Florida Members of Congress Voting For Government Shutdown

Via Stogie: here is a list of Republicans who voted for a CR bill that would delay Obamacare. This is a nonstarter in the Senate and President Barack Obama would never sign it into law. This vote is just to appease the tea party base of the GOP.

Rep. Jeff Miller [R-D1]

Rep. Steve Southerland [R-D2]

Rep. Ted Yoho [R-D3]

Rep. Ander Crenshaw [R-D4]

Rep. Ron DeSantis [R-D6]

Rep. John Mica [R-D7]

Rep. Bill Posey [R-D8]

Rep. Daniel Webster [R-D10]

Rep. Richard Nugent [R-D11]

Rep. Gus Bilirakis [R-D12]

Rep. W. Bill Young [R-D13]

Rep. Dennis Ross [R-D15]

Rep. Vern Buchanan [R-D16]

Rep. Thomas Rooney [R-D17]

Rep. Trey Radel [R-D19]

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart [R-D25]

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-D27]

Gun Control Vigil at Vern Buchanan's Office

This likely will not change Rep. Vern Buchanan's position, but gun control activists and religious leaders plan on holding a candlelight vigil outside the Congressman's Sarasota office. Activists also plan to give Buchanan a letter urging him to support gun control legislation.

The candlelight vigil will be held today.

The vigil is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. Thursday outside Buchanan’s office at 111 S. Orange Ave.

David Rivera Makes CREW List

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have named Rep. David Rivera and Rep. Vern Buchanan to their most corrupt members of Congress list.

Rivera is being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, IRS and FBI. Rivera failed to report a $137,000 loan he received from Millennium Marketing. This lobbying firm is run by members of Rivera's family.

Millennium Marketing, Inc. is a consulting firm that sits at the center of the investigations into Rep. Rivera’s personal and campaign finances. The company was founded as Millennium Marketing Strategies, Inc. in 2000 by Rep. Rivera’s mother, Daisy Magarino, but according to state incorporation records it dissolved the following year. Nevertheless, Rep. Rivera included income from Millennium Marketing on his state financial disclosure forms between 2002 and 2005. In 2006, records show Rep. Rivera’s godmother, Ileana Medina, created Millennium Marketing,Inc. and Ms. Magarino has been listed on state records as a company vice president since 2008

Millennium Marketing was working for Flagler Dog Track to get the Florida legislature to approve slot machines for the track. Rivera supported slot machine legislation. Rivera approached Flagler on the behave of Millennium Marketing.

Rep. Rivera initially denied working for the dog track, but later released a statement acknowledging his role. A lawyer for the dog track said it was Rep. Rivera who had firstapproached the track and asked to manage the campaign. Rep. Rivera also requested any payments be made through Millennium Marketing instead of directly to him.

The question is was the loan really a loan.

Rivera put to Miami-Dade Republican Party into debt by paying fees to the Communication Solutions. The only employee of Communication Solutions is Rivera's girlfriend Esther Nuhfer. The only client Nuhfer has ever had is Rivera. The media reported that Nuhfer has been interviewed by the FBI. The Republican Party of Florida has no rtecord of Rivera's payment to Communication Solutions.

Most Corrupt 2011: Rep. David Rivera (R-FL)

Lifestyles of the Rich in Congress

Meet the 50 richest members of Congress. I am so glad that these people have taxpaid government health care.

Top 10

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas)

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California)

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California)

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.)

Vern Buchanan: Deficit Peacock

Vern Buchanan is a Republican deficit peacock. Buchanan cited a Congressional Budget Office report that tort reform would save $50 billion over ten years. Buchanan is making up that number. A 2008 CBO report said tort reform would only save 0.5 percent from health care costs. A 2004 CBO report found that tort reform would only save 2 percent. Republicans support tort reform because attorneys tend to donate more to Democrats than Republicans. Grover Norquist spelled that out.

"And rather than negotiate with the teachers' unions and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them."

Buchanan spent more than any member of Congress on mailers to his constituents.

In the first quarter of 2011, House records show, Buchanan spent $142,198 on mailings and other means of mass communication. That was more than any other representative, and about 19 times the average expenditure of $7,500. Among his colleagues, 209 representatives got by without spending any money in that quarter, according to House records.

That is $142,198 Buchanan spent is federal tax dollars.

More on Vern Buchanan

MSNBC host does a story on the illegal campaign contributions through his employess. The Federal Election Commission has levied a $67,900 penalty again st Buchanan's defunct Nissan Dodge dealership.

Vern Buchanan: Man of Values II

I blogged previously about accusations that Rep. Vern Buchanan pressured employees of his Venice Nissan Dodge dealership to donate to his Congressional campaign. Media reports are that Buchanan repaid the employees for their campaign contributions. Translation: Buchanan was funneling his own money through his employees. Federal Election Commission has filed suit and is seeking $67,900.

The Federal Election Commission has filed court documents in Orlando seeking a $67,900 penalty from the now-defunct dealership, Hyundai of North Jacksonville, which Buchanan partly owned until 2008.

In the May 27 filing, the FEC said dealership employees and their family members made more than 30 contributions to Buchanan’s campaign from 2005 to 2007, which the business then illegally reimbursed. Federal law prohibits secretly funneling donations through someone else, which allows the donor to evade contribution limits.

The FEC called the effort “an extensive and ongoing scheme that spanned two election cycles, three calendar years and dozens of secret illegal contributions.”

Buchanan claims he took no part in this. Buchanan says business partner Sam Kazran made the employees donate to Buchanan's campaigns. Kazran says that is not true.

Buchanan is not named as a defendant in the suit. The owner of the company said Tuesday he has acknowledged the company reimbursed employees, but said it was a “directive” issued by Buchanan.
Vern Buchanan
Vern Buchanan

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” said Sam Kazran, who said he told the FEC he was unfamiliar with campaign finance law. “I am not a politician, just a regular Joe. I had no idea.”

He said Buchanan told a group he needed to raise $1 million “to look good."

“It was ‘This is what I need to do and this is what you need to do to take care of it,'” Kazran told the Herald.

Buchanan and Kazran are accusing each other of wrongdoing. The question is who pays the fine. The suit was filed against the Venice Nissan Dodge dealership. The dealership went out of business. This is sure to get more interesting.

Vern Buchanan: Man of Values

"I will work to promote traditional family values and I will be a strong defender of life," said Vern Buchanan.

Apparently, Buchanan went to the Ray Sansom school of values. How else can one explain Buchanan reimbursing employees Venice Nissan Dodge dealership for campaign contributions to his Congressional campaign.

On Oct. 17, federal records show, Buchanan refunded $5,000 that had been donated in 2005 by five men — all former employees at Buchanan's Venice Nissan Dodge dealership. They included Carlo Bell, the former finance director, who in 2008 joined a federal complaint alleging Buchanan pressured employees to donate $1,000 to his campaign in exchange for $1,000 in cash.

Buchanan's office claimed that he never pressured or funneled his own money to his campaign through his employees. Buchanan is paying back the campaign contributions that the former employees gave. Buchanan's office claims this is normal. Politicians would rather give away their first-born than part with campaign cash. We are to believe that the refund to Carlo Bell had nothing to do with Bell's federal complaint alleging he was pressured to donate to Buchanan's campaign.

Team Buchanan would have you believe that refunding $10,000 to Dean Morgan, chairman of Vistage is perfectly normal. Mr. Morgan has been quite generous to Mr. Buchanan during to 2010 election cycle. The question is was it Mr. Morgan's money or Mr. Buchanan's money that he gave to Mr. Morgan to give to Buchanan's campaign.

What happened was Buchanan was behind in fundraising in the run-up to the 2006 Republican primary.

The donations that have now been refunded came at a critical time in Buchanan's 2005 campaign, when he was locked in a tight race with Republican Tramm Hudson to succeed U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris in Congress.

From July 1 to Sept. 22, Buchanan had raised $296,000, which had him trailing Hudson.

But in late September, checks from Bell and the other Venice dealership donors started to pour in. From Sept. 23 to Sept. 30, another $290,000 came into his campaign, including $110,000 from his businesses' employees and families. The surge helped Buchanan jump ahead of Hudson in fundraising and established him as the favorite.

A total of 11 Buchanan have filed suit claiming they were pressured to donate to the campaign and then get reimbursed by the candidate. The obvious question is why didn't Buchanan just donate the money to his campaign in his name. Rick Scott self-funded his campaign. Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney collected campaign contributions and donated their own money to their campaigns. If the allegations are true then Buchanan's mind-set was to be sneaky. Jesus would be so proud of Mr. Buchanan's values.

Update: The St. Petersburg Times reports that the employees were reimbursed for their campaign with cash. The use of cash would would not show up on bank records from the Buchanan campaign to the employees.

Faith In Teaching is A Paper Nonprofit

What a future Florida licence plate may look like.

Post by Lindsay Beyerstein and Michael Hussey

Faith in Teaching (FIT) is a nonprofit paper company. The FIT web site www.faithinteaching.org is down. The web site can still be seen on Google cache. The frontpage had a message urging readers to support the I Believe licence plate.

When faith based schools close, good jobs are lost, teachers leave the state, and more tax dollars are required for public schools to absorb the children. The Miami Herald reported that for Catholic schools alone almost 1,300 schools have closed, and almost 400,000 children displaced due to decreased funding. When all Christian and Hebrew schools are included the numbers are even more staggering. The I Believe plate provides immediate impact to keeps jobs, teachers and lower school and property taxes in Florida. Our funding is 100% private donations, at no cost to taxpayers. Funds are distributed only within the state of Florida.

The amendment for the I Believe plates past 22 to 13 in the Florida Senate. There is no longer a need for the FIT web site. Beyond putting up $60,000 and doing some preliminary research to prove demand, it doesn't appear that FIT has to do any work for this money, in terms of manufacturing or distributing a product.

No current address can be found for FIT on Google Maps. The nonprofit was known to exist at 120 EAST ROBINSON STREET, ORLANDO FL. The defunct nonprofit Christian Offering Plate was at the same address. The nonprofits officers were David Mallen and Robert Wellen. Their wives Carla A. Mallen and Catherine L. Wellen are the president and vice-president of Faith in Teaching.

None of FIT players are education professionals. The Wellens work for TaxChex.

Robert J. Wellen, Jr. C.P.A.- An Accounting firm that provides personal and corporate tax preparations, as well as, Set-Up Corporations and Limited Liability Companies. The Wellen office is located on the corner of Parsons and Martin Luther King Blvd in Brandon. Quarterly Tax filings are now available.The Wellen Family are members of the Nativity Catholic Parish in Brandon. The telephone number for Robert J. Wellen, Jr.

David Mallen lost a race for the for the 9 Circuit Court judgeship in 2006. He works as a lawyer and a lobbyist. Carla Mallen is a homemaker.

The Mallens live in Orlando. The Wellens reside in Seffner. The Mallens have contribution $5,000 to Vern Buchanan in the last two election cycles. The Wellens have contributed $9,200 to Buchanan.

The Mallens and Wellens got Ronda Storms to sponsor the I Believe plate. Passage failed in 2008. Storms pushed too hard and alienated fellow Republicans.

The Mallens and Wellens were able to raise the $60,000 application fee. The money is to study if enough people would buy the $25.00 plates. FIT did not submit a professional survey last year. That didn't stop Storms from backing the I Believe plate. FIT would collect money from the sold plates and distribute tax dollars without oversight. The Wellens and Mallens are not education professionals and do not run an actual Christian education company. FIT exists only on paper. The amendment for the licence plate was put in late in the session because FIT could not withstand scrutiny.

Side note: this post could not have been written without the help of Lindsay Beyerstein.

The Fight Between Kathy Castor & the Oil Industry Begins

Kathy Castor is sponsoring the Florida Coastal Protection Act. The bill would permanently ban on offshore drilling along Florida's Gulf coast. Castor's bill is a reaction to U.S. Rep. John Peterson's (R-Pa) bill to drill as close as 25 miles off Florida's coast. Peterson has pulled his legislation. Castor helped forced Peterson to withdraw his legislation.

Wayne Garcia has quotes of Castor speaking on the House floor in support of the the Beach Protection Act of 2008. It is a good bill, but has nothing to do with the FCPA or providing a buffer for offshore drilling. Here is the video of Castor's comments on the BPA. (How I love reporters attributing the wrong quotes because when they run with press releases.) Castor's speech does reflect her stance on offshore drilling.

“Drilling off of our beautiful beaches is the energy policy of the past,” said Castor. “If President Bush and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle truly wanted to address high oil prices, they should have voted with the Democratic majority to take the huge tax breaks away from the big oil companies at a time that they are making record profits. Instead of these huge tax breaks for big oil the New Democratic Congress wants to invest those dollars in alternative energy and transportation opportunities to break our addiction.”

Castor's description of America's addiction to oil reminds me of Dennis Leary's comedy routine about cocaine. America is one big Rick James super freak that can't kick the oil jones.



The oil industry have already launch attacks against Castor.

“Drilling off the coast of Florida, the risks far outweigh the benefits. That kind of drilling would only provide a short term supply, maybe a few weeks of oil to power our cars,” says Castor.

Jim Smith, President of the Florida Petroleum and Marketer Association disagrees.

"How does she know?" he asks. "What are the facts to back up that claim? The 'Jack' well that Chevron discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006 has huge reserves. Hundreds of billions of barrels. I don't know how she could know that."

Rep. Peterson
states that Castor's bill will single-handledly take down the economy. Who knew that Castor had more control over economic matters than Henry Paulson or Ben Bernanke?

"If we don't open up the natural gas supply for this country we will not compete economically," Peterson said. "It's just going to be tough times."

Castor needs to aggressively get her message out. Republicans, the oil industry and conservative pundits are going to gut her. Democrats are horrible at message discipline and flee when one of their own is in trouble. Castor needs to use the netroots, the liberal wing of the Democratic delegation (the Blue Dogs will abandon her), and put people in her own party on the spot. Congressional Democrats need to be asked, 'Do you support clean water or not.'

Castor's staff is netroots savvy and good with the media. Republicans and lobbyists will do everything to kill her bill. Castor's people need to take the initiative and fight for their boss.

The one piece of good news is Vern Buchanan has come out in support of the bill.

Congress Report on District 13 Race

File this under you got to be kidding me department.

A bipartisan task force said Friday that it had found no evidence of voting machine malfunctions in a disputed 2006 Florida congressional election.

The panel agreed that U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, who has less than a year remaining in his term, can stay in Congress. He had been seated by the Democratic-controlled House while it probed the election.

The task force was formed after Buchanan's Democratic opponent, Christine Jennings, challenged the validity of the results because more than 18,000 ballots did not indicate a selected candidate in the 13th Congressional District race.

The panel concluded that the undervotes were caused either by voters who intentionally did not vote for a congressional candidate or were

MIT Professor Charles Stewart's study found the odds were 5 million to one that 18,000 did not register a vote in the Congressional race.

Somewhere Brad Friedman's head is exploding right now.

DCCC Targets Florida House Seats

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running ad against Reps. Vern Buchanan, Tom Feeney and Bill Young.

DCCC chair Rep. Chris Van Hollen said the three will be targeted for voting against a proposal to expand health insurance to children. Only 5 Republicans voted for the bill and President Bush has threatened a veto.

"Republicans who continue to vote in lockstep with President Bush and against seniors and children in their districts will be held accountable," Van Hollen said.

Republicans Gus Bilirakis, Ginny Brown-Waite and Adam Putnam also voted against H.R. 3162.

Florida Congressional Seats In Play

One Democratic and three Republican seats are in play. Tim Mahoney's seat is being targeted by Republicans. The Cook Report labels Mahoney's district as leaning Democrat.

Republicans Ric Keller, Vern Buchanan and Tom Feeney seats are in play. Feeney and Buchanan are facing difficult re-election campaigns. Feeney is being investigated by the FBI and has ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He has formed a defense trust for potential legal bills stemming form the FBI investigation. Several high-profile government officials have been convicted from their involvement with Abramoff. Former Congressman Bob Ney being the most notable.

Buchanan won a controversal election against Christine Jennings. His seat is targeted by Democrats and Jennings has announced she will run against Buchanan in 2008. She has large grassroots support from election reform and netroots activists. The voting machine problems from the previos race played a role in Florida switching back to paper ballots. The Buchanan/Jennings race will be one of the most-watched races in 2008.

Democrat Suzanne Kosmas has allowed her name to be used in a poll to see her viablity as a possible Feeney opponent.

People can help Tim Mahoney by giving a campaign contribution.

Christine Jennings Interview

Interview with Christine Jennings on Flashpoint. She discusses her political differences Vern Buchanan and her challenges against the vote count.

Vern Buchanan Is In the Money

Republicans are pushing hard to make sure Vern Buchanan keeps his seat. Buchanan raised $365,000 from April to June of 2007. The organized push by the GOP has been staggering.

More than 70 other PACs, including those for the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Florida's sugar and citrus industries, have given Buchanan more than $162,000.

Also bolstering Buchanan's fundraising total: A $106,000 refund from his 2006 political media consultant and almost $78,100 in travel reimbursements for campaign stops by President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

There are two hysterical quotes from the article. The first is by Buchanan's campaign chairman Tim Clarke.

"Vern's agenda of lower taxes, less spending and more personal freedom is resonating with the people."

Actually, Christine Jennings is going to run against Buchanan in 2008. He barely beat her in a still contested election. Republicans do not want to lose more seats in the House.

The second is by the worst quote machine in Florida politics. Yes, I'm talking about about University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus.

"District 13 remains a very important district nationally, a symbol to both parties," MacManus said. "There's not an analyst out there who doesn't expect another slugfest."

Wow. That is some indepth analysis. This is what makes her a media quote machine.

Susan Stanton For Congress?

Now this is interesting. The St Petersburg Times is implying Susan Stanton may challenge Vern Buchanan for his seat.

A career change also might be in her future. Stanton said she's not sure what her next step will be, but her recent experiences have led her to think about going into educational administration or maybe even running for Congress.

"I actually enjoy getting out meeting folks and connecting with people in ways I never thought I would," she said.

Stanton is a registered Republican. In the unlikely chance that she beat Buchanan in the primary; he would most likely face Christine Jennings as his challenger. It would be interesting to see which candidate progressives root for.

The St. Petersburg Times failed to mention that Stanton took a shot of the media's superficial coverage.

``Not a single person has focused on what I wear, the type of shoes I have on or the type of necklace I am wearing. It's just not an issue,'' Stanton said before the vote.

I wonder if Stanton is talking about The Times?

Later in the morning, she had her first professional blow dry and manicure.

For the day's events, her hair was styled fluffy on top with wispy bangs in front. She chose a soft rose color to accent her sporty nails. She admired herself in the mirror.

"I could get used to this, " she said, as the manicurist massaged her hands.

That is some hard-hitting journalism.

Task Force to Meet on District 13

There is movement by Congress to investigate the District 13 election mess.

Just got a message from the spokesman for Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas, announcing the next meeting of the 13th Congressional Task Force in Washington is set for next week.

That comes just a day after they said they would wait to respect Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., who died Sunday after a bout with cancer. She was the chairwoman of the House Administration committee, which created the task force Gonzalez is leading. Millender-McDonald's funeral is set for Monday.

This isn't going to change the outcome. Vern Buchanan will keep the seat. Christine Jennings will have a good shot if she runs against him. (Which I'm sure she will) What the investigation needs to do is find the numerous mistakes that were made and document them in a detailed report.

Sarasota County was a perfect storm of fuck-ups. There was Kathy Dent's incompetence, bad ballot design and Election Systems & Software voting machine problems. Absolutely everything went wrong. To say the huge undervote was just people turned off by nasty politics is utter nonsense and should be treated as such.

How Much More Time Are Republicans Willing to Give Bush

"The next three to nine months are critical. They have one last shot."

Congressman Vern Buchanan on President Bush's Iraq policy.

Comments like that bother the hell out of me. What has George W. Bush done in the past four years to earn the trust of Congress on Iraq? Bush's sycophants made bogus promises to the American people that the Iraq war would be easy.

"I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators," Dick Cheney said on Meet the Press.

Paul Wolfowitz promised the Iraqis would quickly finance their own government.

"The oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. Now, there are a lot of claims on that money, but… We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."

To illustrate just how clueless the Bushies are no moment tops the early part of the war. Donald Rumsfeld described the rioting as "stuff happens." The loiting gave way to crime and social anarchy which created the insurgency. The Iraqi people because hotile at the Americans for not keeping the streets safe.

Vern Buchanan is still willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt. Amazing.