Earlier today, BiPM reported on the Human RIghts Campaign inexplicable endorsement of Susan Collins over Tom Allen in the Maine Senate race.

I fired off a note to HRC and surprisingly, received a response from Lisette Fee, Member Services Manager.

I can't say the response left me with warm and fuzzies.

One of the arguments in the Democratic primary is that Hillary Clinton has demonstrated her ability to win the larger states, those states that have the all important electoral college votes that will ultimately decide our next president. With the exception of Illinois, Barack Obama's home state, it has been a clean sweep for her of the largest states.

So, what if the nomination process was based upon the actual election process? That is, assign the number of electoral college votes to the winner in each state.

Using that measure, we have a clear winner: Clinton - 284, Obama - 202, Still Open - 52. (Oops - Hawaii was in error - hard to spot those little states....)

No opinion being offered here - I just thought the map was pretty.

So much of our political focus, especially this year, is on the presidential candidates, that down ticket candidates seem to have a much more difficult time catching the attention of the media, the voters and especially contributors.

But it's those local elections that are the spawning grounds of our future leaders. City leaders become county leaders. County leaders become state leaders. State leaders go to congress and so on and so on.

Living in a state like Florida we get to see this truth play out on a regular basis, especially as a breeding ground for the most asinine right wing idiots that you can only make you scratch your head and wonder "who really votes for these people?"

And we see more and more the importance of cutting these people off early, before they have the chance to climb the food chain and assert their influence to an even wider audience.

Follow me below the fold for two specific examples from one of our worst "pools" down here - Hillsborough County (Tampa).

No, this diary has nothing to do with Florida's ongoing delegate problem. That seems to be a minor concern at the moment.

First, it was the qualification of constitutional amendment #2, the so called "Marriage Protection Amendment"

This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.

This amendment will seek to permanently enshrine discrimination into the Florida constitution.

Sometimes you can make a difference.

Days after Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced that he was no different than most of the Republican thugs leading this country by appointing the wife of his general counsel to serve as the chairman of the Public Employees Relations Commission, she has resigned.

Crist had touted her "advanced" degree (master's from the College of Medicine at the University of Florida) and figured that her experience as a dermatology assistant was just what the state needed to deal with Florida's public employees and help spend the $98,000 a year salary.

The uproar over the appointment and the pall it cast upon Crist's "golden boy who could do no wrong" image, seems to have forced this ill conceived appointment back to where it belonged - nipped and tucked!

I almost fell off my chair.

Looking through the recommended diary list I couldn't believe my eyes - entry after entry that wasn't either a "Clinton is the spawn of Satan" or "Obama isn't ready yet" diary.

Until I got to the last one...oh well, it's certainly an improvement over the state of things here the past few weeks.

Perhaps there is hope for us yet.

Keep up the good work.

Disclaimer: I live in Florida and have been actively involved in the delegate selection process, particularly the implementation of the minority goals for delegate selection.

The thought of spending millions of dollars for a re-vote in Florida and Michigan to solve this crisis is the most stupid thing I think I have ever heard. People need to get real! We are likely talking about an actual change in the allocation of Florida's delegates that would likely be fewer than 10 delegates. $8,000,000 for 10 delegates, get real. I can think of far more productive uses for this money, especially in Florida where we are trying to win one of the legislatures before 2012 so we can have a say in the next redistricting effort (the 2002 redistricting was the kiss of death for Democrats in Florida.)

For me, this really is the bottom line - I don't care where the money comes from. Spending it on this re-vote would be the gross waste of money. We wonder why the Republicans always win the "fiscal conservative" argument!

The talk in Florida today is that suddenly a re-vote in Florida by mail is gaining momentum.

A mail-in primary appeared to be the favorite solution Sunday as politicians and pundits grappled with how to lift the state's renegade status. A mail-in election could cost as much as $6 million, Sen. Bill Nelson said, and since Governor Dean has said he's not going to do it in the DNC, the Florida Democratic Party's going to have to go out and raise the money.

You can read the entire Miami Herald piece here.

What I haven't heard mentioned anywhere are the Convention rules that state if a state holds their determining election after May 1 they are entitled to an additional 30% of their delegates. According to my figures, this would be approximately an additional 60 delegates for Florida and 46 for Michigan.

In a special election to replace Republican Bob Allen, who resigned in the wake of his conviction for soliciting an undercover male police officer in a local park, the Democrats have gained a seat in the Florida House of Represenatives.

Tony Sasso has won the special election by approximately 400 votes in a traditionally Republican district that includes Cape Canaveral and vicinity and parts of western Orange County.

I've resigned myself to the fact that mentioning Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in one context or another will vault a diary to the recommended list faster than Bill in Portland ME can ask for Nebraska Senate candidate Scott Kleeb to appear in less clothing.

But could we at least keep the use of the word BREAKING to some newsworthy story - not one where some obscure state official has come out and endorsed your candidate.

It's nice information, but it isn't going to help me with the skyrocketing mortgage on my house. I'm sure it's important to you, but it isn't going to keep my nephew from having to do his third tour in Iraq. The endorsement might actually mean something in the home state of the individual, but it's not going to keep the seas from flooding my 7th floor condo in twenty years.

There are times when government truly embarrases me. Many times it's the way that they deal with our senior citizens, especially our low income seniors.

This hits home for me because of have a mom and dad that fall into this category and I constantly have to be on the lookout for them.

The latest boondoggle - the economic stimulus package passed in it's full wisdom by our beloved congress and signed into law by our chimp in chief.

***UPDATE*** Link to the IRS bulletin that spells out what social security recipients must do is here.

This diary may violate a cardinal rule - never type when you are so angry you can't see straight. This is Florida after all, what do I expect?

Florida parents don't have much faith in evolution.

Only 22 percent want public schools to teach an evolution-only curriculum, while 50 percent want only faith-based theories such as creationism or intelligent design, according to a new St. Petersburg Times survey.

An article in the St Pete Times here has the headline "Public: Faith trumps science".

DISCLAIMER - I'm from Florida. We don't have any delegates. My hopes of attending my first convention as a delegate were dashed by the pissing contest between the Florida Democratic Party and the DNC - and I was caught in the middle. I"m going to have to rely upon the rest of you to decide the nominee of my party. I'M NOT HAPPY WITH WHAT I'M SEEING FROM ALL OF YOU SO FAR.

This notion that the superdelegates should be required to ignore their own best judgement and reflect "the will of the people" just escapes me. What people? If they are a congressperson should they accede to the vote in their congressional district? If they are a senator or governor, the overall vote of their state? What do the DNC members do - pull the ouija board out of the attic?

Come on people! These are the leaders of our party. Are we saying that they are no better than 7 year olds who need others to make decisions for them.

It was announced early this evening by the Florida Division of Elections that the so called "Marriage Protection Amendment" had gathered enough signatures (650,000, more than the 611,000 needed) at the last minute to qualify for the November ballot. You can read more here.

Florida4marriage.org collected 649,346 signatures, well above the required 611,009, according to the Secretary of State's Office. "I'm grateful to God first and our supporters second," said organizer John Stemberger. "The bottom line is kids need a mom and dad. Same sex marriages subject kids to a vast, untested social experiment."

Florida was going to be a tough nut to crack anyway. It's trended the wrong way ever since the 2000 debacle.

Think you have a feel for what's going to happen tonight in Florida?

Most of us like to think we do, so here's your chance.  

The one who predicts the results closest in BOTH the Democratic and Republican primaries will receive a gift of Florida sunshine (the perfect gift for anyone suffering north of the Mason-Dixon line).

Here are my predictions (please use a similar format - otherwise I will have to institute the use of touchscreen machines, which I will be able to get a good buy on after this election - our last with those machines.)

DEM
42% Clinton
30% Obama
15% Edwards
REP
32% McCain
28% Romney
20% Huckabee
14% Guiliani

Vote early, vote often (but only the earliest posting will count!). Polls close at 7pm, 8pm in the Florida panhandle.

I'll admit it. I'm a numbers junkie. My background was marketing analysis and some health care analysis and I've always been a computer nerd. I remember the excitement of trying to solve physics problems on a teletype tie in to the Darthmouth mainframe computer and buying my first Apple II computer in the 70's.

Naturally, upon moving to Florida and having way too much free time on my hands, getting immersed in politics was a natural outlet. And for someone like me, Florida is a great place to be.

Since we are obviously faced with weeks and weeks of diaries where my candidate walks on water and your candidate is the pond scum beneath their feet, I thought it might be worthwhile to come up with a different means for evaluating candidates and perhaps determining the party's nomination for president.

To whit, I would recommend that from this point forward, at any point where a diary gets into a candidate pissing contest and exceeds 50 comments, a moritorium is placed on future entries and an immediate game of rock, paper scissors is instituted between a champion chosen for each candidate.

I was having coffee with a friend yesterday who was down in Florida from Massachusetts and he mentioned that he had been to a local Democratic club meeting the night before. He related that it was the strangest thing he had ever seen; a presidential election year and absolutely no pins, buttons, signs, enthusiasm or even talking about presidential candidates.

He's right. I was at our county DEC meeting the week before and except for a "rah rah" speech from the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, you wouldn't even know it was a presidential year.

Add to that the total media saturation for the Republican candidates, who are all living here for the next few days and it makes for a very strange environment.