Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in their first one-to-one debate of the presidential race on Thursday night, delivering their final arguments before the multistate contests on Tuesday on who is better prepared for the White House and highlighting their differences on issues such as health care and immigration. ...more

February 1, 2008

Today is a key date in Hillsborough County's history, though not one that merits celebration. Twenty-five years ago three Hillsborough County commissioners, charged with taking bribes from developers, were led from the courthouse in handcuffs. ...more

January 31, 2008

Highlands County is building the Sebring Parkway around the city of Sebring. If House Bill 683 passes this will bring the parkway to a screeching halt. Highlands County is building the parkway with our own employees and road equipment. We are also building an asphalt plant at our Highlands County Landfill to run off methane gas that is just burning off now into the air now at the cost of $3 million. We are committed Gov. Crist to the greening of Florida. If this bill passes it will put our road and bridge crews out of work. This will ruin Highlands and other counties that due their own work. The Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida wants to bid out the work to them there by costing Highlands County millions of tax dollars. ...more

January 27, 2008

I know editorials are opinion pieces, but opinions that make it to your editorial page should have at least some remote basis in fact. What facts do you have to back your assertion that the rising number of voters registering as independents reflects dissatisfaction with the major party candidates? Surely, you don't mean there is a tide of support for independent candidates, since for all practical purposes there aren't any. Do you have surveys, polls, interviews, etc. to support your statement? Worse, you then lapse into repeating the insipid populist pabulum that we have sent so many jobs overseas that wages have not kept pace with the economy. You really should check the facts. Trade has increased over 10-fold since 1960 to nearly $3.5 trillion –– more than one fourth of our total economy. If it caused unemployment and lower living standards, we would all be on welfare by now. Instead: Real GDP more than doubled, we added 81 million jobs, real per-capita and median incomes rose by a third, inflation and unemployment fell to historically low levels. We still manufacture twice as much as China and the combination of manufacturing, mining, and agriculture as a percent of our GDP remains at near record highs. Yes, the number of people working in manufacturing is declining. The same is happening in nearly every country, including China (where the number of workers in manufacturing has fallen 10-15 percent in recent years). We are witnessing the same miracle in manufacturing today that we saw in agriculture in the mid-20th century. Fewer people making more. It doesn't mean we have more unemployment; it means we have more stuff. ...more

January 15, 2008

A local political spokesperson said the reason there are so many people listed as independent voters these days is due to motor vehicle registrations, when people don't know what to put down for party affiliation. That's partially true, but there's something much bigger going on that neither major party seems to grasp. People are tired of the candidates they elect being so out of touch with their needs. During campaigns, these politicians seem all ears on the issues of the day. They talk about the problems, offer multiple-point plans on how to address then. Then, once elected, nothing is improved and special interests always hold much more sway than constituents. It's no wonder so many people are dropping party affiliations and becoming independents. ...more

January 10, 2008

Easy Life, Not Politics, Doing Us In I want to thank Dallas Dunlap again for coming clean, admitting the Democrats have consistently dealt with the devil. ...more

December 29, 2007

More than 150 Iowans were rustling in their chairs at a community college the other night, waiting for John Edwards. His bus was parked and running outside the door, but it was nearly 45 minutes before he finally made his characteristically late entrance. ...more

December 19, 2007

At a key moment during a labor-sponsored debate in August, John Edwards laid down a marker against Hillary Rodham Clinton. ...more

December 15, 2007

Tax Amendment Mess Letters are showing up more and more about the constitutional amendment dealing with property taxes. I generally am against most of these proposed amendments simply because I think the amendment process is too easy and at the mercy of special interests. ...more

December 12, 2007

Over the last few weeks numerous articles have appeared stating the Legislature will be looking for more things to tax. There also appeared an article by Curt Kiser ("Florida Needs Tax Reform, Not Tax Relief," Other Views, Nov. 20), a former Florida legislator, advocating finding more things to tax rather than providing any tax relief. There also has been article after article of nothing but the Legislature giving our hard-earned tax monies to special interests. ...more

December 9, 2007