After doing a little investigation I've come up with the following info on the jet and its buyer and the connection to Alaska Republicans:

The jet, tail number: N328SA was bought by a Larry Reynolds..

Reynolds didn't give to Palin's campaign but it looks like his wife (occupation listed as "housewife") in turn gave $1000.00 to John L. Harris in the 2006 General election.

It turns out for those of us in the lower 48 who don't know who HE is, that Harris is the Republican Alaska State Legislature Speaker of the House and he in turn hooked up Reynolds with Governor Palin to do the sweetheart jet deal (apparently at a loss to the State of Alaska)

http://community.adn.com/node/109650 (News story on how Reynolds used Harris to get the jet)

The campaign contribution:
https://webapp.state.ak.us/apoc/contributions.jsp?name=...

In a common trick used to throw people off in campaign contribution research, the report included a "harmless typo" and it should actually be JANICE REYNOLDS as his BOAT registration shows the name of his boat is the JANICE RUTH II.

http://www.boatinfoworld.com/registration.asp?vn=319176

The FAA aircraft registration:
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNu...

http://aprn.org/2007/08/24/larry-reynolds-valdezs-great... /

FAA Registry
N-Number Inquiry Results
N328SA is Assigned

Aircraft Description

Serial Number 425 Type Registration Individual
Manufacturer Name ISRAEL AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES Certificate Issue Date 09/13/2007
Model 1124A Status Valid
Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Multi-Engine Type Engine Turbo-Fan
Pending Number Change None Dealer No
Date Change Authorized None Mode S Code 50706631
MFR Year 1984 Fractional Owner NO

Registered Owner

Name REYNOLDS LARRY
Street PO BOX 750
City VALDEZ State ALASKA Zip Code 99686-0750
County VALDEZ-CORDOVA
Country UNITED STATES



Airworthiness

Engine Manufacturer GARRETT Classification Standard
Engine Model TFE 731 SER Category Transport

A/W Date 06/19/1985

Fellow Democrats:

Just in case you haven’t seen Alan’s new ad on TV yet, you can check it out on-line at the DailyKos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/25/155020/561/340/556978   Read More »

Florida Legislature imperils voting rights; two Federal injunctions prevent implementation.

NAACP v. Browning
Federal injunction issued December 18, 2007

League of Women Voters v. Cobb
Federal injunction issued August 28, 2006

Both lawsuits name the Florida Secretary of State -- Kurt Browning replaced Sue Cobb.   Read More »

In person, early voting starts today (Monday, January 14, 2008) in Florida at a limited number of locations in each of Florida's 67 counties for the January 29 primary.

On the ballot, is the Presidential Preference Primary, Amendment #1 concerning property taxes and in Orlando there is the Mayor's race and one City Council race (District #6). There is also a special election for Florida House district 32 in eastern Orange County and portions Brevard County.

The district 6 City Council seat is held by City Councilman Sam Ings and his district includes predominately African-American neighborhoods.

A City of Orlando District 6 ballot:
http://www.ocfelections.com/Ballots/23.PDF

Early voting sites and other information is available here:


Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

A CNN poll released today concluded that Senator John Edwards is the only Democrat who can beat all four major Republican candidates.   Read More »

"Florida is behaving as though we were in a national recession," said Amy Baker, coordinator for the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research. * * * the 2007-08 spending plan will wind up another $1 billion short before the fiscal year ends June 30.

Link
Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL   Read More »

Pollster Jim Kitchens asks in his blog, "Kitchens' Think" Is Howard Dean the new Katherine Harris?
Link

"this may cost the Democrats the election in 2008. His failure to come up with any workable comprise solution and arbitrarily taking away Florida�s delegate because the primary will be held on January 29th is short-sighted and foolish. As close as Florida can be in a Presidential election, if even 1% of Democrats are mad and stay home, Florida will be a red state again."

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

I urge each one of you to call and email your Representatives in Congress to override the President's recent veto of the S-CHIP bill just passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress. This bill makes sure that no child in America will be without medical insurance because their family cannot afford such coverage on their own.
President Bush vetoed this bill in spite of his previous pledge to support it because he believes that the cutoff level for participation in the program is too high at $83,000 and he has ideological fears of "socializing" medicine.   Read More »

To Whom It May Concern:

I have repeatedly told Ron McBride both publicly and privately that he is not welcome in any of my groups. Yet he continues to ignore my request to leave me and my groups alone!

He does not have any logical reasonable reason to join because he doesn't even live in Florida - he lives in Illinois - yet he insists on joining my local and regional groups over and over again and forcing me to delete him over and over again.

He is abusing this network for his own purposes and he ought to be removed forthwith.

Who REALLY has 1921 friends and can participated in well over 100 groups?

This is clearly either an information collector or a points gamer or someone trying to crosspost to everyone in the universe. No one can possibly participate in an interactive manner to 1921 people and in 100+ groups.

The DNC needs to limit people’s participation to a meaningful level and stop the spam and cyberstalking by people who just won’t go away when asked.

If someone is banned from a group, they should not be allowed to re-apply over and over again on their own without the group owner first extending an invitation to join to them.

Very irritated!

Doug De Clue
Edwards Meetup Orlando Organizer,
Orlando One Corps Co-Captain,
Precinct Committeeman, Orange 311, FL

Newsweek released a new Iowa Poll
Link

Among all Iowa Democrats surveyed, Clinton enjoys a 6-point lead over her nearest rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. But among likely Democratic caucus-goers, she is locked in a three-way race with Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards, with Obama enjoying a slight edge.

Discussion at Democratic Underground
Link

At the Barack Obama campaign web site:
Link

Daily KOS
Link

USA Election Polls
Link

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL
PS Remember, Florida is the big state with demographics close to the national average, don't put too much importance on bizarre twists and turns in unrepresentative small states.

Orlando Sentinel reporter John Kennedy (yes, that's his real name) is reporting in his blog, that US Senator Bill Nelson(D,FL) will be filing a lawsuit in Federal court next week challenging the Democratic National Committee (DNC) sanctions against Florida using a "one person, one vote" argument.

Link

We may learn more details at Orange County, Florida Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Saturday, where Senator Nelson is likely to be in attendance and the delegate selection plan is a likely topic of conversation.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

I have submitted the following question to the MSNBC debate tonight:

Last week Andrew Meyer, a student at the University of Florida, was tased after asking Senator Kerry why he conceded the 2004 election after reports of the disenfranchising of black voters in Florida and Ohio. The Democratic Presidential candidates have signed a pledge not to campaign in Florida. What can you say to voters in Florida tonight that will reassure them that you will stand up for them in a recount at the end of the election, if you have already abandoned them before the first vote has been cast in the 2008 election?

Andrew Meyer's first question (See WikiPedia article University of Florida Taser Incident) Link was:   Read More »

For the 2012 election cycle, we should hold the early state primaries, exactly one year before election day on the first Tuesday in November 2011 after the first Monday.

Between, the Tuesday election and Thanksgiving there should be state party conventions with straw polls in California, Texas and Florida.

From Thanksgiving to New Years, candidates should be confined to their homes, campaign HQ and holiday parties (low key fund raisers), relying on local meetup groups, blogging, talk radio, conference calls to build their national campaign infrastructure. Media junkies will still get a steady stream of campaign information, but the campaigns will be under the radar of Americans who just want to celebrate the holidays.

On New Years Day in 2012 there should be national campaign kickoffs associated with cooperating New Years Day events (seek cooperation from Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl etc) followed by debates and forums.

At the end of January there should be the California and Florida Primaries (two, large, must-win, sun-belt states). Every major Democratic constituency is represented in either California or Florida. With careful advance work the campaigns should be highly visible both in person and on the local and national media.

After that could come two or three Super-Tuesdays.

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

PS For information on the Florida Democratic Party decision, check out this page:
Link

Hillary's Catch-22 plan makes no sense. You have to have insurance to get a job so that you can get insurance.

Joseph Heller would be so proud.

Forcing mandatory health insurance makes zero sense given that many people simply cannot afford it when they have a hard enough time with the basics of food, shelter and clothing.

An individual policy can cost $300-$400/month for a health single person. Add kids and a family and this can be $1000/month. For a great many people, this is simply out of their price range.

That is why I think Hillary's plan (and the Romney plan in MA) are both preposterous.

What is needed is either mandatory EMPLOYER funded healthcare for ALL employees regardless of full-time/part-time status, massive government subsidies and price controls, or single-payer gov't run (Canada style) health care and above all a total ban on pre-existing health conditions and pre-acceptance physicals.

Nothing else is fair.

Nothing else is affordable.   Read More »

THIS TASER STORY IS A BUNCH OF ****!

THIS STUDENT CRASHED THE LINE, WOULD NOT LET OTHERS
ASK THEIR OWN QUESTIONS, GOT BELLIGERENT WHEN ASKED
TO LEAVE (TRESPASSING), RESISTED ARREST, INCITED OTHERS TO ASSAULT (INCITEMENT TO RIOT) THE POLICE AND COMMITTED BATTERY ON A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER.

FROM WHAT I'VE READ ON DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND, HE IS APPARENTLY ALSO SOMETHING OF A PROFESSIONAL HECKLER KNOWN FOR HECKLING SPORTS FIGURES IN THE PAST.

THAT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA POLICE WERE AS PATIENT WITH HIM AS THEY WERE IS ACTUALLY QUITE STUNNING.

THAT JOHN KERRY WAS SO VERY PATIENT WITH THIS MAN WAS ALSO QUITE REFRESHING. IN FACT KERRY WAS QUITE WILLING TO CONTINUE ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS EVEN AFTER THE POLICE STARTED TO REMOVE THE HECKLER FROM THE ROOM AND HAS PUBLICLY EXPRESSED HIS OWN DISMAY OVER THE TASERING.

YET BLOGGERS YESTERDAY AND TODAY HAVE BEEN CYNICALLY ATTEMPTING TO MAKE THIS INTO A "SKULL AND BONES" CONSPIRACY
BY JOHN KERRY AGAINST THIS PROFESSIONAL HECKLER.

THEY ARE BLATANTLY ATTEMPTING TO SMEAR JOHN KERRY ALTHOUGH
IT IS QUITE CLEAR THAT JOHN KERRY HAD ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL OVER THE ACTIONS OF EITHER ANDREW MEYER OR THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA POLICE.

SHAME ON YOU BLOGGERS.   Read More »

Last night, before the Orange County Democratic Executive Committee Alan Grayson(D) announced his candidacy for the 8th Congressional District of Florida seat currently held by Ric Keller(R).

Alan Grayson in a strong appeal for local Democratic party support told the Democratic Party gathering that he was "like you" for "peace, justice and fairness." Specifically, in his speech, without prompting he supported ending the Iraq War and would vote to cut off funding; would vote for national health insurance and also pledged to vote pro choice.

Grayson also ran in 2006, but lost the Democratic nomination to Charlie Stuart. As a strong anti-war candidate, Grayson senses this is his moment.

Mr. Grayson has filed dozens of lawsuits against Iraq contractors on behalf of corporate whistle-blowers. * * * For the contractors in his cross hairs, Mr. Grayson, 48, is a formidable opponent. He received his undergraduate, master's and law degrees from Harvard. He made millions during a two-year stint as the president of IDT Corp., a start-up that has since grown into one of the nation's largest providers of discount telecommunications services. Mr. Grayson says he has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal funds into his small eight-person law firm to help defray the costs of pursuing Iraq fraud cases that may not make it to trial for years. "I have deep enough pockets to subsidize the legal work," he says.

Link
IDT (NYSE: IDT)
http://www.idt.net/   Read More »

The Florida legislature will not be called into special session until October so there is no way to change the date of the primary from January 29. So, the latest alternative proposal summarized in an e-mail by DNC member Jon Ausman is "a vote by mail (VBM) proposal for the purpose of selection delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention."

Projected highlights of the proposal are:

1. The January 29th primary is non-binding and will not be used in any way for the selection of delegates;

2. The price tag is $2.3 million which will be used to print, mail and tabulate ballot;

3. Each returned piece of mail will require signature verification (with an estimated 400,000 ballots and at least a minute per signature that equals 6,666 work hours by staff to very signatures)

4. Ballots postmarked by a certain date will be counted;

5. If the ballots are sent out bulk rate mail then 20% of them will not be delivered as voter registration record addresses often lag behind actual addresses;

6. Tally results will probably be announced two weeks after the postmark cut off date to allow mail to be delivered, to verify signatures and to audit/certify the results;

7. A second audit done thirty (30) days after the first audit will be done to ensure an accurate vote count.

With the Democratic National Committee (DNC) commitment of $880,000 this means the FDP only needs to raise $1,420,000 to carry out the plan.

My additional suggestions:   Read More »

The following email was forwarded to me by Alan Brock, the President of the Florida Young Democrats (I removed his email for courtesy):

I am forwarding this email on to you, I hope the HTML comes through. From Senator Nelson to his supporters throughout Florida.

~Alan
President
Florida Young Democrats   Read More »

Are you a leader? What are you waiting for?
USA Presidential meetup groups on meetup.com
Link
2,491 waiting for a Dennis Kucinich Meetup Group
2,225 waiting for a Edwards/One America Meetup Group
1,622 waiting for a Barack Obama Meetup Group
1,144 waiting for a Hillary Rodham Clinton Meetup Group
533 waiting for a Draft Al Gore Meetup Group
21 waiting for a Mike Gravel Meetup Group
Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

Florida is not just TV and fund raisers. Democratic meetup groups in Florida, click on a city Link

Pin Map (drag and zoom)
Link
Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL