in the middle of one month for registrations through the end of the previous month. Using to posted list could reduce the reporting lag to two to four weeks.

The posted list has addresses, but does not have phone numbers or emails. To the extent that the Obama campaign has phone numbers and emails they could be added and the voter could be called to congratulate them on their successful voter registration. Yes, you are on the rolls and you can vote by mail or you vote at the elementary school (for example).

If we do not have phone numbers or emails for the voters (perhaps they were registered by ACORN/Project Vote) we add the voters to a special walk list and send volunteers to the door with lit and sign people up to receive email updates from Barrack Obama and other campaigns.

I hate for all the voter registration efforts to go to waste. Some optimists believe if a voter registers at a supermarket they will definitely turn out at a school, a firehouse or some other polling place to vote. Without further contact, the voter may not know how to vote by mail, vote early or on election day a polling place. Moreover, without further contact, they may vote for Obama and quit and not vote for the other Democrats on the ballot.

In conclusion, we need to follow through newly registered voters (whether registered by the Obama campaign or not) and it may take some additional data efforts (beyond VoteBuilder/VAN) to do so.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

USAelectionPolls.com just admitted and corrected an error that may have influenced the weekend news reporting cycle. Obama is ahead in NJ. NJ is not like Pennsylvania -- it does not have a large rural hinterland resembling Alabama.

We had a couple of mistakes in our Rasmussen Reports poll results that we had to fix over this weekend (thanks to a caller who informed me of the mistakes!).

The New Jersey results were flipped between Obama and McCain -- mistakingly crowning McCain as the winner of the state. And the Virginia poll was just not updated to the latest June poll... I have fixed that.

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/

As correct, the electoral math for Rasmussen shows Obama ahead in the electoral collage 249 to 210.

Quinnipiac University has ... focused exclusively on the battleground states. [Obama] is over 150 electoral votes ahead in the more contested states.

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/


Specifically in Florida, the latest (June 18) Quinnipiac University shows Obama ahead 47 to 43.
http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/general-election/florida.html

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

The City of Orlando, which owns the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) has a choice on how to generate electricity in the future. Under the Bush administration it pursued so called "clean coal" with a proposed coal gasification plant feeding a gas turbine generator.

Not surprisingly, the Bush/Cheney administrations' Energy Department was enthusiastic about so called "Clean Coal" plant which would be built by former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) and use coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

Finally, OUC came to its senses and axed the coal portion and plans to build a natural gas powered plant. With the rising cost of fossil fuels, a better alternative may be wind energy.

Much of the electricity along the east coast of Florida is provided by Florida Power and Light (FPL). The parent company of the FPL Utility, FPL Group is a large investor in wind energy around the United States.

This year, FPL Group proposed an wind power farm in Florida near its St. Lucie nuclear plant. Although much of inland Florida is not suitable for wind energy coastal Florida is.

A similar wind farm, if constructed at the Kennedy Space Center and Patrick Air Force base could help meet the energy needs of Orlando, without burning fossil fuels.

At one time, OUC owned an oil fired power plant along the Indian River (one fo the bodies fo water that separates Cape Canaveral from the mainland). High voltage transmission line capacity between the former OUC Indian River Plant and the City of Orlando. Thus, the existing transmission line capacity could be used to transmit the power from the Kennedy wind farm to Orlando.

As a sea level state, Florida has to do all it can to prevent climate change and the resulting sea level rise.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

PS At one time I was an economic forecaster in the Strategic Planning Department of OUC.

On January 29 in Orange County, Florida there were

203,829 registered Democrats
175,336 registered Republicans
and 128,637 other and no party affiliation voters.

So far, so good. Dems are ahead.

But only,

88,930 Democrats voted in the January 29th primary
while
92,425 Republicans voted. More Republicans voted, had it been a face to face election, instead of a within party primary, Democrats would have lost by 3,500 votes!

The Republican turnout was 52.7%, while the Democratic turnout was only 43.6%. So, the conventional wisdom is that Democrats in Orange County, Florida have a turnout problem.

Orange County, Florida [Supervisor of] Elections (ocfelections.com)
http://www.ocfelections.com/Public%20Records/2008%20Election%20Results/2008%20Election%20Results%20Homepage.htm

Last week I obtained a new DVD from the Florida Department of State, Division of Elections that listed all of the registered voters in Florida. It was dated 04/30/2008 on the label, but after I loaded the Orange County data, I checked and found the most recent registration date to be 03/31/2008! or nearly 3 months out of date!

I checked the local Supervisor of Elections website and found statistics as of June 11, 2008.
http://www.ocfelections.com/Public%20Records/2008%20Month%20End%20Stats/June%2011/Poll/June%2011%202008.htm

Now, or rather as of June 11, 2008 we have in Orange County, Florida:

217,600 registered Democrats
174,068 registered Republicans
and 122,851 other and no party affiliation voters.

The number of Democrats is up! and the number of Republicans is down! This is Florida; the Florida Department of State must have purged some Republican voters. I will have to check into that, because we want to win big in a fair and legitimate election.

As of June 11, 2008 the Democrats have 43,000+ vote registration advantage! But, how will turnout affect the outcome?

If we apply the turnout percentages from the January 29 primary, "The Republican turnout was 52.7%, while the Democratic turnout was only 43.6%" (see above), Democrats still win!!!

Multiplying the June 11 voter registration by the January 29 turnout yields 94,938 Democratic voters and only 91,757 voters. Registration finally trumps turnout!!!

Historically, turnouts in Florida's Presidential Preference Primary average 37% statewide, but general elections average 64% and Presidential year general elections often exceed 70%. For example, 1980 was 77% and 1992 was 83% (two elections where the Presidency changed parties).

Florida Department of State(DOS), Division of elections
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/online/voterpercent.shtml

If we bump the January 29th turnout numbers for each party up by 30 something percent, we still get a Democratic victory! I leave that calculation to the reader as an exercise.

So, with this calculation, I abandon the position that I took in a meeting that Orange County has a turnout problem [that won't be helped by registration] and wholeheartedly endorse the Obama voter registration drive.

Local campaigns still need to focus on voter contact!

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Skip a generation? No, but there is another possibility (keep reading). Sorry, Chelsea Clinton is 28
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Clinton

and the 12th Amendment requires that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

The Constitution requires that the President be "a natural born U.S. citizen not younger than 35."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_President_of_the_United_States

If the next President serves two four year terms (8 years) Chelsea Clinton will be 36 (28+8) and thus old enough to be President.

Chelsea for President in 2016?
BA History, Stanford
MA International Relations, Oxford

Chelsea could move to Florida and run for Governor (against Charlie Christ(R)) or US Senator (against Mel Martinez(R)) in 2010, serve a 6 year term in the US Senate and then run for US President in 2016.

The alternative key political states would be New York (where her mother is already US Senator), California (which already has two female US Senators), Massachusetts (which may be looking for a US Senator soon, but is home to failed Democratic Presidential campaigns), Illinois or Texas.

Florida is currently the fourth largest state in population and may move up a rank to third place in the 2010 census. The additional population in the 2010 census will result in additional US Congressional seats and thus additional electoral votes in the 2012 and 2016 elections.

Florida has Congresswomen in key metropolitan areas including Rep. Castor (Tampa), Rep. Brown (Jacksonville/Orlando) and Rep. Wasserman-Shultz (Miami-Ft Lauderdale). In addition, Florida's CFO is Alex Sink(D) and the Mayors of Tampa and West Palm Beach are Pam Iorio and Lois Frankel.

Thus, outside of the panhandle (Pensacola, Joe Scarborough country) and Naples there would be strong support for a female US Senate candidate.

Former Clinton cabinet officials in Florida include former Attorney General Janet Reno and former EPA Administrator Carol Browner.

The Chair of the Florida Democratic Party is former Congresswoman Karen Thurman.

Congresswoman Corrine Brown (FL, 3rd)
http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/

Congresswoman Kathy Castor (FL, 11th)
http://castor.house.gov/Biography/

Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz (FL, 20th)
http://wassermanschultz.house.gov/district.htm

Florida CFO, Alex Sink
http://www.fldfs.com/Treasurer/Bio/index.asp

Tampa, Mayor Pam Iorio
http://www.tampagov.net/dept_Mayor/biography.asp

West Palm Beach, Mayor Lois Frankel
http://www.wpb.org/mayor/index.php

former US Attorney General Janet Reno
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Reno

former US EPA Administrator Carol Browner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_M._Browner

Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman
http://www.fladems.com/content/your_party_chair


Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

The Republican loss of a "safe" Congressional seat in Mississippi has triggered headlines in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other papers.

Wall Street Journal
The Republican Panic
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121080704069593315.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Democrats won with 54% of the vote in a district that a Republican won with 66% in 2006 and that President Bush carried in 2004 by 25 points. It was the GOP's third special election loss this year, and it has Democrats predicting that November will be another rout of 2006 proportions. Oklahoma's Tom Cole, who runs the National Republican Congressional Committee, captured the GOP reaction when he declared that "There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates."

New York Times
Republican Election Losses Stir Fall Fears
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/us/politics/15repubs.html?hp

The victory by Travis Childers, a conservative Democrat elected in a once-steadfast Republican district on Tuesday, was the third defeat of a Republican in a special Congressional race this year. In addition to foreshadowing more losses for the party in November, the outcome appeared to call into question the belief that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois could be a heavy liability for his party’s down-ticket candidates in conservative regions.

USA Today
Republicans fear public has lost confidence
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-14-gopfallout_N.htm

Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who runs the committee tasked with helping elect Republicans to Congress, said Tuesday's defeat in Mississippi â€" after losing GOP seats in other special elections in Illinois and Louisiana â€" was evidence that "a large section of the American people doesn't have confidence in the Republican Party." * * * He said, "When you lose three of these in a row, you have to get beyond campaign tactics and take a long hard look: Is there something wrong with your product?"

Keep it up.
Keep up the pressure.
Support the Democratic Congressional and Senatorial candidates where you live.
No President can do it alone.

I am a proud supporter of Alan Grayson(D), the candidate for change, in Florida's 8th Congressional District.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Exit polls provide a valuable cross-check on the voting process.

Networks, AP sue in South Dakota over exit polling
Tuesday May 13, 11:52 am ET
By Chet Brokaw, Associated Press Writer

Networks, Associated Press sue South Dakota officials over exit polling restrictions

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The three major networks, CNN, Fox News and The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Monday asking a federal judge to strike down a South Dakota law that prevents exit polling within 100 feet of a voting place.

The law violates the First Amendment because it restricts the news organizations' speech and commentary about the political process and limits their opportunities to gather information about that process, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Sioux Falls, asks that the case be handled quickly because South Dakota's primary election is June 3, just three weeks away. It seeks a preliminary ruling before the primary to prevent South Dakota officials from barring exit polling within 100 feet of polling places.

The lawsuit was filed by ABC, CBS, NBC, Cable News Network, Fox News Network and the AP.

Poll representatives working for the news organizations have conducted exit polling within 100 feet of South Dakota voting locations in past elections, according to the lawsuit.

However, South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson told polling representatives in an April 2 e-mail that exit polling would only be allowed within the bounds of the state law that bars exit polling within 100 feet of a polling place, the lawsuit said. Nelson warned in the e-mail that a violation of the law "will be dealt with by all legal means including prosecution."

The accuracy and reliability will be harmed because exit pollers may not be able to question some voters, the lawsuit asserts. Some voters may get into cars and leave before exit pollers can ask if they want to fill out questionnaires, hurting the accuracy of the polls, it says.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080513/exit_poll_lawsuit.html?.v=1
Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

We have a blow by blow description of the "Marathon: session thanks to the St Petersburg Times blog "The Buzz." The Democrats find a backbone. Go Gelber!!!
First a brief finale.

After 16 hours, it's over
A final blast of rancor over a major health care bill closed out the epic House session.

At 2:14 a.m.

"We didn't sign up for a 9-to-5 hour job in the Florida House," Speaker Marco Rubio said. "We came to work."
Posted by Alex Leary at 2:18:47 AM on April 19, 2008

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2008/04/after-16-hours.html

Now the blow by blow -- here is an excerpt from about midnight on:

11:55 p.m.: Rep. Faye Culp, R-Tampa, earns the Rodney Dangerfield award of the day. She's reading CS/HB 7083 like a champ. But no one is paying attention. Not even Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach.

12:03 a.m.: Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, steps up to the mic. This is a monster bill. Breathe, man. He's chugging, going too fast. "Phew," he gasps, taking a break. The bill passes 107-0.

12:09 a.m.: Gelber: "Read the bill in full." HB 7075. They are digging deep now, council director Eric Thorne, is reading. It passes 109-0.

12:15 a.m.: Hasner is handing out tissues infused with Vicks. Members press them to their noses, a vain attempt to stay alert. They drink from red Community Coffee cups. We trust that's coffee inside.

12:32 a.m.: CS/SB 686, read in full.

12:57 a.m.: The bill passes 109-0. Rubio calls a 5-10 minute recess. One bill remains: CS/CS/SB 2534, the hotly contested health care package.

1:04 a.m.: Rep. "Sugar" Ray Sansom jabs the Democrats in their own game. He offers a motion to read the bill in full. Suddenly, a computerized voice fills the chamber -- a very, very fast reading of the bill, thanks to text recognition software. It takes 10 minutes, compared with at least an hour by a regular person.

(The program is a Microsoft product but was customized by Nick Carson, a 31-year-old House staffer. Carson had been experimenting with the software and gave it an unexpected debut, said Rubio spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin.)

2:14 a.m.: No one is laughing any more. After a tense, bitter debate over health care, the vote is called on the final bill of the session. It passes on party lines.

2:17 a.m.: The session ends.
Posted by Alex Leary at 3:08:52 AM on April 19, 2008

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2008/04/the-marathon-se.html

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

PS The legislature is controlled by Republicans, so if the "hotly contested" Health Care bill CS/CS/SB 2534 "passes on party lines" at 2:14 AM it is likely to be bad news indeed.

It is 9:00 PM on a Friday evening -- do you know where your legislators are? According to the Orlando Sentinel blog; our Florida legislators may still be in session:

posted by Aaron Deslatte on Apr 18, 2008 8:41:42 PM


Into their eighth hour of listening to bills, House Speaker Marco Rubio professed his disgust with the late hour and -- possibly -- deteriorating hygiene of the chamber.

"This place is starting to feel like the Superdome," he announced in the middle of a debate over the bill that lets the University of Central Florida raise tuition rates 30 percent. "We ran out of water. We ran out of food. The restrooms are backed up."

Of course, unlike the huddled masses of poor left for days in the Dome after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, lawmakers still had power, ventilation and security.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Republican Speaker Rubio cuts off Internet and Blackberries. This is from a post from the Orlando Sentinel Blog, "Political Pulse."

Friday shortly before lunch, when minority-party Democrats -- frustrated that the GOP had twice thwarted their efforts to offer amendments to bills -- pulled a procedural move to require that each bill on the day's agenda be read in full.

As the young clerk began reading aloud every line of an 86-page condo association bill, a visibly angered House Speaker Marco Rubio slammed his gavel down, ordered the House sergeant-at-arms to make sure all 119 House members were in the chamber, then locked the doors.

"I want everyone in their seats. It's important that we give the clerk our attention," said Rubio, who then ordered the staff to turn off Internet access to the members' laptops. A wave of lawmakers soon started pecking at their BlackBerries from their desks.

In a huge huddle of lawmakers on the floor, House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber advised his members not to drink any water.

Half an hour into the riveting exploration of community association law, Rubio slammed the gavel again when he spotted Broward County Democratic Rep. Franklin Sands walking on the floor. "The clerk will stop reading until Rep. Sands takes his seat."

An hour into the reading, they replaced clerks with a much faster-speaking girl who sounded more like an auctioneer.

The technology cut-off didn't stop Gelber's office from smuggling out a statement that warned "Floridians are watching and expecting this Republican legislature to pass legislation that improves our quality of life." He also sent an e-mail to other members telling them to "hang tough" -- and added that, "I understand this might be a hardship, but I would not ask you to stand together if I didn't believe in my heart that this was the only avenue available to us."

The House Majority Office later replied with a statement from Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach (who was rolling his chair around the floor to avoid standing up) that declared "Democrats Grind Session to a Halt."

House communications director Jill Chamberlin then said the staff was trying to take down the chamber's wireless and BlackBerry services, but it hadn't been worked out yet. "I suggested they pull the wire out of the walls," she told the reporters taking in the drama. Shortly afterward, the BlackBerries went down.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/
Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

1. Add Presidential Preference Primary to the August Primary - which will be held the 2nd day of the Democratic National Convention.

2. Seat all Florida delegates as uncommitted.

3. Allow the candidates to campaign in Florida and woo the now unpledged Florida Delegation.   Read More »

A message from the Alan Grayson campaign:

PRIORITIES
As we approach the end of President George W. Bush's final term in office, a report last week to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee threw a spotlight on a troubling trend. In the five years before 2003, federal support for medical research doubled. In the five years since, it has flat-lined. No increase at all.

As a result, younger researchers with fresh ideas have received nothing. The average age of a first-time grant recipient is now 42.

The Burnham Institute for Medical Research, here in Orlando, ranks fourth in the nation in federal research funding. How much more would it have received if funding had increased? How many more good jobs would there be in Orlando? And how many more important cures would the Burnham Institute have developed?

Congressional candidate Alan Grayson says, "It makes me sad to think of all the new cures that remained undiscovered, all the people who could have been cured but stay ill, and all the victims of illness who didn't have to die. President Bush and the Republicans in Congress are more concerned with giving out huge subsidies and tax breaks to the big HMO and pharmaceutical companies than they are with helping the sick and finding cures."

Alan Grayson has "street cred" on this subject. Over twenty years ago, he founded the Alliance for Aging Research, to promote medical research on curing the afflictions of old age. He has been an officer of the Alliance ever since. The Alliance, with a multimillion dollar annual budget, has increased research on aging by over 600%.

"That's what I want to see more of," says Alan. "I want to concentrate on healing the sick, educating our children, and improving jobs and the economy. Let's get our priorities straight."

For over 20 years, Alan has been striving, and succeeding, in helping people to remain healthy. If he's elected to Congress, he'll keep doing that.

Alan Grayson asks for your support, in the Democratic primary on August 26, and the General Election on November 4.

"Some men see things as they are, and ask 'why?' I dream things that never were, and ask, 'why not?'" -- Robert Kennedy, 1968.

Justice. Equality. Peace.

Political Advertisement Paid for and Approved by Alan Grayson, Democrat, for U.S. Congress, Florida District 8

http://www.graysonforcongress.com

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posted by
Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

If the Democratic Party had stuck to the rules and only had not seating half the delegates as the penalty (like the Republican Party) we would not be in the situation we are now.

Four Democratic state party chairs (in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Caroline and Nevada) used their position to extract a destructive pledge from the candidates, that went far beyond the party rules, pledging the candidates not to campaign in Florida.

It is the campaign blackout imposed by the pledge, not party rules that is the problem. The failure to campaign in Florida (or for more, than one candidate to get on the ballot in Michigan) invalidates the candidate results.

Following the January 29 primary, the party did a good job of holding caucuses to elect the persons to serve as delegates. At least here in Central Florida, the delegates elected for both Obama and Clinton were people who were either active in the meetup groups for the Presidential candidates or active in local political campaigns. These are good people who deserve to be seated. One of the delegates is first term state representative Scott Randolph who represents one of the most diverse districts in the nation.

On the other hand, because of the failure to campaign in Florida, the candidate results are invalid. With good delegates, but invalid candidate results, the delegates should be seated, but released from their pledges.

Florida voters still deserve the opportunity to see the candidates campaign in Florida. There is one last chance to vote.

"Denver will host the 2008 Democratic National Convention Monday, August 25 to Thursday, August 28."
http://www.democrats.org/a/convention_2008/

Florida will hold a regularly scheduled Primary Election on Tuesday, August 26, 2008, the second day of the Democratic National Convention.
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/online/elecdate.shtml

Imagine the drama of the convention, as the roll call is called out, "Florida passes," as vote counting in Florida is still underway.

At the convention, the seated, but unpledged, Florida delegation eagerly seek out Primary results in their own districts. Each of the delegates had campaigned hard for their candidate prior to the convention so tonight's vote would validate their choice.

The irony under this scenario is that Florida voters would get the last word.

Jim Callahan
Precinct Committeeman, Precinct 401
Orange County Democratic Executive Committee
Orlando, FL