Georgia to imitate Florida with costly drug-testing law

Florida’s program to drug-test welfare recipients is a costly failure. So what is Georgia doing? They’re following suit and adopting their own program to drug-test welfare recipients. Who will benefit? Probably the testing companies.

Ga. to require drug tests for welfare benefits – Houston Chronicle.

Our previous post on the subject: http://biteme.me/florida-taxpayers-ripped-off-by-wasteful-program/

Communism Is alive and well in Congress according to nutty Florida congressman

In a taste of what the fall 2012 campaign will look like, Florida Representative Allen West has announced that up to 80 House Democrats are secretly members of the Communist Party.

Now that the economy is doing better, it seems that the Birchers are surfacing, to be followed closely by the birthers, I suppose.

Communism Is Alive and Well in Congress According to Allen West – Politics – The Atlantic Wire.

Conservative Congressman Allen West says Trayvon Martin case ‘is an outrage’

Rep. Allen West (R-FL), a high-profile conservative and one of two African-American Republicans currently serving in Congress has issued a statement lambasting Florida authorities for their handling of the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

West says in part: “From my reading, it seems this young man was pursued and there was no probable cause to engage him, certainly not pursue and shoot him.”

I’m no expert in Florida law, but “stand your ground” surely doesn’t mean “pursue and shoot.”

Allen West On Trayvon Martin Case: ‘This Is An Outrage’ | TPM Livewire.

Florida Republicans shut down League of Women Voters registration drive

Yup. Florida’s new laws against voter registration “include extremely burdensome administrative requirements, unreasonably tight deadlines for submission of completed forms, and heavy penalties for even the slightest delay or mistake. These restrictions are so unnecessarily harsh that they forced the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote, among other groups, to shut down voter registration programs in Florida — even as voter registration rates have continued to decline in the state.”

The Florida laws were crafted by Republicans, passed by Republicans (Republicans control both houses of the legislature) and signed by the Republican governor.

But it’s not just Florida. Republicans in other battleground states are passing new laws to restrict voter registration and suppress voter turnout. The Brennan Center says, “Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions.”

Not content to lie about Obama to beat him in November, Republicans have now gone into the business of fixing the election. And, oh yeah, they can Bite Me.

Brennan Center Lawsuit: Federal Judge Examines Florida’s Restrictive Voting Law | Brennan Center for Justice.

If Trayvon Martin had a gun he might be alive today

It’s time to get past all this liberal gun-control shit and look at the facts: the rednecks, backed by the NRA, are arming themselves in record numbers. But law-abiding African-Americans are largely unarmed and have no way to defend themselves because they haven’t availed themselves of their Second Amendment right to carry weapons for self-defense.

Since 2005, Florida, where Trayvon was shot, has had a “Stand your ground” law. Wikipedia describes “Stand your ground” as follows:

A stand-your-ground law states that a person may use deadly force in self-defense when there is reasonable belief of a threat, without an obligation to retreat first. In some cases, a person may use deadly force in public areas without a duty to retreat. Under these legal concepts, a person is justified in using deadly force in certain situations and the “stand your ground” law would be a defense to criminal charges.

It’s clear that Trayvon could have defended himself against George Zimmerman, who he thought was stalking him, and been justified under Florida law.

Like the Freedom Riders of an earlier day who promoted voter registration, now is the time for brave Civil Rights activists to take buses into the south and sign up young African-Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights!

Florida Law Firm Fires Workers For Wearing Orange Shirts

At the Elizabeth R. Wellborn law firm in Florida, fourteen employees were called into a conference room and asked if they were all wearing orange shirts as some kind of protest. They said no. And then they were all fired.

Now here’s the ironic part: Florida is an “at will” state. You can be fired for any reason as long as the reason is not specifically prohibited. If the employees had said that they were protesting working conditions at the firm, they might have been protected by federal law.

Florida Law Firm Fires Workers For Wearing Orange – ABC News.

Anti-Defamation League Calls Anti-Sharia Bill Pointless and an Infringement on Religious Freedom

There’s a bill in the Florida legislature to outlaw “foreign laws” — by which they mean Sharia. The Anti-Defamation League has come out strongly against it:

“This legislation addresses a non-existent threat, but what many don’t realize is that it would be harmful to the religious freedom of all Floridians, including observant Jews.

“In fact, it could pose significant obstacles for divorce and remarriage by observant Jews. SB 1360 could serve as a roadblock to observant Jewish couples seeking a legal divorce through a Jewish tribunal called a Bet Din. Furthermore, it could prohibit Florida courts from recognizing an out of state divorce granted by a court based on a Bet Din arbitration, which regularly occurs.

“This means that a divorced person moving from New York to Florida, for instance, may have to return to court and obtain a divorce from solely civil authorities in order to remarry.

“Through much of the debate on this bill, sponsors and supporters have represented that it has no relation to Islam. Therefore, we were troubled by yesterday’s news reports that the Senate Sponsor’s office was distributing materials about the purported threat of Sharia law (Islamic law) to America’s judicial system.

“And as to the argument that the U.S. Constitution needs to be the supreme law of the land, we fully agree. It is, and the constitution already prohibits the unconstitutional application of religious or foreign law. The bill sponsors simply cannot point to any cases reflecting a need for this imprudent legislation.”

via ADL: ADL Calls Anti-Sharia Bill Pointless and an Infringement on Religious Freedom.

Text of the bill is here.