The Less Than Tough Life of Pam Bondi

University of Florida student Matt Schneider wrote a great op-ed on how Pam Bondi bragged to UF students about all the easy breaks in life. That must make the students working full-time jobs and looking at years of student loan debt feel great.

“When I was in college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said. “I wasn’t even sure I wanted to practice law … When I was in law school, I did a certified legal internship at the state attorney’s office, and my dad conspired with Bill James, who was the state attorney at the time because my dad was so worried I didn’t want to practice law. And so I did this internship at the state attorney’s office, and when you’re certified, you can try jury trials when you’re in law school, so I had four jury trials when I was in law school. Never wanted to do anything else.”

There is also this comment by Bondi.

"I don’t think I’ve ever made a resume in my life."

That is probably because Bondi never had to.

Read Scheider's piece. It points out how one of the most powerful office holders in Florida is disconnected with the hardships many Floridians have to endure.

Charlie Crist Voter Suppression Ad

Damn. This is a great ad. Say what you will about Charlie Crist being opportunistic. (You won't get any argument from me.) But Crist delivers a powerful speech about the right to vote on the University of Florida campus. I hope the ad draws more attention to the voter suppression tactics of the Rick Scott administration.

Bill Nelson On Florida Voter Suppression

Sen. Bill Nelson calls the Rick Scott administration for voter suppression on the floor of the Senate. Scott appointed Secretary of State Ken Detzner. The result has been Detzner frustrating both Republican and Democratic Supervisors of Elections officials. The long lines of the 2012 election made Florida a joke. Detzner declared mission accomplished during his listening tour.

On restoring early voting times: "When you look at the turnout, which was larger than it was in 2008, that obviously speaks to the point that people were satisfied with the current law. People responded, reacted and turned out in greater numbers."

Florida voters were anything but satisfied. Now Detzner will not allow the the Reitz Union on the University of Florida campus to be used as a voting site. According to the Center for Research and Information on Civic Learning and Engagement, President Barack Obama easily won the youth vote by 67 percent to 30 percent. The youth vote helped Obama win Florida. The Republican controlled state legislature wrote the language that no educational facility can be used for early voting. This was merely to suppress the youth vote. Republicans have gave up on trying to win the youth vote.

Sandra Fluke GOTV in Florida

Feminist activists Sandra Fluke was at the University of Florida helping get out the vote for President Obama. Rush Limbaugh lives in Florida. Why isn't he at GOTV Republican rallies? Don't tell me it is because Limbaugh is a nonpartisan journalist.

Alberto Gonzales University of Florida Appearance

Crooks and Liars has a video of protest demonstrations during Alberto Gonzales's speaking engagement at the University of Florida. Gonzo was paid $40,000.

Andrew Meyer Gets Probation

Andrew "Don't Tase Me, Bro" Meyer will not go to jail. He was given 18 months probation in exchange for community sevice, a donation to American Cancer Society and the writing three apology letters. One each to the University of Florida, and Bernie Machen and UF Police Department.

State Attorney Bill Cervone explains the plea agreement.

“It is to me important to remember that in our community, perhaps more than in many others, we deal with a large number of young people, some of whom cross the line into criminal behavior without necessarily intending to do so and without understanding the possible consequences to their futures of what they are doing. A responsible society should attempt to correct rather than simply punish such behavior when there is no indication that doing so risks creating a threat to the safety or peace of the community. This agreement accomplishes that and puts the burden on Mr. Meyer to demonstrate his ability to be a productive participant in society, which I trust he will do," Cervone said.

Meyer issued a statemant expressing he is aware of the error of his ways.

"I didn't write write these letters to get off the hook," Meyer states. "I wrote them genuinely, accepting responsibility for breaking the forum rules. I am truly sorry, especially for the negative spotlight which has been cast on the university."

UF has enough image problems without Taser Boy. Meyer created an PR problem for the Left. Michelle Malkin (who has her own image problems of her own) used Meyer to brand lefties ranting lunatics. People like Meyer are the gift that keeps giving to the Right-wing noise machine.

I don't think Meyer should have been tased. I was outraged when I first saw the video. That doesn't mean Meyer should have butt in front of people hog the microphone and not give John Kerry a chance to answer his questions. That behavior is better suited for Bill O'Reilly's show and not a public forum.

Andrew Meyer Update

Attytood found out some interesting facts about Andrew "Don't Tas me, bro" Meyer. The kid's narcissism entends to his email address: Famouswriterman@aol.com. Meyer refers to himself on his website as "The Andrew Meyer."

Bob Norman discovered that Meyer wrote for the Sun-Sentinel's Teentime section. Norman found that Meyer mainly wrote entertainment articles.

Sun-Sentinel blogger Michael Mayo has key passages from the police report of Meyer's arrest.

“A crowd began to form and yell at us. Some were yelling let him go, he didn’t do anything. I pulled my Taser, turned off the safety, dropped the cartridge, put it against his left chest and pulled the trigger. It did not activate after several attempts. While my Taser was still against his chest, where he could see it, he was told several times to stop resisting and turn over or he would be tased. He still would not comply, continued to struggle and yell for us to let him go. I instructed Ofc. Mallo to utilize her Taser, which she did.”

That crowd video-recorded the incident. The cops could have carried Meyer's sorry ass out of the venue. Tasering a meek 5'6 loudmouth is extreme. This is coming from someone who hopes Meyer never gets a job as a journalist. (He would be perfect for Inside Edition.)

University of Florida Taser Incident

Student Andrew Meyer was tasered when he was arrested for speaking too long at a John Kerry Q and A. Officers told Meyer he was arrested for inciting a riot. The student was annoying, but inciting a riot is pushing it. There were hardly any people at the Kerry event.

John Kerry was overwhelmed by the situation. He stammered a few words. It was obvious he had no control over the events. Kerry released this statement.

"In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way," Kerry said in a statement. "I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of responding when he was taken into custody."

University of Florida Police Chief Linda Stump will conduct an investigation into the arrest.

To students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends:

I have received a great deal of communication and input last night and this morning regarding the incident that occurred Monday at the conclusion of a town hall forum being held by Sen. John Kerry. The incident resulted in a student being tasered.
We are interested in learning what happened and are taking the following immediate steps to ensure the university utilizes best practice protocols:

• University of Florida Police Chief Linda Stump has requested the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conduct a formal investigation into the arrest of UF student Andrew Meyer. An independent review such as this will make sure the results are objective and impartial. Chief Stump’s priority is to ensure that the public remains confident in the department’s ability to keep the campus safe.

• Two officers involved in the incident have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

• We plan to assemble a panel of faculty and students to review our police protocols, our management practices and the FDLE report to come up with a series of recommendations for the university.

• Administrators and police officials plan to analyze the incident and conduct an internal review and will consider changing protocols in response to this incident, if necessary.

• Finally, as is standard procedure, the State Attorney’s Office will review the charges brought against Mr. Meyer. We have communicated with the State Attorney and understand he plans to expedite his review.

I will talk about the incident and answer questions at a news conference scheduled for 2 p.m. in Emerson Alumni Hall.

J. Bernard Machen

I personally hate the use of tasers. I am certain that if several law enforcement officers are telling me to shut the fuck up or I will be tased: I'm going to shut up. This whole situation is a mess that could have been avoided. Kerry showed no leadership, Meyer ilustrated bad judgement and several law enforcement officers openly used a taser in the Youtube era.

John Kerry Coming to University of Florida

John Kerry will speak at the University of Florida this Monday.. The Senator will dicuss Iraq and national security. He will take questions from the audince.

For those wondering: this is not a paid speaking engagement for Kerry.

In related news: Kerry made a point on Meet the Press that I realized a long time ago. Iraqis will never allow al-Qaeda to gain a foothold in Iraq. They will slaughter them first. The Iraqis view al-Qaeda as foreign occupiers. The Sunnis were fighting al-Qaeda before U.S. Troops came into the Anbar province.

Kerry on Meet the Press:

Tim, al-Qaeda views Shia as apostates. They are not legitimate Muslims. The fact is you’re better off as a Christian or as a Jew than as a Shia in the eyes of al-Qaeda. And Iran, linked as it is already to Maliki, who was in Iran a month ago, holding hands with the leader of Iraq, they’re already linked. The Shia will never allow al-Qaeda to take over Iraq. The Kurds will never allow al-Qaeda to take over Iraq. That’s 80 to 85 percent of the country. And the Sunni in Anbar have now decided they don’t want al-Qaeda. We are the attraction for al-Qaeda. And if we begin to reduce our footprint, as the Iraq Study Group has said we should do, as General Jones said we should do, as those seven soldiers of the 82nd Airborne, two of whom were just recently killed, wrote in The New York Times the other day, as we should do, then al-Qaeda, believe me, will be driven out by the Iraqis themselves.

The entire Meet the Press transcript is worth reading. John McCain comes off as completely delussional. He should quit the Senate and become a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

No Jeb Bush College

According to The Buzz, there will be no "Jeb Bush College of Education," anytime in the near future. I was hoping the school in Jeb's name would be a science facility.

The Fordham Institute gave Florida an F in 2005. Here is the money quote.

The institute took Florida to task for a "prevalence of errors in fact and presentation" in some subject areas. Example: Florida's standards say a second-grader should know "a thermometer measures the amount of heat absorbed by an object."

Priceless.

The Horrible Jeb Education Legacy Lives

Like Jason or Freddy Kruger, conservatives try to keep the failed education policies of Dear Leader Jeb Bush alive. He was denied an honorary degree by the UF facilty. That isn't stopping Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives from attempting to name a UF school after Jeb.

The House Schools and Learning Council voted Tuesday to name UF's College of Education the "Jeb Bush College of Education.''

The amendment came from Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, who admitted he was irked by the faculty's decision last month to deny Bush the honorary degree.

"This amendment may demonstrate to some folks around the state and around the country that the office of the governor of Florida is a very prestigious and honorable office and is certainly deserving of an honorary degree,'' Rivera said.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled that the Opportunity Scholarship Program voucher program was unconstitutional because it diverted money from public schools. Republicans are trying to get around that with the nutty idea of businesses funding the voucher program.

A Senate committee on Tuesday approved a plan that would expand a current system that gives businesses tax breaks if they pay for private school tuition. Currently, the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship plan is open only to low-income students.

The bill, approved by the Senate education committee, would expand the program to any student attending a public school that has received an "F'' grade in two of the last four years.

I'm always fascinated how Republican policy ideas pander both to big business and the Christian Right. That takes talent.

The voucher program was such a bomb that only 700 students participated in 2006. Bush pushed the voucher program aggressively and parents responded apatheticly. It's hard to sell people a program that is filled with corruption.

The Dyslexia Research Institute was under the OSP. That didn't stop them from charging parents $5,000.

"That's horrible. That's nothing short of rape," said Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who served with school director Patricia Hardman on a Senate task force studying reported abuses in the program. "It turns out that this school is a poster child for why we need accountability."

The director of DRI, Patricia Hardman, turned out to be a fraud.

Judge P. Michael Ruff cited testimony from other experts when he decided that it wasn't proven that any such malady exists. Ruff then criticized Hardman's credentials: "Dr. Hardman does not have a degree in psychology, is not certified or licensed in Florida or any other state as a psychologist, is not currently certified as a teacher in Florida or any other state, and holds no certificate in the area of special education in Florida or any other state."

The stake needs to be put into Jeb's education policies. The more painful the death the better. I want Republican so embarrassed for pushing this shit on the public that they never dare float these ideas again.

Stanton explained announced his decision on Larry King Live.

STANTON: Yes, at this point that's appropriate. And everybody is worried about being sued and that's been a big concern. Everybody is always focusing on litigation these days.

KING: Are you going to sue?

DOERING: We advised Steve what his options were. We looked at the law and it's very clear what the city of Largo did is illegal. You cannot fire somebody just because they announce that they're going to transition from male to female. That's absolutely clear that that's what they did in the city of Largo.

So what we did was we laid out the options for Steve, and had real heart to heart about what litigation really looks like. It'll probably go on for years. And we talked about some other possibilities. And then we left it up to him to decide whether or not he wants to sue the city of Largo. KING: You have decided yet?

STANTON: Absolutely. I decided the first night.

KING: You're going to sue?

STANTON: Of course not.

KING: Not sue?

STANTON: Of course not.

Karen Doering, attorney for the National Center of Lesbian Rights told Stanton he had a strong case and he still couldn't find it in his heart to sue. To any Stanton critics that think this was about personal vengence and money; that is clearly not the case. He merely wanted to keep the job he had for years and be accepted for who he really is. Regaldless, of whether that is Steve or Susan.

Stanton may have made the legal wrong decision. The City of Largo City Council has become a national symbol for intolerance. The Council allowed themselve to side with hate monger Rev. Ron Sanders:

During the City Commission meeting on March 20, the Rev. Ron Sanders, pastor of the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Largo, said God has protected Largo over the years from killer hurricanes because of the abundance of prayers.

But, he warned, “The Lord wants me to say some things.”

“God’s wrath is on America right now,” Sanders said.

He pointed to the 911 terrorist attacks and the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

Sanders said the gay, lesbian and transgender lifestyle is “an abomination against God.” He said if the city allows Stanton to stay in office, “He will be a hero to all of those weirdos from New Orleans who are looking for a new home.”

Sanders is saying that the 9/11 and Katrina victims deserved the death and destruction that was forced upon them. The fact that the City of Largo are worried about a transgender and have remained silent about Sanders comments says much about their leadership.

UF Nixes Jeb Honorary Degree

Jeb Bush will not receive an honorary degree from the University of Florida. UF's Faculty Senate voted 38-28 against the honorary degree.

Bush appointed six trustees with no college degree. 2/3 of the others were business people with no academic experience. Bob Graham stopped Bush from abolishing the Board of Regents. Jeb and John Thrasher came up with the idea to abolish the Board of Regents from scratching notes on a cocktail napkin. Jeb wanting to get rid of the Board of Regents to do away with affirmative action and make it easier for cronies to push education pork projects. The Board was against the FSU medical school. This was pushed by (drum roll please) John Thrasher. One wonders if Thrasher wrote that spending proposal on a cocktail napkin.

Somewhere David Horowitz's head is exploding right now.