Over the next couple of days I'm going to put in my two cents on the Florida ballot.

Florida Constitutional Amendment Number 2 as written on a sample ballot:

NO. 2
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
ARTICLE VII, SECTION 3
ARTICLE XII, SECTION 31

Homestead Ad Valorem Tax Credit For Deployed Military Personnel

Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to require the Legislature to provide an additional homestead property tax exemption by law for members of the United States military or military reserves, the United States Coast Guard or its reserves, or the Florida National
Guard who receive a homestead exemption and were deployed in the previous year on active duty outside the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii in support of military operations designated by the Legislature. The exempt amount will be based upon the number of days in the previous calendar year that the person was deployed on active duty outside the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii in support of military operations designated by the Legislature. The amendment is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2011.

You can see the full text of the amendment here, just filter for 2010.

This portion of the Florida Constitution is a little lengthy so here is a link.

The amendment would add the following part (g) to ARTICLE VII, SECTION 3.

(g) By general law and subject to the conditions specified therein, each person who receives a homestead exemption as provided in section 6 of this article; who was a member of the United States military or military reserves, the United States Coast Guard or its reserves, or the Florida National Guard; and who was deployed during the preceding calendar year on active duty outside the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii in support of military operations designated by the legislature shall receive an additional exemption equal to a percentage of the taxable value of his or her homestead property. The applicable percentage shall be calculated as the number of days during the preceding calendar year the person was deployed on active duty outside the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii in support of military operations designated by the legislature divided by the number of days in that year.

But wait there's more...

There would also be this addition to ARTICLE XII.

ARTICLE XII SCHEDULE SECTION 31. Additional ad valorem tax exemption for certain members of the armed forces deployed on active duty outside of the United States.--The amendment to Section 3 of Article VII providing for an additional ad valorem tax exemption for members of the United States military or military reserves, the United States Coast Guard or its reserves, or the Florida National Guard deployed on active duty outside of the United States in support of military operations designated by the legislature and this section shall take effect January 1, 2011.

As far as I can tell this is a good deal for active duty military stationed outside of the continental U.S.

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Over the next couple of days I'm going to put in my two cents on the Florida ballot.

Florida Constitutional Amendment Number 1 as written on a sample ballot:

NO. 1
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
ARTICLE VI, SECTION 7

Repeal Of Public Campaign Financing Requirement

Proposing the repeal of the provision in the State Constitution that requires public financing of campaigns of candidates for elective statewide office who agree to campaign spending limits.

Here is the text of the Florida Constitution.

ARTICLE VI, SECTION 7.

Campaign spending limits and funding of campaigns for elective state-wide office.--It is the policy of this state to provide for state-wide elections in which all qualified candidates may compete effectively. A method of public financing for campaigns for state-wide office shall be established by law. Spending limits shall be established for such campaigns for candidates who use public funds in their campaigns. The legislature shall provide funding for this provision. General law implementing this paragraph shall be at least as protective of effective competition by a candidate who uses public funds as the general law in effect on January 1, 1998.

You have to look at the State Statutes if you want to find out what the actual law surrounding campaign finance is.

106.30

Short title.
—

Sections 106.30-106.36 may be cited as the “Florida Election Campaign Financing Act.”
History.
—

s. 1, ch. 86-276.
106.31

Legislative intent.
—

The Legislature finds that the costs of running an effective campaign for statewide office have reached a level which tends to discourage persons from becoming candidates and to limit the persons who run for such office to those who are independently wealthy, who are supported by political committees representing special interests which are able to generate substantial campaign contributions, or who must appeal to special interest groups for campaign contributions. The Legislature further finds that campaign contributions generated by such political committees are having a disproportionate impact vis-a-vis contributions from unaffiliated individuals, which leads to the misperception of government officials unduly influenced by those special interests to the detriment of the public interest. Furthermore, it is the intent of the Legislature that the purpose of public campaign financing is to make candidates more responsive to the voters of the State of Florida and as insulated as possible from special interest groups. The Legislature intends ss. 106.30-106.36 to alleviate these factors, dispel the misperception, and encourage qualified persons to seek statewide elective office who would not, or could not otherwise do so and to protect the effective competition by a candidate who uses public funding.

Why should the tax payers be mandated by the state to fund election campaigns involuntarily? The idea that public campaign financing decreases the effectiveness of lobbyists is absurd. It's not like lobbyists are only active before an election. Lobbyists lobby constantly; it's not a part-time job.

Tea Party candidates have been largely effective in many states (without mainstream party backing) is proof enough that campaign finance laws are irrelevant.

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Juan Williams has been fired by NPR.

This was done because Juan Williams no longer fits the narrative of NPR. This is profound considering that "public broadcasting" has a narrative? Hmm...

Why did NPR say that they fired him?

NPR fired Williams Wednesday night after 10 years with the network for comments he made about Muslims on Fox News.

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Anyone who has watched the British comedy "Coupling" would understand what is happening here. In one episode Sally, a liberal character, says that the (conservative) Tories are the establishment party. Patrick, the conservative character points out that the leftists are currently in power, so they (the leftists) are the establishment.

Sally replies, "No! You’re not the goodies, we’re the goodies! We’re lefties!! We’re always goodies!"

I never thought I would see this played out in real life, much less by a U.S. president.

“We need you fired up,” Obama told a crowd estimated by police to be roughly 35,000 on the campus of Ohio State University. “You can defy the conventional wisdom.”

Obama said the election on Nov. 2 was “a contest between our deepest hopes and our deepest fears.”

“And the other side is playing on fear. That’s what they do.”

Obama, turning again to his attacks on millions of dollars in campaign ads run by independent groups that do not under law have to disclose their donors, referred to special interests as an “empire.”

“The empire is striking back,” he said.

How can the establishment party call anyone else "The Empire"?

Can somebody clearly define a "special interest group"? Vague language, such as "special interests", is one of the reasons we have such a confused public. There are too many straw men out there.

Obama has blamed everyone and everything for his declining poll numbers. Is it possible that his policies have something to do with it? How many democrats are running on their stimulus plan votes or their votes for the health care bill?

Just run on substance Mr. President. Whining because people are working against your policy is not substance.

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It would seem, once again, that Europe is trying to give a signal of what's to come if America doesn't wise up.

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

In a speech in Potsdam, she said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work.

Mrs Merkel's comments come amid recent outpourings of strong anti-immigrant feeling from mainstream politicians.

A recent survey showed that more than 30% of Germans believed Germany was "overrun by foreigners".

The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for the social benefits.

I have written about this before.

Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday that at "the beginning of the 60s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country."

She added: "We kidded ourselves a while, we said: 'They won't stay, sometime they will be gone', but this isn't reality."

"And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other... has failed, utterly failed."

Correspondents say Mrs Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU and its allies to take a tougher stance and require immigrants to do more to adapt to German society.

Earlier this week, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the CSU, said it was "obvious that immigrants from different cultures like Turkey and Arab countries, all in all, find it harder" to integrate.

"'Multikulti' is dead," Mr Seehofer said.

The entire premise of a "multicultural society" is flawed. Social structures, in order to function, require that the people comprising that structure have similar beliefs. A Society basically IS a culture. So, how can you have multiple cultures within one society? The answer is simple. Without one side caving to the other; you can't! This is what Germany is just now learning. The problem for Germany is that the German culture will soon be the minority culture, at which point things will change drastically.

The only way that some cultures can exist is by limited exposure to other dissimilar cultures. This is accomplished with borders. Borders are social constructs where two cultures (at some point) agree to keep their groups separate.

True Muslims can't assimilate in Germany, nor do they want to. For a Muslim to assimilate would be blasphemy. Living in Germany does not make one a German. Germany is finding this out a little too late.

Those who proclaim, "Can't we all just get along" obviously have no grasp on reality.

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