Political Archives - Page 11 of 14

Florida Health Care Reform Advocates Ratcheting Up the Pressure on Elected Democrats

September 1, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

“Shame on us!” admonished Monica Russo to the assembled 1100 participants at the Floridians Rally for Healthcare reform, “Shame on us!” She used the phrase several times to accent what people were not doing hard enough to influence their elected representatives to pass meaningful healthcare reform. It was more like preaching to the choir and yet her stinging rebuke was a warning that healthcare reform could fail without the extraordinary efforts of all the assembled and their activism in promoting the legislation to their friends, neighbors, and colleagues.

The event, sponsored by Health Care Reform for America Now with participation from OFA, SEIU, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, ACORN and FCAN was held Saturday afternoon, August 29 at 2:00 PM at the Orlando Downtown Recreation Complex to a capacity crowd. This was not an open event; a ticket was needed to enter and participate. Outside, there were a few vendors and petitioners for candidates for office and Florida Redistricting, and even some protesters, however, nothing got confrontational or out of hand. Buses had brought people in from Miami, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Tallahassee and other cities throughout the state.

Russo, a member of the SEIU Health Care Team, also acted as emcee and started the afternoon with a fitting tribute to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, specifically citing his continuing efforts to assure that every American had access to a quality education and quality health care. After a moment of silence, State Senator Dan Gelber led the Pledge of Allegiance and told the crowd that at the moment there are 800,000 children in the state of Florida who are uninsured, and that something needed to be done about it. State Representative Scott Randolph Welcomed everyone to the event which is in his district (36).

A short health story was told by Matthew Le Clair, 23 regarding his physical condition. Two years ago at the age of 21 Le Clair had experienced severe back pains but had no insurance and none offered by his employer so he didn’t seek treatment until the pain was too unbearable. After a $3000.00 MRI and minimal treatment he was diagnosed as having three herniated discs. Unable to perform the physical tasks, he was fired by his employer due to illness.

The three person keynote panel included Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson, Mary Kay Henry, Executive Vice President of SEIU and Tony Fransetta, President of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans. Grayson explained that the current bill in the House of Representatives stops insurance companies from lifetime capping of claims and also stops them from excluding people with preexisting conditions. Grayson reminded everyone that 18000 people die each year because they do not seek medical attention due to lack of insurance coverage.

Fransetta, whose organization has over 200,000 members in Florida, railed against the “wimpy Democrats” and went through a check list of myths that needed to be debunked, including Medicare benefits being cut. What he did say is that Medicare will be reformed so that providers will be more accountable to the taxpayers.

Ms. Henry hosted a question and answer session in which the panelists answered questions from participants who wrote them down on white 3×5 cards. The questions seemed too well thought out and studied to have been spontaneous, but they produced some interesting responses. Scott Randolph advised at one point during his answer that there was talk in Republican legislative circles that during the next session they would sponsor a bill exempting Florida from any healthcare reform bill that Congress passes. He urged everyone to write their legislators in opposition to the proposals. There was a question about small businesses being overly burdened by this legislation. Grayson told the questioner that any small business with a payroll under $250,000.00 would be exempt and that her business payroll was small enough that she didn’t have to worry. He also added that during the Bush years insurance company rates tripled and their profits rose 800% placing much more of a burden on the small business owner. The highlight of the Q & A came with Fransetta’s rousing response to a question about Socialized Medicine in which he claimed it already exists “and you will never see any Republican denounce it!” He was speaking about VA healthcare, a system which he as a disabled Korean War veteran was completely familiar with. He warned all not to be fooled or intimidated by any claims of Socialized Medicine.

After the Q & A, Miriam Silvermintz of West Palm Beach explained why she has become an activist. Her son, now 20, is diabetic and at the moment is covered under her insurance, but shortly he will need his own coverage and will not be able to get it due to his preexisting condition. She held a meeting at her house and recruited several friends to become active. I interviewed her afterward and she intimated that her group must have touched some kind of nerve because she was invited to participate in Charlie Crists’ 2008 State of the State Address where he mentioned her family by name, although nothing ever came of it.

The stage was now set for Monica Russo:

“Stand up if you’ve made a call, stand up if you’ve knocked on doors, stand up if you’ve written a letter to the editor, stand up if you’ve organized a house meeting.” Each question elicits a response from less than half of the attendees, whereupon she scolds them with “Shame on us!”

Russo outlined her plan of action:

Wear the blue ribbon provided in your health care package until legislation is passed
Get together September 2 and organize for action
3. 10000 calls to Senator Bill Nelson’s office in Washington on September 9 202.224.5274, in Orlando toll-free 888.671.4091 (let’s face it- we pay his salary, he can afford the call.)

Russo then went on to say that senators like Bill Nelson and representatives like Suzanne Kosmas need to realize that they can’t just automatically take for granted the votes of Democrats if they don’t do what the people want. The Florida labor unions are beginning to realize this and so is the average Democratic voter in Florida. If they are going to seek reelection they are going to have to earn those votes, and it’s possible that they could lose in the primaries if they don’t take action now. It’s time to throw down the gauntlet.

Press coverage for this event didn’t generate much activity, although there was an article in the Orlando Sentinel describing the event. WFTV Channel 9 did cover the event and conducted some interviews with participants. Jamie Foxx performing at the nearby Bob Carr Performing Arts Center got more press coverage.

NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER’S TOWN HALL MEETING

August 18, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

As submitted to the Huffington Post 08/18/09

“I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
I’ve been waiting for this moment, all my life, oh lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord, oh lord

Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off the grin, I know where you’ve been
Its all been a pack of lies

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
I’ve been waiting for this moment, all my life, oh lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord, oh lord”

With apologies to Phil Collins and Genesis

The Orange County Democratic Executive Committee meets every third Monday of each month at 7:00 PM, and for over the last year the IBEW local 606 has hosted the meetings in their hall not far from Downtown Orlando. Attendance at meetings is mandatory for precinct captains with few exceptions, so there is usually a robust crowd at these monthly meetings. The IBEW hall holds up to 125 people and the room is usually 75% full at meetings. On August 14, DEC members received word that Congressman Alan Grayson was to be a special guest at the meeting and he was to update the membership on the current state of Health Care in Congress. On August 16 Grayson announced a town hall meeting immediately following the DEC meeting.

Neil Boortz, a nationally syndicated right wing talker got the word and went on a diatribe against Grayson, talking on Orlando’s WDBO, which you can see here. Other right wing radio hosts on WDBO as well as other talk stations added fuel to the fire so that there would be a substantial crowd at the hall to protest the proceedings. There is no counter programming for progressive talk within the Orlando media market. The closest radio stations are either in Daytona Beach, Tampa or Gainesville and their signals do not reach Orlando. DEC sent out a message to the membership to come early. The crowd started to assemble at 3:30 in the afternoon. At 4:30 the DEC decided to suspend the business meeting and allow Grayson to address the membership, in effect holding two town hall meetings, one at 7:00 and one at 7:45 for the general public.

For the DEC members Grayson stated several positions that he had not heretofore made generally known. When asked about his position on the public option he stated that he supported it, however, if the bill did not contain it he might still vote yes if other provisions were met, such as the insurance companies returning at least 85% of their premiums to health care benefits, no new taxes on people making less than $350,000.00, the elimination of pre-existing conditions and no change in the quality of Medicare. One participant on Medicare offered her opinion on the misconception that Medicare is free. It is not. Seniors on Medicare pay approximately $100.00 per month for part B and many also buy supplemental plans to cover their deductibles which cost an average of $175.00 per month, plus a prescription drug plan under part D that costs about $35.00 per month depending on where one lives. So, the average senior pays about $3600.00 per year for their “free” health care. Grayson also commented that the current bill will phase out the Medicare Donut Hole over a four year period.

DEC Chairman Bill Robinson asked all DEC members to vacate their seats to allow the assembled outside the same opportunity to meet with the Congressman that they had just enjoyed. A mixed crowd was let in consisting of people for, against and undecided on Health Care Reform. By this time the outside crowd had swelled to over three hundred people, many carrying signs for or against, mostly peaceful. There was some contention between groups and there was at least one arrest, but generally all the crowd did was change traffic patterns. There were many comments about this being a “staged” event. The real drama was going on inside.

Grayson’s press person, Todd Jurkowski moderated the evening and presented questions from all sides. Jurkowski started the meeting off by requesting that all parties respect the speaker and the meeting. Grayson acknowledged that there were different views in the room and that the difference is really in the means rather than the goal. He took an equal amount of questions from the protesters and the undecideds as he took from the pro people. Many of the issues that he touched upon in the DEC meeting were also discussed during this meeting. He reiterated that if you are currently satisfied with your current insurance you can keep it, plus if you change your employment or lose your job you will not lose your insurance. He added as well that pre-existing conditions will be a thing of the past.

He discouraged critics from asking questions that did not pertain to the bill at hand such as tort reform and Medicare fraud, stating that those issues will be addressed in many other bills (15 to be exact) which will follow. He cited his record as an attorney who has gone after fraud and waste in government and that it is part of his mission in life. He also said that tort cases and medical malpractice account for only 1% of health care costs. Certain protesters denied his claim, so he invited them to show evidence backing their position. When someone asked him about being denied coverage under certain circumstances he directed them to the bill, which was next to the dais as well as on a projection screen. At that point he pointed to the exact page and paragraph, adding that he in fact did read the bill and he was entirely familiar with it. All remarks based on fear and hearsay were directed to the bill. Grayson continually asked people to show him where their allegations were in the bill. At one point a woman alleged that prostate cancer and breast cancer were being treated unequally Grayson told her that if her allegation proved to be true he would introduce an amendment to correct the situation. At least one protester commented that Grayson had presented cohesive and coherent answers to questions and had cleared up many misconceptions. Other protesters would have none of it and kept protesting that the meeting was a setup. Grayson ended the meeting at 10:00 PM with the note that he wanted a bill that would allow people to live and how can we as a nation best help save lives. He’s certain this bill goes in the right direction.

Three hours worth of meeting was given scant coverage on the 11:00 news by all of the local channels. The Orlando Sentinel gave a somewhat accurate account of the proceedings, and columnist Scott Maxwell blogged the event. Unfortunately, neither Maxwell nor the Sentinel reporters discussed the real reason the crowd was so large due to the radio publicity. To their credit, their reporting was mostly non-partisan and straightforward.

As a society we must determine whether debate can be elevated or squelched. The exercising of our first amendment rights also bears the responsibility of allowing others their right to be heard. This meeting may not have been in the classic tradition of the mythical town hall, but this Monday evening many views were heard, no one was shouted down and more than a few people learned something, whether they liked it or not.

How The Right Continues To Get It Wrong

August 11, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

As submitted to the Huffington Post

I’ve been deluged over the last six months by all kinds of letter writing and petition requests from every progressive committee and cause that has my e-mail address. There are also one or several conservative groups that continue to send me stuff. I read their stuff just for laughs, but honestly there’s nothing to laugh at, sort of like Dennis Miller, even when he was a liberal. I laugh at their sheer audacity, and I laugh only because I would explode in anger over how ridiculous their positions are. The messaging being done by the progressive and liberal groups is in its relative infancy compared to the vitriol and hate that the conservatives have been doing since the first Bush presidency, further exacerbated by Bill Clinton’s dubious signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which allowed broadcasters and publishing companies to buy up and control local area media markets all over the country.

The Republicans were as wrong in their message then as they are now, but over the course of twenty years (almost a full generation) the relentless hammering away with virtually no opposition has taken its toll. We progressives were asleep at the wheel during all of this and we allowed the deterioration to happen. The seeds that were sown even before 1988 have produced a bitter harvest being played out in places like St. Louis, Tampa, Philadelphia and anywhere else that there have been disruptions in town hall meetings. In my last post I chronicled my conversation with Rhonda Welsch, a very conservative woman of 40 who was 12 years old when Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his first term. Ms. Welsch, having grown up in a conservative area and household, has nothing to compare her experiences with. Willfully ignorant and incurious people prefer what they’re used to and don’t handle change easily. The progressive message has a long way to go before these people pay attention, and no real change will be effected until the conservatives realize that they are going to have to compromise the way our founding fathers did. I wonder if that will happen in my lifetime. I don’t know.

Back in 1998 I attended a reception for Sandra Mortham, then Secretary of State for Florida. As an arts administrator I donated $25.00 to her campaign fund and reasoned that she had been good to Florida’s arts organizations and she was approachable. At that point Florida was #2 nationally in arts funding and Mortham was an enthusiastic supporter of all arts disciplines. She took pride in citing figures that every dollar invested in the arts was returned threefold to the community. It was also known at the time that her opponent in the primary was to be a woman named Katherine Harris. Jeb Bush was the Republican candidate for Governor. There was some scandal about improprieties in her office and Bush eventually endorsed Harris who went on to win the primary. That small donation got me inundated with direct mail of all kinds from every conservative Florida and national politician, as well as pointed hate mail against then Clinton administration by people like Leonard Starr, Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr and others too numerous to mention, but the tone of all this mail was tortured logic, blatant misinformation and outright disdain of any Clinton policies or progressive political positions. Once Jeb Bush took office this state took a backward slide from which it has never recovered, and Katherine Harris was at the forefront of that decline. Today, Florida has virtually no money for the arts, and totally disdains any money for the proper education of our most precious resource, our children. I’m still on some of their mailing lists and from time to time they waste their money on mailings to me.

Rhonda Welsch is not alone. Corporate executives, attorneys, physicians, Wall Street bankers and other professionals of the same age group grew up with the same messages being pounded continually without an organized, coherent and attractive counter message. They cut their teeth on greed and selfishness; they really don’t understand ethical behavior and they really feel that they are entitled. I blame myself and every other progressive for not being more vigilant and not acting when we could have. Jimmy Carter might have beaten Reagan if we had the proper grass roots in place. The race was very close until the final weeks. We could have made the difference. The kind of activism we displayed last year could have made the difference in 2000 as well, especially in Florida. So much for complacency.

I continue to get viral e-mails forwarded to me by a dear friend who happens to be a racist libertarian. To his credit he doesn’t generate them, he just forwards them. He’s an ex NY cop who became an actor and a singer and he’s fun to be with as long as we don’t discuss politics. Many of his e-mails show his appreciation of the arts in the form of the female anatomy in various poses and states of physical activity and undress. The others, unfortunately, are a rehash of all the vitriol, myths and baseless attacks from the 2008 campaign, including several rants by Jackie Mason about Barack Obama. I actually became a Huffington Post Blogger by forwarding all of his e-mails to the Post during the campaign so I have him to thank for all this, but I digress-the purpose of this column is to show why the Republican message is and has been wrong.

In the beginning of this post I told of all the letters and petitions I receive. Some stuff I delete, as we all do. I do sign most of the petitions, but not the ones I disagree with. Somehow, a petition I signed got to the office of our soon-to-be ex Senator, Mel Martinez, and someone had to have misread it, because it alleged that I opposed government funded abortions. Here is the letter I got from Martinez:

Below is a response to the recent comments I received from you:

Dear Mr. Waxman: Thank you for contacting me regarding your opposition to the use of taxpayer funding for abortion services. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to respond to your concerns. Every human life is precious. We must uphold our Constitution which ensures Americans the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but even before these—the right to life. I am committed to promoting a culture of life in America. Like you, I am opposed to all abortion, and do not support the use of taxpayer funds for any abortion. I appreciate you sharing your views with me, and rest assured that as your Senator, I will continue to support the right to life. Again, thank you taking the time to share your views with me. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, for more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Mel Martinez

United States Senator

That’s funny, because anytime I contacted him it was about either single payer, or barring that the public option on health care, and that I was solidly in favor of those options. I never once mentioned abortion. So, I wonder if he and Charlie Crist share the same mail responders since Crist seems to have a problem with answering his mail as well. If on the off chance I did sign the wrong petition, I sincerely apologize for that lapse in judgement. Frankly, abortion is a non-issue. It belongs between a woman and her doctor and nowhere else, however, people like Mel Martinez continue to use it to obscure the real issues confronting him. He is a coward and his letter is a copout. He has never completed a government job he started and now, at a time when Florida needs responsible people in leadership positions he chickens out. That’s the Republican message that they are sending. He may be a decent man; many people have told me he is, but none of his actions, save his Sotomayor vote show any integrity or compassion for his voting public. Good riddance to both him and his message.

A tale of two citizens

The monthly meeting of The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades was held on Thursday, August 6 at their headquarters in Orlando. Coincidentally, this was the same day of the disrupted Tampa town meeting. Several politicians were there to update the members on their respective positions. The first two people to speak were freshmen congressional representatives Alan Grayson and Suzanne Kosmas both of whom have constituencies in Orange County. The union members were a mixed group, some being Democrats and some being Republican, but all were well behaved and respectful. Grayson was poised, sure of himself and completely at ease as he gave an impromptu talk about his childhood illnesses which were many. His parents, both teachers, had been on strike during one of his illnesses and there were questions as to how to pay for their son’s medical treatment. He then spoke on the merits of the bill which he fully supports, including the public option, and he is fighting hard for the bill’s passage. His term for the bill, while acknowledging it was not a perfect bill was “Peace of Mind.” Kosmas, who came late to the meeting, was much stiffer in her presentation. She apologized for only hearing the peace of mind part of Grayson’s speech and then, much like a university teaching assistant in economics, not yet sure of her subject, launched into an essay about being cautious in crafting the bill. She appeared ill at ease with anything to do with health care and over the course of fifteen minutes managed to say very little at all. In a safe atmosphere where there is no threat of disruption; at a friendly union hall where she gained a lot of support over her years in the Florida Legislature, she chose to play it worse that safe-she was non-committal. What’s she afraid of? She beat Tom Feeney on his own turf in a district he drew for himself as a lifetime fiefdom. Obviously the fear of the Republican message bothers her more than the constituency of East Orange County Democratic voters that she’s avoiding. East Orange County Democratic voters were instrumental in her being elected and they can also deny her re-election.

The Republican message is inherently wrong. It has led us down a dangerous and destructive path for a full generation. To acquiesce to the message is also wrong. This is not mathematics. Two negatives do not make a positive. Last week I saw a sign on a local church sign: “There is no right way to do something wrong.” It’s a great message.

Bill Nelson-Florida’s Enigma

August 2, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

Jerry Waxman

As submitted to The Huffington Post 08/02/09

“I’m always a flop at a top-notch affair,

but I’ve still got my health, so what do I care?

My best ring, alas, is a glass solitaire,

but I still got my health, so what do I care?”

From the Cole Porter musical, Panama Hattie, 1940

The 1940 lyrics by the great songwriter, Cole Porter, seem to have a prophetic quality about them. A few years before he wrote Panama Hattie Porter suffered devastating injuries as the result of a fall off his horse that left him permanently crippled and in constant pain for the rest of his life. He steadfastly refused to have his legs amputated, against all of his doctors’ advice, and over the next several years he suffered through many painful operations just in order to walk with the aid of a cane. He even had a piano suspended above his hospital bed so that he could continue to work. He didn’t worry about paying the bills; he was, by any standard, rich. He was rich before he wrote his first hit, and he married a woman who was three times richer than he was. So, by the time of the accident he was filthy rich. Health care didn’t matter to him; health did and he could afford to have the best health and health care that his money could buy. In fact, his net worth actually increased during this time due to the royalties he received from his hit shows, hit movies and hit songs.

Today most people worry about illness or injuries that could bankrupt them with today’s health care costs. Staying healthy is not an option, it’s an absolute necessity. During a lengthy hospital stay it is possible for business professionals to work using a laptop computer and cell phone, but blue collar working people normally have to be on location, so a carpenter can’t build you new countertops from a hospital bed, nor can an electrician wire a house. Most working people lose productivity in addition to time and money when they are in the hospital or recovering at home. Add to that the varying quality of many of their insurance plans and the ever increasing premium rates and working people may or may not be adequately insured. What most Americans do agree on is that our health care delivery and payment system is in drastic need of an overhaul.

Hey, Bill Nelson, Whose side are you on?

People in Florida have been asking for a long time, “Where does Bill Nelson stand on Health Care Reform? Does he support a public option or doesn’t he?” According to several union members “Not even his hairdresser knows.” Jennifer Kenny, an organizer for the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans (FLARA) had met with Nelson’s Orlando office staff in late June with several FLARA members. They were told by Nelson’s Orlando District Director, Celeste Brown, that employer based health insurance is “outdated.” Kenny said she and her fellow members were taken aback by that statement.

On July 1 about 150 supporters of Health Care reform led by organized labor leaders from AFL-CIO, SEIU, JWJ (Jobs With Justice), FLARA and the community activist groups, ACORN, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and Florida Change that Works held a press conference and rally in front of Senator Bill Nelson’s Orlando office in the pouring rain. Celeste Brown met again with eight members of the different organizations. The purpose of the meeting was to hand deliver collections of stories on people who have had to deal with illness or injury, and how they were treated by their doctors or their insurance companies under the current health care system. The assembled and their unions represent memberships which number in untold thousands. The AFL-CIO and its local affiliates alone represent more than 500,000 workers in Florida. The unions are overwhelmingly in support of the public option. The AFL-CIO has recently conducted a Health Care survey that shows the public to also support a public option. You can download and read the report here. Joshua Anijar of the AFL-CIO stated “We are urging Senator Nelson, who has proven to be a good friend to Florida’s working families, to stand strong with them and do everything he can to bring meaningful health care reform to America. He has a chance to make history and we are here today to show him that his constituents support him in this major undertaking.” Representatives from IUPAT, IBEW, several teacher unions and other unions, while not sponsors of the rally, were there to offer their support. Senator Nelson’s staff surprised the delegates by stating that the Senator likes the public option (however he has not publicly spoken in support of it). The Alliance members were pleasantly surprised since it was a completely different position from the last meeting, however, in the back of their minds they were wondering if they were being told what he thought they wanted to hear. Since July 1 there have been many demonstrations on both sides of the issue outside of Senator Nelson’s and Senator Martinez’s offices throughout the state and the result is always similar.

Two disparate groups demanding health care reform held rallies outside of Senator Bill Nelson’s office in Downtown Orlando on Wednesday, July 23 at 3:00 PM. One group, sponsored by Organizing for America numbered approximately seventy, many holding OFA placards and signs with slogans such as “We need Health Care Now!” OFA is an arm of the Democratic National Committee and as explained by organizer Mitch Emerson, “we are a direct line of communication to The White House.” The other group had no clear leader and only numbered nine people with signs that said “No Public Option”, “Obamacare=Socialism” and “Socialized Medicine will ruin the US.” The event was covered by WESH Channel 2 in Orlando and OFA had interviews with several people about their health care experiences.

Rhonda Welsch, a self appointed spokesperson for the anti public option people remarked that she didn’t want her tax dollars paying for a “free lunch” for the loafers and idlers in society. She also stated that there were people in her crowd who had fled Great Britain in order to avoid socialism. This remark caused political consultant James Callahan, formerly an analyst with Chase Econometrics and Progress Energy to opine that the British economic system was solidly capitalist.

When asked to verify her statements regarding the British system she started name calling and remarked “He’s not my President and he’s leading us down a socialist path” among other negative epithets. The anti crowd at that point started to call out racial slurs that also alluded to the questionable citizenship of President Obama. Emerson directed his OFA forces to keep calm and not react to the crowd across the street. The crowd kept quiet and the interviews went on.

Confrontations like this have been playing out all over the state with predictable results. Occasionally in the more rural conservative areas of the state the anti forces are larger, but in general the crowds heavily favor the progressive agendas. Doug DeClew, another political activist said “Don’t they understand that each one of us represents hundreds or even thousands of others through our club and union affiliations? Those people over there only represent themselves.”

He appears to be a model citizen So, why is Bill Nelson not committed either way? A simple check into his background and finances may provide some clues. On the plus side it appears that there are no scandals in his life either personally or professionally-not even the proverbial unpaid parking ticket. He is as close to the embodiment of the All-American boy that you can be. Clarence William Nelson was born in Miami on September 29, 1942 and grew up in the Melbourne, Florida area. While in high school he served as International President of Key Club, a youth service organization sponsored by Kiwanis Clubs. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1965 and a law degree from the University of Virginia, School of Law in 1968. He worked briefly as a fire marshal and then a lawyer prior to his entering politics in 1972. In 1972 he wed Grace Cavert. They have a son and a daughter, Bill Jr. and Nan Ellen.

Nelson served in the Florida House from 1972 to 1979 and in 1978 won election to the US House of Representatives where he served six terms until 1991. He unsuccessfully ran in the primary for Governor of Florida against Lawton Chiles. In 1995 Nelson became Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida, a post he held until 2000 when he successfully won election to the US Senate replacing Connie Mack. Nelson is also the second sitting member of the Congress to go into outer space. According to Wikipedia he was a Payload Specialist on Space Shuttle Columbia‘s STS-61-C mission from January 12-18 in 1986.

During his 2000 Senate campaign he was noted for criticizing the existing health care system and on his website there was actually this quote:

“In the past six years as insurance commissioner, I’ve seen firsthand what insurance companies will do if you let them, and it’s time to stop the practice of denying care, denying claims, and putting profits ahead of patients! We need a real patient’s bill of rights to let people choose their own doctors and know about all available medical treatments, not just the cheapest. I’ve had a lot of practice lately taking on powerful interests.”

Source: www.nelsonforsenate.com, “On Health Care” Sep 20, 2000

In 2003 he was rated at 100% by APHA:

Nelson scores 100% by APHA on health issues

The American Public Health Association (APHA) is the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world, representing more than 50,000 members from over 50 occupations of public health. APHA is concerned with a broad set of issues affecting personal and environmental health, including federal and state funding for health programs, pollution control, programs and policies related to chronic and infectious diseases, a smoke-free society, and professional education in public health.

The following ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization’s preferred position.

Source: APHA website 03n-APHA on Dec 31, 2003

His voting record and policy positions are mixed. He opposes off-shore drilling off Florida’s coast. He voted in favor of tighter bankruptcy regulations. He is one of the few Democrats to have voted in favor of CAFTA. He supports negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to establish lower prices for Medicare prescription plans. He is in favor of abolishing the Estate Tax. His record on women’s issues is progressive and he is highly regarded by NARAL. In 2007 Nelson was the swing vote and the only Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee to vote no (as did all Republicans) on de-funding torture by the CIA. “Dire emergencies” was cited as the lone exception. The measure lost and never came to the floor..

There are some things here that just don’t seem to fit…….

Senator Nelson’s net worth is listed between $1,678,000.00 and $6,645,000.00, and his ranking is #38. This is a relatively modest figure compared to some of the richer senators. His main wealth appears to be in land ownership in Brevard County. He and his wife own few publicly traded securities, however, their largest negotiable holding was (at minimum value) about $300,000.00 worth of stock in a Florida insurance brokerage, Brown and Brown, which they sold off over two days in October, 2008 according to his financial disclosure report submitted in May of this current year. These facts can be verified by following this link. Other than the Brown and Brown stock sale there appears to be nothing of note in his financial disclosure. The Brown and Brown stock is notable only because of the Senator’s previous position as Insurance Commissioner and his strong position against excessive profits in that industry referenced to earlier in this article. Brown and Brown claims to be the sixth largest insurance business of its type, and on its website media page it claims a managed health care department. Other than his Florida state pension there are no investments that produce large income.

A further inspection of the Senator’s campaign finances reveals that Brown and Brown figures prominently in his donors list with past contributions of $37,300 in 2006 and 2008. This cycle they have already donated $38,300. The insurance industry in this cycle has already contributed $214,430.00. In previous cycles their contributions were close to or slightly over $250,000.00. Other large contributors are lawyers, ($2,900,000.00) and health care professionals (over $350,000.00). These figures are easily available here. There is nothing illegal or immoral with fund raising of this type, however, Florida taxpayers and voters need to be reassured that their elected officials are not unduly influenced by these industry contributions. Nineteen million Floridians need affordable, accessible health care, not python skins or snake oil.

SHHHH…..Listen…..do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?

Author Jeff Sharlet wrote an expose’ last year on an organization known among other names as “The Family”. Titled The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, it chronicles the organization, from its beginning in 1935 to the present day and the influence it wields over many of our politicians and other world leaders. According to Wikipedia Bill Nelson is a member of The Family and here is the link to that page. Recently, some Republican politicians who are members of The Family have been exposed for their marital infidelity, most notably Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Senator John Ensign of Nevada. According to author Sharlet (who lived in the organization’s C Street building for a month) The Family demands loyalty over and above loyalty to either one’s own family or state constituency. The Family’s present leader, Doug Coe, preaches that his members were chosen by God to lead and that his members don’t need to obey ordinary morality and restrictions. Available records show that the majority of members are conservative Republicans such as Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, James DeMint of South Carolina, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Sam Brownback of Kansas and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, yet there are a few Democratic senators in addition to Bill Nelson such as Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska that are members.

The Family has become so secretly influential that every president since Dwight D Eisenhower has attended its prayer breakfasts. A significant number of Washington politicians have been guests, and many have acknowledged that they are “friends” of the organization, but membership is something else. Author Sharlet appeared onReal Time with Bill Maher Friday evening July 31. The interview lasts about eight minutes. Sharlet has recently been on the airwaves with Thom Hartmann, Alex Jones and Rachel Maddow discussing the lobbying influence among other things that The Family does. There is no direct evidence of any influence on Bill Nelson, but given the nature of membership in The Family and what it expects from its members almost all of the Republicans are passionately fighting against the public option, as is Ben Nelson, who has been all over the headlines over the last several weeks.

It is very disturbing to think that any senator, duly elected by the voters and taxpayers in his or her state places more importance on a non-elected spiritual organization than the needs and desires of the millions of people that senator is supposed to be serving. Senator Nelson needs to explain to his constituency what his connection is to The Family and how it influences his votes including health care.

The Enigma machine shown above was how the German U-Boats sent and received encoded messages. Once the Allied forces captured a machine in 1943 the German code was broken and the once feared U-Boats no longer enjoyed superiority on the high seas. Senator Nelson, along with many other senators and congresspersons needs to stop talking in code and start talking straight with his constituents.

“By fashion and foppery, I’m never discussed.

Attending the opry, my box would be a bust.

I never shall have that Park Avenue air,

But I’m in such health, why should I care?”

Health Care Anxiety Looms Large In Orlando

August 2, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

By Jerry Waxman

Forget the economy; forget Iraq, and forget Afghanistan. Korea is just a place on the map, and few here are even discussing Cap and Trade. Those topics are for debate at another time. Health Care has become the number one topic of conversation in Central Florida and there is no middle ground. On June 27 the Hispanic Health Initiative, a not-for-profit community based organization, held its ninth annual Festival de la Familia which focuses on family health and education. HHI’s founder and CEO is Josephine Mercado, an attorney who moved to Central Florida from New York in 1999 to lessen her work load and eventually retire learned through friends that the Hispanic community in Central Florida was grossly underserved by the medical establishment and that there were no records to establish Hispanic identities. All patients were either white or non-white.

Mercado, using her legal and organizing skills founded HHI a year later. HHI’s mission is “to educate medically underserved families, in a linguistically correct and culturally sensitive manner, about chronic diseases, disease management and prevention, and refer them to their community health care providers. HHI believes that quality health care should be easily accessible and affordable to everyone regardless of their social status or income level.” Mercado added that HHI is a grassroots, Hispanic agency targeting all medically disadvantaged residents of Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties, who are facing linguistic, cultural and socio-economic barriers to health information and care.

Mercado and her 70 or more volunteers serve without and monetary remuneration and in addition to partnering in several health fairs during the year also sponsor disease screening, diabetes testing, referrals for breast and cervical examinations and free or low cost care. She is a strong advocate of either single payer or the public option plan. Her concerns are about “the 70% of low or middle income Hispanics in Central Florida who work in the hospitality industry and are not insured, not because it isn’t available through their employers, but because it is too expensive for them.”

Stories from HHI

Several people were in attendance to tell of their personal experiences with the American health care system and others spoke comparing and contrasting systems in other countries to Americas. Most speakers praised health care in Europe. One couple in particular, Sharon and Bryan Verhoef, have experienced health care in Great Britain and here as Bryan is originally from there. Sharon was born in New Jersey. Both of them are not old enough yet to enroll in Medicare and they are both in need of medical attention. Bryan has heart problems and he has found that he’s better off going to London to receive care. Even with airfare and lodging he saves money over the way he’s treated here. Great Britain has had Universal Health Care since 1949 and it is paid for by taxes based on income and affordability. No one is excluded and British doctors do not have to tackle multi layers of insurance forms and paperwork, nor do they worry about malpractice claims as American doctors do. British medical schools are almost no-cost so that new physicians don’t have a huge debt to pay off. Verhoef also added that doctors in London get paid very well. Some as much as $750,000.00 per year.

When in need

Rosalind, a volunteer with Organizing for America, told of her younger years when she was a single mother who did not make enough money to purchase health insurance. Her problem was exacerbated by the fact that she made too much money to qualify for Medicaid. “The time is now,” stated Rosalind. Her children are now older and she has a good job with good insurance, but she remembers the challenges of her younger years and doesn’t want anyone to have to go through that.

Things are not always what they seem to be

Another volunteer from Organizing for America spoke only under the promise of anonymity. She is a strikingly beautiful woman of thirty eight who by the age of thirty had exceeded her goals of department management in a Fortune five hundred company. Her star was definitely on the rise. All of a sudden she was having problems breathing and moving. Her diagnosis was a rare collagen disease called Scleroderma. Only 300,000 people in the USA are affected by it but it is a slow painful killer. This particular type of Scleroderma attacks the body’s internal organs and slowly thickens and strangles the body. She could no longer work in her field and had to submit to chemotherapy for twelve months. The chemo worked and she stopped getting worse, although she’ll never get better. She is also on medications that cost $3000.00 per month. Her family finances were stretched to the limit and she was paying enormous monthly COBRA prices on her health insurance. She was finally able to get insurance coverage under a relative’s group plan and her husband’s income is capable of paying for it. If you were to meet her today you would not know how ill she really is. There are no outward signs of the disease; in fact she looks to be the picture of perfect health. She knows that most working people cannot afford what she has and she recognizes that health care reform needs to be enacted so that people less fortunate than she are covered in the face of the costs of catastrophic illness.

ACORN Promotes Mediation Program

April 30, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

Jerry Waxman

Published on The Huffingon Post 4/29/09

Organizers for ACORN held a press conference on the steps of the Osceola County Courthouse in Kissimmee, Florida on Tuesday, April 28 at 1:00 PM to introduce a mediation program designed to help homeowners under threat of foreclosure stay in their homes. ACORN members Anne Busby and Robert Benech, members of the Foreclosure Fighters Committee, both told of their experiences with Countrywide, their lender, and of their efforts to fend off their own foreclosures. The purpose of this press conference was to introduce a mandatory mortgage mediation program to Osceola County through Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Belvin Perry’s Administrative Order 2009-02. Here is the link: http://www.ninthcircuit.org/research/. Once on the link, type in the administrative order number and the judge’s name. The document is a six page PDF file outlining the mandatory process in Orange County.

According to ACORN Osceola County is part of the Ninth Circuit , however Judge Perry’s order has only been issued for Orange County. No action has taken place to implement the order in Osceola County. The judge responsible in Osceola County is Judge R. James Stroker. Acorn is attempting to meet with Judge Stroker but so far has not been successful. They are urging Judge Perry to extend his order to include Osceola.

In Orange County ACORN, with the help of US Congressman Alan Grayson and State Representative Scott Randolph convinced Judge Perry to initiate this order on February 25, 2009. Another purpose of the press conference was to introduce the issuance of its new report, Road to Recovery that tells of the success of the Philadelphia mandatory mediation program and is a handbook for similar actions throughout the country. The report is available on-line here: http://acorn.org/fileadmin/ACORN_Reports/2009/Road_to_Rescue_Report.pdf

The Philadelphia program has a success rate of 78% according to the report. Similar press conferences were held yesterday in Pittsburgh, PA; Cincinnati, OH; Hartford, CT; Bridgeport, CT; Prince Georges County, MD; and Schenectady, NY.

During a question and answer period it was acknowledged that Federal money was available through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, and ACORN called on 15^th District Congressman Bill Posey to get involved with the program

After the press conference, the event organizer, Meredith Adrion, answered several questions dealing with ACORN’s involvement in Bankruptcy legislation. “The failure of the congress to pass this bill will result in 100,000 families losing their homes in the State of Florida alone.” Adrion emphasized the importance of the mediation programs in the face of the congressional failure. Other things she emphasized were housing counseling, educational programs and community outreach. When questioned about ACORN’s overall activities she stated that Health Care Reform, Affordable Housing, Restoration of Rights for Convicted Felons, Citizenship Classes and Immigration Reform were all areas that ACORN is involved in as well as the foreclosure crisis.

A Day at the Opera

April 27, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

A Day at the Opera

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a Post WWll household that appreciated great music, great art and great literature. Our bookshelves were stocked with Hemingway, Mailer, Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, Robert Benchley, Ogden Nash, Fitzgerald, Thorne Smith, as well as Dickens, Mark Twain and the best the literary world had to offer. The 78 rpm records were of Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and most of the swing bands and jazzmen pre Monk,Dizzy, Parker et al. There was also a sizeable collection of classical music on RCA Victor Red Label albums and others. I was about six when I first heard Lauritz Melchior and Kirsten Flagstad in Tristan and Isolde and I’ve been hooked on Opera (all of it, Wagner, Italian, French, Russian, etc.etc.) ever since. This year, the Metropolitan Opera Company is retiring it’s Otto Shenk production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the close of the current season. The Met has been producing it since 1986. I taped the 1991 PBS broadcasts and still have the tapes somewhere (I think). I’ve been listening to the Met broadcast season all year as I have been doing (when I can) since 1967. I also just sent my local NPR station a generous pledge to keep its programming coming. Saturday’s broadcast was Gotterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods), depicting the death of the gods and the destruction of Valhalla. It’s been almost twenty years since I have seen those tapes and yet I vividly remember how brilliant the entire production was, from the multi-million dollar set to the fabulous pyrotechnics and great costumes. This production had three outstanding talents, Katarina Dalayman as Brunhilde, Christian Franz as Siegfried and James Tomlinson as theMalevolent Hagen. Close to Melchior and Flagstad but not quite, however, if you’ve never head their recordings you have no standard to judge by. You can go on Youtube and type in their names and you’ll understand. There’s a plethora of selections for you to enjoy.

Unfortunately, the state of opera and indeed, all the performing arts including my first love, theater, throughout the nation is not healthy. Recently, the Orlando Opera announced that it might close if it can’t raise the $500,000.00 necessary to keep operating. It’s easy to blame the economy but that’s not the problem. For at least the last forty years neither our schools nor we as parents have raised our children with any appreciation of the fine arts and our unique cultural heritage. It is American society’s total disinterest in these disciplines that are the main contributors to the problem.

Even back in the Wild West of the 1800’s every established town had an opera house. When great stars like Nellie Melba and Caruso toured here they went all over the country, as well as the theatrical show that played there with Maurice Barrymore and Edwin Booth and other great actors of the day. During the depression the country had no shortage of cultural exposure. Some of the greatest creativity in opera and theater came from the Depression era.

Movies made celebrities of singers like Lily Pons, Grace Moore, Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald, Alan Jones, Deanna Durbin and others whose careers were in either opera or operetta. The Great American Songbook was largely written during that period of time with composers and lyricists such as Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and many others. Broadway theaters were swamped with hits by those same songwriters plus playwrights like Kaufman and Hart, Anderson, Sherwood, Odets, and Ben Hecht. Melchior and Flagstad were at their peaks The nation listened to Walter Damrosch on the radio for his weekly broadcasts. The arts actually flourished during the Depression which economically was worse than anything we’re experiencing now.

In the 40’s the movies made stars of Kathryn Grayson, Jane Powell, Jose’ Iturbi and later on Ezio Pinza and Mario Lanza, as well as classically trained dancers like Cyd Charisse. Iturbi was a popular figure in the forties who could play Chopin elegantly and then delve into Boogie-Woogie a la Meade Lux Lewis or Pinetop Smith.

As teenagers, even though we grew up in the 50’s we still sat in amazement as Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in his series of Young Peoples’ Concerts. Of course, growing up in the fifties was also a period of conformity, so we didn’t want to appear to be different and suppressed our tastes in front of our parents and contemporaries. Many plays, such as Tea and Sympathy dealt with that very subject. That conformity, alas, helped do us and our parent’s generation in. Our parents (Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation, which I thoroughly dispute) allowed this deterioration. Just look back to the Hollywood Blacklist, McCarthyism and other anti-communist initiatives (i.e. Other, Non-conformist, Pinko, Different, Weird, Queer) such as the discrediting of Pete Seeger, Paul Robeson and Charlie Chaplin and how the (feh) Greatest Generation reacted. They eventually elected Ronald Reagan to the Presidency. To me, George McGovern is not the poster boy for that generation-Ronald Reagan is, and we are all the more diminished for it. And my generation didn’t help.

We need to change things. Our children and grandchildren are missing out on beautiful things that would enrich their lives. It’s up to us. We need to take over city, county, state and school board elected positions and put the arts back into our lives, despite this economy. Actually, the Arts have a positive economic impact on the community. Future columns will deal with how we can do it.

Florida Legislative Update

The Florida House suspended debate on HB 7149 at 1:00 PM and went on to discuss new initiatives on off-shore drilling within three miles of the Florida coast. Friday evening we were advised that the House will suspend actions this session on the bill. At this time it is not known whether the Senate will continue further action on SB 956, statements in a letter sent out late Friday afternoon to Unitarian Church leaders it appears unlikely that it will come to a vote this year. Here’s a copy of the letter:

From: Pardue
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:56:01 -0400
To: IWI<pardue2@comcast.net>; WII<pardue2@comcast.net>; WIII<pardue2@comcast.net>; WIIII<pardue2@comcast.net>; CFW<pardue2@comcast.net>; Sheri McCandless<sheri@bettercopycenter.com>; Meredith Garmon<meredith_garmon@uulmf.org>; Terry Lanning<terry_lanning@uulmf.org>; Gerald & Janet Goen<gjgoen@verizon.net>; Bob Keim<rbkeim@hughes.net>; Bud Murphy<bud_murphy@uulmf.org>
Subject: Bad Elections bill dead

Hasner says elections bill dead

House Majority Leader Adam Hasner says his chamber will not revive the debate over a highly contentious, last-minute elections bill. (background here and her

And he said it seems stuck in the Senate, too.

“From everything I understand, the Senate bill is stuck in committee,” the Delray Beach Republican said. “It’s still possible but they intend to have the same stripped down version that is noncontroversial.”

Hasner said the controversy had nothing to do with the decision to kill the proposal. Rather, he said, time ran out.

“Hindsight being 20/20, I wish we would have had more time to have a very strong debate on that bill throughout the process because I think there were some much needed election reforms in the original bill. … Cracking down on groups like ACORN is something that I think is critical in terms of cleaning up our elections system”

Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, said he would take a “fresh look” at the proposal over the weekend. But he acknowledged the long odds at salvaging something before time runs out. “Unfortunately,” he said, “we’re just not there yet. If it doesn’t work out, then we’ll have to wait until next year.”

What this means is that we still have to inundate these people and the governor with calls, letters and faxes ad nauseum until it is a completely dead issue.

Jerry’s Notes.

This is a new format I’m going to try out and see how it works. It will hopefully post to my blog, producerworld, which you can find on WordPress, and it will be submitted to Huffington as well, covering, as you can see, many more subjects than merely politics. In the future there will be columns on everything, including sports, and you can bet that my take on it all will have a political undercurrent running through it.

I also welcome your feedback both positive and negative, and if you want to post remarks there’s plenty of space here.

*The words Hojotoho are what Brunhilda and her sisters sing during the classic Ride of the Walkuries This is probably the most recognized musical passage in all of Grand Opera, due to the many parodies in TV commercials, Elmer Fudd’s “Kill the Wabbit” aria and Robert Duvall’s Napalm in the Morning speech from Apocalypse Now.

Florida Voter Suppression-If at first you don’t succeed……

April 27, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

As submitted to The Huffington Post 4/24/09

Jerry Waxman

*Author’s note..This is the revised article. It’s much less preachy and more evidence based than the previous one. Sometimes, when facing deadlines I tend to push too hard and let my passion get in the way of my better judgment. The need to get timely things into print takes over just proving the old adage that “Haste makes Waste.” Fortunately, for all of us, a veritable boatload of new information has come in which has changed things. There’s even more than what’s here, but to get through everything here it’s going to take a lot of time and I don’t want you to get bored. I’ll save it for a future column where the governor has to act.

Republicans in Florida overwhelmingly control both houses of the Legislature and they are determined on reversing the gains made during the 2008 elections. At the moment both houses are crafting legislation that would severely limit third party participation in voter registration drives, as well as offering ballot initiatives, redistricting reform and constitutional amendments. This would affect organizations such as ACORN, as well as the League of Women Voters to actively participate in the election process. Democrats in the legislature have cynically come to refer to these actions, specifically Senate Bill 956 as the “Republican Majority Protection Act”. The New York Times addressed this point in an April 18 Editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/opinion/19sun2.html?_r=1

On April 20, Jim Callahan, a local civic activist stated that Florida Democrats now have a voter registration majority of over 690,000 throughout the state, but due to outrageously gerrymandered re-districting Republicans are still solidly in control, and by hook or by crook they intend to keep it that way. According to Callahan this legislation is the result of careful planning by organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, which will be targeting the same type of actions in other states which posted huge gains in the November election. This is not a new practice; it was tried before in Florida and struck down during 2006. Several articles were devoted to voter suppression at that time, here are two to ponder:

http://www.ncdp.org/Protect_Voter_Registration_Drives

http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN01487:@@@L&summ2=m&

Furthermore, a very upsetting part of the process is that the Republican majorities in both houses were not allowing legitimate debate on these issues and trying to push them through on a fast track. Callahan stated that if the Republicans are successful here, it will serve as a handbook for Ohio, Missouri and other states where Democrats are making significant gains. He also noted that former congressman Tom Feeney, who was defeated by Suzanne Kosmas in 2008, is now employed at The Heritage Foundation, a fact that was announced in Politico April 14. Feeney has a long history of voter manipulation and gerrymandering districts as can be seen in his history in Wikipedia.

Numerous newspapers in Florida offered editorials questioning the legislation. The League of Women Voters and the ACLU among dozens of other civic groups are all actively opposing the passage of the two bills. The Florida House Democrats wrote a letter to Governor Charlie Crist outlining their opposition to PCB-EDCA 09-08 on April 22. Here is a copy, provided by Representative Elaine Schwartz of Hollywood District 99:

Dems Oppose Elections Bill By Kenneth Quinnell on April 22nd, 2009 From the House Dems:

Dear Governor Crist:

In recent years, Florida has revamped its election system and regained the confidence of voters. The benefits of these improvements were seen last November when record numbers of our citizens participated in the presidential election. You took action last fall to bolster our election system and laws by signing an executive order that extended the hours of early voting and eliminated problematic touch-screen machines. It would be a travesty for the Florida Legislature to take actions now that would reverse our state’s progress toward making our elections more open and accessible. Unfortunately, legislation has been proposed — without justification — that would disenfranchise voters and reverse much of the progress that has been made toward reforming elections in our state. On behalf of the House Democratic Caucus, we strongly urge you to make known your opposition to House PCB-EDCA 09-08 and its Senate companion, SB956. Also, should either bill pass the Legislature in any manner similar to its current form, we would further request that you veto the legislation. There is nothing more sacred than the right to vote and any legislation pertaining to this right deserves to be treated with extraordinary care and caution. As this bill currently reads, members of the House Democratic Caucus and numerous voter-advocacy and public interest groups find absolutely no justification for the radical changes entailed in this measure. The flaws in this legislation are too numerous to identify completely in this correspondence, but some of the troubling impacts are that it would: · Weaken campaign finance laws and make lawmakers less accountable to the public;· Reduce transparency in the funding of political advertisements;· Restrict the list of accepted forms of identification for voter registration and identification at the polls;· Discourage voter protection efforts;· Eliminate many voters’ ability to vote a regular ballot on Election Day;· Hurt third-party voter registration efforts;· Make it much harder for grassroots groups to use the citizens’ initiative process;· Restrict nonpartisan election protection programs; and· Limit the ability to extend early voting. On behalf of our constituents throughout Florida, we sincerely request your urgent consideration of this matter.

Respectfully,

Franklin Sands, Democratic Leader Geraldine F. Thompson, Democratic Leader Pro Tempore

Also signed by: Representative Joseph Abruzzo: Representative Leonard Bembry: Representative Debbie Boyd: Representative Mary Brandenburg: Representative Oscar Braynon II: Representative Ronald Brisé: Representative Dwight Bullard: Representative James Bush III: Representative Charles Chestnut, IV: Representative Gwyndolen Clark-Reed: Representative Adam Feterman: Representative Keith Fitzgerald: Representative Luis R. Garcia, Jr: Representative Joseph Gibbons: Representative Audrey Gibson: Representative Bill Heller: Representative Evan Jenne: Representative Mia Jones: Representative Martin David Kiar: Representative Rick Kriseman: Representative Janet C. Long: Representative Mark Pafford: Representative Ari Porth: Representative Kevin J.G. Rader: Representative Scott Randolph: Representative Betty Reed: Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda: Representative Yolly Roberson: Representative Hazelle Rogers: Representative Daryl Rouson: Representative Maria Lorts Sachs: Representative Ron Saunders: Representative Elaine Schwartz: Representative Michael Scionti: Representative Kelly Skidmore: Representative Darren Soto: Representative Richard Steinberg: Representative Dwayne Taylor: Representative Priscilla Taylor: Representative Perry E. Thurston, Jr.: Representative Jim Waldman: Representative Alan Williams.

When Representative Schwartz was questioned about the tactics being used by the majority she offered her opinion:

My comment is that:
” The R’s know that only way they can win is by intimidation and cheating! ”
You’ve got to see that Schenck You tube clip. It’s as though he’s covering up for being caught red handed !…………… go to YouTube.com and search for Schenck. He always says to me ” May the Schwartz be with you”. He never tires of saying it. Tomorrow I’ll tell him that I saw his interview……and its too bad the Schwartz wasn’t with him when he made his blunder so he wouldn’t have to squirm so.

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUrSlSA_MDA

The ACLU also sent e-mails to its membership denouncing both bills, which can be accessed here:

http://fl.aclu.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=42481.0&dlv_id=46061

Yesterday, in a reversal, the house leadership took out most of the legislation that was being objected to. There are several articles in the Sayfie Review covering this legislation which can be found here:

http://www.sayfiereview.com/

Representative Schwartz claimed that it was in response to an implication that the governor would veto the present bill. At the same time, the ACLU was increasing the pressure to continue efforts to defeat the bills:

http://fl.aclu.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=42741.0&dlv_id=46381

On April 23, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho who is non-partisan and has been in office for over 20 years issued his opinion of the legislation posted on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yES-jaVyrwo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn7ny1craJ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuGBBjE1EU0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5azNfRCTISA

The Florida House is expected to vote on Friday afternoon, April 24 on the modified election reform bill.

For an impact statement on Senate Bill 956 follow this link:

http://www.flsenate.gov/session/index.cfm?BI_Mode=ViewBillInfo&Mode=Bills&ElementID=JumpToBox&SubMenu=1&Year=2009&billnum=956

Health Care, the looming battle

April 27, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

As submitted to The Huffington Post 4/16/09

Jerry Waxman

*Author’s note. The best way to get legislation passed is to be in constant touch with our legislators. Here in Orlando we have two freshmen legislators who are committed to change and the House leadership is letting them do things that freshmen are not supposed to attempt. I’ll be reporting on them frequently as they are the best thing to happen to Orange County and environs in a long time. I sincerely hope my editors give me latitude. Remember this-If we truly want the change we seek we must actively work for it. We can’t just leave it to our elected politicians.

What is your senator or representative doing during this legislative session break? In Central Florida freshmen Representatives Alan Grayson and Suzanne Kosmas are meeting with many civic and public interest groups holding town hall meetings on several legislative issues. Bill Nelson is out of the country with other members of the Senate Armed Forces Committee. Grayson and Kosmas are both on tight schedules meeting with several groups on any given day. Kosmas has the more difficult district which runs from Daytona Beach to the north and just up to Cape Canaveral to the southeast and into Orlando to the west. Her district includes parts of Orange, Brevard, Volusia and Seminole counties. Geographically it is huge and it keeps her very busy.

Tuesday evening, April 14 at 6:30 PM, there was a town hall meeting regarding the Health Care crisis at the Englewood Community Center in Orlando. Kosmas had other commitments, but her office representative was there. The meeting was organized through the efforts of ACORN and the Service Employees International Union Florida, both entities having a vested interest in Universal Health Care. The Moderator of the evening was Van E. Church, Political Director of SEIU. The panel consisted of Maggie DeVane who is on the staff of Congresswoman Kosmas, Orange County Commissioner Bill Segal, Barkari Burns, CEO of Healthcare for the Homeless and Congressman Alan Grayson.

The only two members of the panel to speak at length were Burns and Grayson. Grayson told the assembled of his childhood. His parents were teachers and sometimes were not working if the union was on strike. Health care was important because he needed expensive medication as a child, and there were times when getting his medication was a problem. He is a staunch advocate for affordable health care and is supporting the Obama Administration plan. Burns operates health care facilities for homeless people as well as the uninsured and destitute. He operates several facilities in the area and they are available on a walk-in basis.

The consensus of the panel was that Universal Health Care is vital for helping to get the economy under control by significantly reducing costs and unnecessary duplications of effort. They all agreed that health care today is a necessity and not a luxury; it is no longer a commodity that can be operated for a profit.

Guest speakers told of their problems with the current system and the difficulty of getting Medicaid for their families, leading to the death of one child due to the lack of proper prescription medications. Grayson predicted that the proposed bill will pass the House of Representatives , and eventually will pass the Senate sometime later in the year, although there will be a lot of arm twisting and wheeling-and-dealing involved.

The meeting concluded and Grayson, DeVane and Segal all had other meetings to go to and they were all running a little late. There will be many more town hall meetings and our freshmen representatives aren’t going to let any grass grow under their feet.

JUST SAY NO IN ORLANDO

April 27, 2009 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

Teabag Party in Orlando 4/16/09

Jerry Waxman

as submitted to the Huffingon Post 4/16/09

If you are walking south on Orange Avenue toward City Hall the first thing you see is massive wall of signs with the familiar sloganeering about too many taxes, too much spending, throw out the spenders and the all too familiar anti-Obama language. The crowd was perhaps 1000 to 1200 people at most, but crowded into the small courtyard it seemed overwhelming. It seemed that one out of every three people was carrying a sign. Many of the teen aged and pre-teen children were carrying signs that their parents made for them. Some of these signs took a whole four minutes to make, and some were professionally done at a print shop. It was a well behaved group looking and acting mostly like college Republicans and their immediate families. The crowd was noteworthy for two reasons:

1. It was all white middle class

2. Lots of anti-this and anti-that tee shirts

The whole event had the feeling of planned spontaneity, yet there was virtually no media coverage that I could determine; even channel 13, the all local news 24/7 channel covered larger events in Brevard County rather than this one. This was also a 6:00 PM event so there should have been many more people there. It was too disciplined and too on cue with crowd reactions. There were no shouts of “Burn The Books” or “Brainwashing”, and no one got out of hand. The speakers of the day all carried the same message that this government was too big, too irresponsible and it’s sacrificing our kids’ financial future. The remedy that they all recommended was the Fair Tax, which would magically solve all of the country’s ills. Every speaker spoke in measured and simple phrases for maximum reaction from the crowd. The most conservative radio talk station in the area, WORL AM 660 announced that the organizers of the event will now have their own talk program beginning Saturday. They also announced that there will be a future rally planned for July 4.