Flablog

• Hiatus

  Number of comments: 0
  As regular readers and RSS feeders already figured out, Flablog is on hiatus. Your correspondent's newspaper is for sale and he has no way of knowing how any prospective buyer and new management might feel about extracurricular blogging.
  
  Back when this started, there was hardly anybody else doing this' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 9:19pm EST
  by Lane

• In a world without punctuation ...

  Number of comments: 0
  ... this sort of thing happens all the time.
  
  
  iPhone photo/M. Lane [...]
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  Posted: October 10, 2009, 8:03am EDT
  by Lane

• Book event

  Number of comments: 0
  Your correspondent will be doing a reading and signing on his book Sandspurs at Barnes & Noble in Daytona Beach across from the Speedway, Sat., Oct. 3, as part of a benefit for Volusia Literacy Council.
  
  He'll be there 5-7 pm.10 am-12 pm. Buy a book' [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 10:21am EDT
  by Lane

• It's DUFF-us, and not how you said it

  Number of comments: 0
  Annals of Florida Crime: FHP: Nude driver flashed trucker for eight miles
  
  Annals of Florida Crime Bonus: The born Loser
  
  [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 8:53pm EDT
  by Lane

• Damage report

  Number of comments: 1
  We hear a lot about teachers, police and corrections officers getting laid off here and there but what's the bigger picture? Well, Matt Sherman and Nathan Lane of the Center for Economic and Policy Research have gathered up the scattered numbers and tried to look at the bigger picture in' [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 10:34pm EDT
  by Lane

• Poll-0-Rama!

  Number of comments: 1
  Your correspondent does not want to be writing about the same polls from now until Nov. 2010. And he recognizes that any poll where are quarter of the electorate professes not to know nothing from nothing is likely to be of little predictive value. Stil-l-l-l, the new QuinnipiacFlorida poll [...]
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  Posted: August 19, 2009, 10:25am EDT
  by Lane

• Kookwatch

  Number of comments: 2
  [...]
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  Posted: August 19, 2009, 10:08am EDT
  by Lane

• He's not a kook, he's a Florida congressman

  Number of comments: 1
  Birther Bill Posey nets a mention in Doonesbury. [...]
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  Posted: August 10, 2009, 4:21pm EDT
  by Lane

• It doesn't take a brain surgeon ...

  Number of comments: 2
  Daniel Ruth posts about the rightwing surgeon who sent out the Obama-is-an-ooga-booga e-mail.
  
  + TPM on the controversy. [...]
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  Posted: July 24, 2009, 2:20pm EDT
  by Lane

• Teaching to the test

  Number of comments: 5
  When my kids were in 10th grade, they got instruction in how to write for the Florida Writing Assessment. They were given phrases to memorize, vocabulary words to throw in, told to use cutsie turns of phrase, instructed to ask a question at the start and answer the question at [...]
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  Posted: July 21, 2009, 2:53pm EDT
  by Lane

• My little town in the national media

  Number of comments: 3
  
  Well, there are worse things to be known for ...
  
  
  from last Saturday's "Beetle Bailey"' [...]
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  Posted: July 19, 2009, 9:54pm EDT
  by Lane

• Mismatch

  Number of comments: 4
  Rubio says he'll win the Senate primary despite a 10-1 fundraising disadvantage because he's one who's "able to outline a clear vision of the future" and we know how much Florida voters respect the power of ideas!
  
  In other words, he'll win on the platform that [...]
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  Posted: July 11, 2009, 11:10am EDT
  by Lane

• Atomic Tunnel

  Number of comments: 3
  Your correspondent still gets e-mails about a column he wrote some years back about the Atomic Tunnel, an oddball tourist attraction that used to be on US 1 near Allendale. (No link, it long ago disappeared in the News-Journal's electronic archives.)
  
  But listen boys and girls, the AT' [...]
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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 4:40pm EDT
  by Lane

• Flagler Co., Fla.

  Number of comments: 3
  Your correspondent lives not far from the Volusia-Flagler County border.
  
  Volusia's unemployment rate is high at 10.8 percent. (Up from 5.9 in May 2008). This is higher than the state average and pretty unpleasant locally but nothing compared to Flagler's worst-in-the-state 14.4 percent rate. (Up [...]
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  Posted: July 07, 2009, 3:08pm EDT
  by Lane

• 527 festival

  Number of comments: 3
  Gary Fineout's blog is one of the few absolute must-reads on my RSS feed. In his latest post and article he explains why a recent court ruling could turn the Florida 2010 elections in to big-bucks, negative ad free-for-all. The new rules for 527s? There are no rules!' [...]
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  Posted: July 07, 2009, 2:54pm EDT
  by Lane

• The not-so-green governor

  Number of comments: 3
  Well, no big surprise. Gov. Crist signs the water bill that allows executive directors of water management districts to quietly OK water-use permits for developers without the fuss and bother of board votes and public hearings. He urges boards, however, out of the goodness of their hearts, not to [...]
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  Posted: June 30, 2009, 8:02pm EDT
  by Lane

• Mail bombing

  Number of comments: 2
  Your correspondent knows that Rep. Alan Grayson is in some kind of controversy which makes sense if you follow Orange County politics, which he doesn't. His real concern is about his email in-box. With elections more than a year away, he is being mail-bombed by the state GOP. As' [...]
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  Posted: June 24, 2009, 4:30pm EDT
  by Lane

• Dubyah-dee

  Number of comments: 3
  I'm a little late on this, but former Florida Senate President W.D. Childers was paroled from federal prison on Wednesday. (Cotterell's advance here.) In Cotterell's memorable words:
  W.D. Childers -- once president of the Florida Senate and boss of the Escambia County Commission --' [...]
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  Posted: June 19, 2009, 3:12pm EDT
  by Lane

• Congressional kookwatch

  Number of comments: 2
  Melbourne-area Rep. Bill "Birther Bill" Posey went from being just another conservative among conservatives in the Florida Legislature to a flaming, conspiratoid, tin-foil-hat-wearing, rightwing kook in Congress. The issue of vital importance to Florida, the economic crisis and his constituents that he's pushing? A measure to require presidential candidates' [...]
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  Posted: June 19, 2009, 10:20am EDT
  by Lane

• Makeover

  Number of comments: 1
  Flyin' Jeff Kottkamp gets a makeover in preparation for running for attorney general. When will the consultants allow candidates to wear facial hair again?' [...]
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  Posted: June 06, 2009, 11:59am EDT
  by Lane

• The return of Poll-0-Rama

  Number of comments: 1
  Your correspondent does not intend get sucked into a year and half of poll postings. Nosiree. That way madness lies; let me shun that. Still-l-l-l, Strategic Vision, which tends to work for Republicans, sent out some interesting numbers today. Highlights:
  
  + Obama's Florida approval rate -- 60 percent approve,' [...]
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  Posted: June 05, 2009, 10:36am EDT
  by Lane

• The runner-up is...

  Number of comments: 1
  The 538 blog looks at the nation's governors, weights the scores to see whether a governor is running ahead or behind the party and is running in a populous state (where it's harder to be popular) or a small state (where it's easier to be popular) . The results?' [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2009, 8:09pm EDT
  by Lane

• 'Gov. Gridlock'

  Number of comments: 0
  Roundup on Crist's signing of the sprawl bill: (Will be added to over next day or two.)
  
  + St. Pete Times' editorial "Gov. Gridlock" -- Gov. Charlie Crist just made it easier to pave over what's left of Florida. By signing SB 360 into law Monday, the governor' [...]
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  Posted: June 02, 2009, 9:26am EDT
  by Lane

• The government propaganda bill

  Number of comments: 0
  Your correspondent gets a lot of hilarious advocacy mail. But even he was a little taken aback by the level of misrepresentations in the Florida League of Cities' blast against the bill which would prohibit local governments from electioneering at public expense. (SB216)
  
  The mailing and league' [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2009, 10:33am EDT
  by Lane

• Will Brown go rogue - well, more rogue?

  Number of comments: 0
  Will Corrine Brown become the Democrats' Katherine Harris?
  
  Dems wince. Reporters prepare for fun.
  
  
  Later: Looks like she might.' [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2009, 10:18am EDT
  by Lane

• Sotomayor and Florida

  Number of comments: 0
  CQ Politics runs an interesting piece about the political effects of Puerto Rican migration to Florida and in particular the I-4 corridor of Florida. The headline: Did Obama Just Use the Sotomayor Nomination To Lock in Florida?
  

  The ongoing Puerto Rican migration to Florida is so huge that [...]

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  Posted: May 28, 2009, 10:58am EDT
  by Lane

• The small-tent rallies

  Number of comments: 0
  Mike Huckabee endorsed Marco Rubio for US Senate. This is being treated as major news event in some quarters even though Huckabee received an anemic 13 percent of the vote and carried exactly four counties in last year's Florida Republican presidential primary. Remember that was a closed primary, so' [...]
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  Posted: May 27, 2009, 4:02pm EDT
  by Lane

• Those ideas again

  Number of comments: 0
  At Slate, Christopher Beam revisits Marco Rubio's 100 Ideas book.
  Nice lede - In the country of no ideas, the 100-idea'd man is king. At least that's the hope of Marco Rubio, the 38-year-old former speaker of the House in Florida who is now gunning for the Senate' [...]
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  Posted: May 22, 2009, 4:34pm EDT
  by Lane

• The notebook thing again

  Number of comments: 0
  Most blog-readers know Kevin Kelly from his popular Cool Tools blog. But he also hosts The Quantified Self blog which explores self-tracking. Tim Wilson sent me a great link there about former Sen. Bob Graham, his notebook system and the what-did-the-CIA-say-to-who-about-torture controversy:
  This is interesting for [...]
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  Posted: May 22, 2009, 9:11am EDT
  by Lane

• Fla driving for dummies

  Number of comments: 2
  Your correspondent loves state-ranking exercises of all kinds. In today's ranking story, GMAC Insurance rates the states for how much their drivers know about driving rules. Florida ranks 43rd. Perhaps because there are so many people here from NY, which ranks dead last.
  [...]
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  Posted: May 21, 2009, 2:33pm EDT
  by Lane

• Building the next boom and crash

  Number of comments: 0
  The state rep. in the district just south of me, Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, has lately become The Voice of Sprawl, promoting the loosening of Florida's already ineffective growth management laws.
  
  NYTimes:
  “We are dependent on tourism and construction,” Ms. Hukill said, “whether we like it or' [...]
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  Posted: May 21, 2009, 9:24am EDT
  by Lane

• Election bits

  Number of comments: 0
  The NYTimes Opinionator runs a good roundup of the rightwingers grumping about Crist's candidacy and they're right. Anyone this certain to win a general election just isn't a real Republican.
  
  And Flyin' Jeff Kottkamp will run for attorney general. For somebody who doesn't like to spend weekends' [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 9:20am EDT
  by Lane

• For whom should Dems root?

  Number of comments: 0
  538: Politics Done Right asks Should Democrats Be Rooting for Charlie Crist? And replies with a rousing, yeah, sorta. [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2009, 11:14pm EDT
  by Lane

• Fan letter

  Number of comments: 0
  The Weekly Standard's John McCormack writes a mash note to Marco Rubio, declaring him the new Republican Obama. He's Jeb Bush without that awkward last name! All he has to do is win a statewide election. No wait, he doesn't even need to do that! Even an unsuccessful' [...]
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  Posted: May 10, 2009, 8:42pm EDT
  by Lane

• Old fashioned base-running

  Number of comments: 0
  The Fix lays out how the national press is going to describe the Rubio Crist matchup --
  "We see this race shaping up as the Pennsylvania Senate primary that never was," said one adviser to Rubio's campaign granted anonymity to speak candidly about strategy. "Like [Sen. Arlen]'" [...]
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  Posted: May 05, 2009, 10:21am EDT
  by Lane

• Oil drilling - God wills it!

  Number of comments: 0
  The level of debate in Florida House sometimes fails to raise to the level of a, non-drive-time AM talk-radio call-in show. Randy Schultz of the PB Post has a excellent column of the sad lack of deliberation before the off-shore oil drilling vote.
  
  House members, Rep. Van Zant [...]
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  Posted: May 03, 2009, 7:57pm EDT
  by Lane

• Blogger down haiku

  Number of comments: 1
  The session is done
  But Blogger is not working
  There's always Twitter' [...]
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  Posted: May 01, 2009, 9:08pm EDT
  by Lane

• What 'Fla. problem'?

  Number of comments: 0
  I'm a John Dickerson fan and all, but I just don't find "Obama's Florida Problem; What's a president to do when his party attacks a politician he has praised?" very persuasive.
  
  Aside from the fact that it's pegged to a single, not-much-noticed press release from the the DSCC,' [...]
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  Posted: May 01, 2009, 7:53am EDT
  by Lane

• Comics blog and Ivey

  Number of comments: 0
  Your correspondent was a fan of Jim Ivey when he drew deceptively simple, stylized cartoons for the St. Pete Times and the Orlando Sentinel. Thanks to the always enjoyable Strippers Guide comic strip blog, written by Allan Holtz of Lake Co., I find out that [...]
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  Posted: April 25, 2009, 9:45am EDT
  by Lane

• Elections bill dies

  Number of comments: 0
  The elections insta-bill is dead, dead, dead -- at least this session.
  
  Meanwhile, one last editorial completes the roundup:
  
  + Sun-Sentinel: With time running out on this year's regular session, the Legislature is unwisely pushing a bill that would throw counterproductive obstacles in the path of' [...]
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  Posted: April 25, 2009, 8:22am EDT
  by Lane

• Official state religion plate

  Number of comments: 2
  This is what it's come to. The Senate dropped what it was doing to approve a new State of Florida Jesus license plate in honor of Florida's Official State Religion, proceeds of which will go to an Orlando-based organization that funds religious schools. This was advocated by the Senate's' [...]
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  Posted: April 24, 2009, 3:58pm EDT
  by Lane

• Still more insta-bill reaction

  Number of comments: 0
  + Florida Today: Florida’s lawmakers should encourage greater participation in our democracy by making it easier for people to go to the polls. Instead, GOP leaders in Tallahassee have unleashed a last-minute assault on the right to vote.
  
  + Charlotte Sun: What Florida needs is more participation, [...]
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  Posted: April 24, 2009, 8:36am EDT
  by Lane

• More insta-bill editorials

  Number of comments: 0
  More editorials on election "reform" bill--
  
  + Orlando Sentinel: With time running short in this year's regular session, the Legislature's Republican majority has sucker-punched Floridians with a last-minute plan that would throw new obstacles in the path of citizens registering to vote, casting their ballots and amending the [...]
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  Posted: April 23, 2009, 10:53am EDT
  by Lane

• Another twit

  Number of comments: 0
  To show just how down he is with the current multimedia environment, your correspondent went and signed up for Twitter. He's at [twitter.com]
  
  And he's already been on Facebook for ages -- [profile.to] [...]
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  Posted: April 21, 2009, 10:36pm EDT
  by Lane

• Editorial roundup on election law rewrite

  Number of comments: 2
  Editorialists weigh in on the Republicans' voter-suppression insta-bill:
  
  + NYTimes: The Florida Legislature is at it again, threatening to pass new rules that would make it harder for eligible voters, especially those from minorities and those who are poor, to register and vote.
  
  + St. Pete' [...]
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  Posted: April 21, 2009, 12:25pm EDT
  by Lane

• Droopy drawers redux

  Number of comments: 0
  Good times! The droopy drawers bill is back as an amendment to an otherwise perfectly good bill aimed at avoiding some of the excesses of zero-tolerance school administrators. (SB1540)
  
  This was put forward by Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, who is not a felon. (For Siplin's record last' [...]
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  Posted: April 21, 2009, 12:10pm EDT
  by Lane

• Rhetoric 101

  Number of comments: 0
  I love the way that when politicos want to cut nice-but-low-priority items, they rhetorically reallocate the money to the best uses possible and not the sort of thing the savings would actually go to.
  
  For instance, when Sen. Ronda Storms argues that the state should stop buying art [...]
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  Posted: April 13, 2009, 11:36am EDT
  by Lane

• Unemployment

  Number of comments: 0
  My friend Chris worked for an arts nonprofit that no longer exists. She's doing a blog these days. In this post, she tells of her day-in, day-out fight to keep her unemployment benefits coming and offers advice to those in a similar situation.
  
  That Florida's unemployment bureaucracy [...]
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  Posted: April 11, 2009, 12:07pm EDT
  by Lane

• Morality cops

  Number of comments: 0
  The Ft. Meyers News-Press has an editorial reminding us the dumb culture-wars legislation now before a Legislature with more pressing work ahead of it.
  
  It fails, however, to include Ronda Storm's school prayer bill, or Sen Mike Bennett's kick 'em-while-they're-down bill to require drug tests [...]
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  Posted: April 07, 2009, 12:52pm EDT
  by Lane

• Blog holiday

  Number of comments: 1
  We're still on blog holiday here. Lots of other projects in the works and I'm learning about the many things that shorten a roof's life in the Sunshine State' [...]
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  Posted: April 07, 2009, 8:35am EDT
  by Lane