When you review your ballot either in the mail or at the polls, you might think it unusually long and confusing. Don’t feel bad. The ballot was purposefully crafted to be long and confusing.
In a year when Republican leaders hope to suppress the vote by reducing early voting days by more than half, they also added nearly a dozen constitutional proposals that more resemble a push-poll than thoughtful policy ideas....
No less an authority than Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak called President Obama’s commitment to Israel security “all-encompassing and unprecedented.” Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon pronounced, “we have no better friend than President Obama.”
How do you reconcile these unequivocal statements of support by those most knowledgeable about Israel’s security with the television...
I’ve been listening to speakers at the Republican National Convention who seek to reclaim our nation and protect “American Exceptionalism.” I am not sure whom they are reclaiming or protecting America from, but I think they want to reclaim it from me or those like me.
I am the grandson of immigrants who came here to avoid war-torn Europe and seek the promise of freedom and better days for their...
Republican conventioneers, welcome to Florida. It is only fitting you are convening here, as we truly are the laboratory for your tax policy, your education innovation and your quest for pure markets. Here in Florida, our Republican governors and right-wing legislatures have turned your bumper stickers into state policies. So, please take a stroll out of your hotel to see first-hand how well your approach to governance has fared.
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There were many times in the Florida Legislature when I disagreed with my colleagues but didn’t believe their actions were amoral or venal. Often our differences were more about which route to take to an agreed-upon goal.
But the Republican Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott’s efforts to make it harder to vote and to suppress the vote, especially among minorities, is not about a difference of...
Rumors are everywhere that former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is planning a move to the Democratic Party. And, boy, are some people livid. Republicans are calling him “two-faced” and launching unflattering websites ridiculing their former standard-bearer. Some Democrats are equally put off about their adversary switching sides.
I say, Charlie, welcome to the party!
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When the dictator of a nation like, let’s say Syria or Cuba, directs the state police to harass or intimidate judges, no one is surprised. We expect regimes with little respect for the rule of law to conduct themselves in that manner. But when the elected governor of a democratic state, let’s say Florida, directs the state police to investigate Supreme Court justices for baseless and frivolous charges, it’s worth a double take.
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Since early 2010, when Congress passed health care reform, Florida Republican leaders have been obsessed with its overthrow. Defeating it was the priority of Gov. Rick Scott. Our last two attorneys general have led the charge in the courts. And the state legislature did all it could to thwart its implementation.
So now that the most conservative Supreme Court in the history of our nation has ruled that...
Despite his recent claims that he doesn’t care about who gets credit, Gov. Rick Scott is in the midst of a full blown “I get the credit tour” for Florida’s reducing unemployment numbers. Nearly every tweet and press release from the Republican Party of Florida (and Gov. Scott) wants Floridians to know precisely who is responsible for Florida’s declining unemployment rate. Here’s an actual recent tweet: “Thanks to #GovScott policies unemployment is now at the lowest level since December 2008.”...
