Jeb Bush's Intolerance Hypocrisy

"Somebody here is being small-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn’t the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith. Federal authorities are demanding obedience, in complete disregard of religious conscience – and in a free society, the answer is no."

Jeb Bush, accusing President Barack Obama of being religiously intolerant.

The irony of Bush's statement is rich. Bush made his comments at the commencement address at Liberty University.

Jerry Falwell, the founder of Liberty University, has a lengthy his of supporting segregation. Falwell was against the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education. Falwell's own words.

“If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God’s word and had desired to do the Lord’s will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made. The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn the line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line.”

Jeb Bush is not a dumb man. He is aware of Falwell's controversial history. Bush spoke at Liberty University to pander to the xenophobic base of the Republican Party.

Barbara Peterson Appointed by Don Gaetz

There are times that I like Florida Senate President Don Gaetz. I hope appointing Barbara Peterson leads to the Florida legislature doing a better job of complying with the Sunshine laws.

“Barbara Peterson is Florida's respected guardian of open records, open meetings and open government," Gaetz said. “Her leadership of the First Amendment Foundation gives credibility and reliability to this important work. Her expertise in advising public officials, the media, courts and citizens about access to records will lead to more transparency and user-friendliness through a consolidation of many complex and duplicative websites.”

The mission of the First Amendment Foundation.

The First Amendment Foundation believes that government openness and transparency is critical to citizen trust and involvement in our democratic society – without Government in the Sunshine, civic engagement cannot bloom. Through ongoing monitoring of the state’s public records and open meetings laws, and the education of government officials and the citizens they serve about those laws, the Foundation promotes the public’s constitutional right to oversee and to participate in the governance process.

Services: Sunshine Monitoring: The Foundation monitors the Legislature, state agencies, the courts, and, when possible, local governments, for actions and issues related to open government, alerting its members through periodic reports of all open government activity.

FOI Hotline: The First Amendment Foundation runs the FOI Hotline, where callers to our toll-free number (800-337-3518) can get information and assistance with their questions about the application of the Sunshine Law and the Public Records Law. Currently, the FOI Hotline is averaging about 200 calls a month, with almost half coming from the general public. The Foundation also responds to emailed questions about open government. Contact us by email.

Let's hope that the Florida legislature listens to Peterson's recommendation. The Rick Scott administration has used private emails to avoid the Sunshine law. Unfortunately, the legislature hasn't challenged Scott for the lack of transparency. That needs to change.

Judge Rules in Favor of Middle Finger Xmas Display

The ACLU won a very unusual First Amendment case.

A federal judge says a Louisiana woman has the right to display holiday lights on her roof in the form of an extended middle finger.

Sarah Childs sued Denham Springs, its mayor and police chief, claiming she was threatened with arrest if she didn't take down the display.

Unsurprisingly, Childs' neighbors complained about the less than festive Christmas display. Child's has been in a dispute with her neighbors. She decided to express her feelings with a one finger salute light display.

I have no opinion about whether or not this is a good ruling. I do wonder why Child's dislikes her neighbors so much.

Occupy Tampa Member Arrested For Chalking

This seems silly. Occupy Tampa member Nathan Schwartz was arrested in May for writing in chalk near the downtown Bank of America building.

Schwartz was charged with two misdemeanors-trespassing and criminal mischief. About a dozen members of Occupy Tampa stood in solidaritywith Schwartz at his hearing.

Schwartz’s lawyer requested photographic evidence of the chalking. The chalk arrow mark has most likely washed away by now. Schwartz and his attorney plan to fight this on First Amendment grounds. The City of Tampa intends to prosecute this case. Your tax dollars at work.

HB 155 to be Challenged In U.S. District Court

The ACLU has and children groups have filed an amicus brief against the docs v glocks legislation signed by Gov. Rick Scott. Doctors would not be allowed to ask patients if they have guns in their homes. The Republican reasoning for HB 155 was rather unsound.

Owning guns is a fundamental right," said Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Palatka. "It's not to be infringed upon by your doctor."

I have never heard of a doctors forcibly taking a gun away from a patient's home. Van Zant believes it is against the Second amendment for a doctor to even ask if a patient has a gun. This is a violation of the doctor's First amendment rights. If Republican in the Florida legislature actually understood the Constitution and wanted to protect the privacy of gun owners they could write legislation saying patients were not legally bound to tell doctors if they owned a gun.

A doctor could face disciplinary action if he or she asks a patient if a gun is within a reach of a child. The question may make a patient uncomfortable. What the question doesn't do is take away guns from a Floridian. The legislation is restricting speech and does nothing to protect gun rights. Furthermore, doctors do not keep records of which patients own guns. The Florida legislature is making laws against gun record keeping that does not exist. Once again the Florida legislature passes a horrible bill.

No Dancing At Jefferson Memorial

This is like the plot the Footloose. flash mob members are arrested for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial. One of the dancers is slammed to the marble floor during an arrest.

Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Tina Dupuy point out that people are being arrested for dancing at the memorial of the author of the Declaration of Independence and one of the signers of the Constitution. Dancing at strip clubs has been citing as protected speech under the First Amendment. Yet people are arrested in mass dancing at the memorial of one of the Founding Fathers.

Marco Rubio: Constitutional Scholar

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the Supreme Court majority opinion for SNYDER v. PHELPS. The Supreme Court ruled that the mean-spirited protests of the Westboro Baptist Church was protected under the First amendment.

Given that Westboro’s speech was at a public place on a matter of public concern, that speech is entitled to “special protection” under the First Amendment. Such speech cannot be restricted simply because it is upsetting or arouses contempt. “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” Texas v. Johnson, 491 U. S. 397, 414 (1989). Indeed, “the point of all speech protection . . . is to shield just those choices of content that in someone’s eyes are misguided, or even hurtful.”

Roberts acknowledged that Westboro did the protest of fallen military veterans to gain publicity. Where Roberts drew the line was in restricting free speech. That doesn't stop Marco Rubio from being a co-sponsor of the bill Sanctity of Eternal Rest for Veterans.

Rubio, a first-term Republican from Miami, added his name to the list of senatorial sponsors.

"The men and women of our military who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country deserve to be buried in peace and with honor," Rubio said in a statement issued this week. "I'm proud to support this common sense legislation that honors our nation's heroes."

The proposed bill is backed by a variety of military support groups, including the gold Star Wives of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"Several of our members have been forced to endure these unseemly, irreverent protests at the funerals of their beloved fallen spouse," said a statement released by the Gold Star Wives. "Losing a beloved husband or wife is traumatic enough without also having to endure these protestors and their nasty signs and obnoxious behavior."

Lawmakers making legislation that is suppose to serve a narrow cause is always a bad idea. Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida legislature approved Terri's law. The sole goal of the bill was to keep the brain dead Terri Schiavo from being taken off life support. Conservatives lost every legal battle on the Schiavo case. The Supreme Court refused to hear the Schiavo case.

Terri's law was unconstitutional because it violated to Equal Protection clause. All laws are suppose to apply equally. Laws can not be made to apply to a single person. The Jim Crow laws were unconstitutional because they only applied to blacks. What Rubio is co-sponsoring violates the first and 14 amendments of the constitution.

Jim Norman Crusade Against Farm Photography

I literally laughed my ass off when I read this.

SB 1246 by Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, would make it a first-degree felony to photograph a farm without first obtaining written permission from the owner. A farm is defined as any land "cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production, the raising and breeding of domestic animals or the storage of a commodity."

Thank goodness Sen. Norman wants to put a stop to the wave of farm photography. I have no doubt this will make Alex Pickett's Bipartisan Guide to Ridiculous Legislation.

The text of SB 1246.

Section 1. 
(1) A person who enters onto a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084, Florida Statutes.

(2) A person who photographs, video records, or otherwise produces images or pictorial records, digital or otherwise, at or of a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084, Florida Statutes.

(3) As used in this section, the term “farm” includes any tract of land cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production, the raising and breeding of domestic animals, or the storage of a commodity.

There are already laws against trespassing. The bill also makes it illegal to film a farm off the grounds of the property. Judy Dalglish had the best legal summary of the bill.

Judy Dalglish, executive director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said shooting property from a roadside or from the air is legal. The bill "is just flat-out unconstitutional not to mention stupid," she said.

We are talking about the the same Jim Norman who thought people wouldn't find out about longtime campaign contributor Ralph Hughes buying Norman's wife a house. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Norman never had read the First amendment. Arresting people for taking photographs will never hold up in the courts.

Allen West On Censoring the Media

Allen West and other Tea Party candidates campaigned on restoring the Constitution to government. West's love for the Constitution doesn't extend to the First Amendment. West advocates on censoring the media.

WEST: There are different means by which you can be attacked. I mean it doesnt have to be a bomb or an airplane flying into a building. It doesn’t have to be a shooting. It can be through cyber attacks, it could be through leaking of very sensitive classified information. Regardless of whether you think it causes any harm, the fact that here is an individual that is not an American citizen first and foremost, for whatever reason gotten his hands on classified American material and put it out there in the public domain. And I think that we also should be censoring the American news agencies which enabled him to do this and also supported him and applauding him for the efforts. So that’s kind of aiding and abetting of a serious crime.

This same argument was made by conservatives when the Pentagon Papers were released. The Pentagon Papers revealed the government lying about the Vietnam war. It is interesting that conservative like West don't trust government with their taxes but is willing to belive the government would never lie about its foreign policy. West is willing to let the State Department operate in secret without oversight from the fourth estate. That is counter to how a democracy operates

Terry Kemple War Against Separation of Church and State

Terry Kemple's organization Community Issues Council spent $500,000 on billboards in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. My first question was where the hell did Kemple get $500,000? He is the only employee of Community Issues Council. Retired businessman Gregg Smith came up with the idea and the cash for the billboards.



The one problem with the billboard is Washington never said or wrote those words. Kemple admits Washington did say the quote. That isn't going to stop him from running his billboard and misleading people.

Others carry the same message but with fictional attribution, as with one billboard citing George Washington for the quote, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

"I don't believe there's a document in Washington's handwriting that has those words in that specific form," Kemple said. "However, if you look at Washington's quotes, including his farewell address, about the place of religion in the political sphere, there's no question he could have said those exact words."

Common sense dictates one doesn't help his cause with false quotes. Kemple is so loopy that he doesn't care. He just wants to tear down the separation of church and state. Bithers don't let facts interfere with their agenda. Why should Kemple?

More on the Religious Licence Plates

What a future Florida licence plate may look like.

The amendments for religious themed licence plates were added into SB 0642 by Ronda Storms and Gary Siplin. Two State Senators known more for controversy and ethics investigations than good legislation. Their sinful ways doesn't stop them from loving Jesus enough to violate the First amendment.

Storms wants a $25.00 licence plate saying "I believe" to benefit Faith in Teaching. The nonprofit supposely funds education. Sen. Dan Gelber wanted to know if the company actually exist or is it just a dummy company created to issue the plate. Gelber has reason to be skeptical. The web site www.faithinteaching.org is down. (The site is available on Google cache.)

I found Faith In Teaching on Google Maps. It is across the street from a bail bond service. Google Maps street level view reveals the building is named Faith Christian University. The property is for sale. It is very strange for a company that allegedly gives money to other faith-based programs would have their headquarters in a high crime neighborhood and is trying to sell their property. This reeks of a Christian Right front company.

Siplin making the religious images in his plate more overt.

Siplin said the thought now is to make the plate say "Trinity" with maybe a "cross, and some nails and a dove, do the trinity."

Siplin didn't even have an idea what his plate would look like when he first proposed his amendment.

The ACLU and Anti-Defamation League will likely take this to court. If Crist signs the current bill into law.

Update: Faith Christian University is an online bible study school. The main campus is at 6000 E Colonial Dr, Orlando. It looks like a church next to a shopping plaza. An overheard shot reveals a baseball field on the property. The FCU web site says they are in a process of moving onto the campus.

Correction: Faith Christian University is not involved with the I Believe licence plate. I apologize for the mistake and bringing FCU into this mess.