Combs Spouts Off

"It's my opinion and it's very true."

  • Calendar

    October 2024
    S M T W T F S
     12345
    6789101112
    13141516171819
    20212223242526
    2728293031  
  • Recent Posts

  • Tag Cloud

  • Archives

Posts Tagged ‘florida’

Don’t do it, Ted!

Posted by Richard on March 4, 2016

I see where Cruz is putting time and money into Florida, where he’s a distant 3rd (~12%), and going after Rubio. Florida is winner-take-all. Cruz is willing to hand Florida to Trump to hurt Rubio. Someone on Twitter said he’s doing the same thing in Ohio, going after Kasich.

I guess he’s gambling that if it’s a 2-man race, he can still overcome Trump’s delegate lead. That may be a bad bet if Trump were to take Florida and Ohio.

If I were Ted, I’d be urging my supporters in Florida and Ohio to vote for Rubio and Kasich respectively. But then, I have a certain amount of decency and principles.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

In Florida, shear regulatory madness

Posted by Richard on September 19, 2014

Since the militarization of police forces began, there have been many instances of outrageous police overreach, and Mark Steyn has documented a number of them. His latest example may have you tearing your hair out.

I often joke with my hairdresser Amanda about the number of state permits she requires for the privilege of cutting my hair. As I point out on page 49 of After America (personally autographed copies of which are exclusively available, etc):

In the Fifties, one in twenty members of the workforce needed government permission in order to do his job. Today, it’s one in three.

That’s tyrannous – which is bad enough, albeit not unique to America: The entire developed world has massively expanded the hyper-regulatory state. But only in America does the Department of Paperwork command lethal force:

Go and read the whole unbelievable story.

Angry crowds should have descended upon the offices of Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation with protest signs. Or tar and feathers. What will it take for a significant portion of the population to rise up and shout, “Enough! This is tyranny!”?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Shovel-ready capes

Posted by Richard on April 21, 2011

In the immortal words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up. Workforce Central Florida is helping out the unemployed in the Orlando area by offering them superhero capes:

The region's federally funded jobs agency is spending more than $73,000 on a media campaign to raise awareness of its services.

As part of a superhero theme, it has created a cartoon character named "Dr. Evil Unemployment" and spent more than $14,000 on 6,000 satiny superhero capes.

It plans to distribute the capes to jobless residents who participate in the agency's "Cape-A-Bility Challenge."

I wonder if they're spending federal stimulus funds on this campaign. If so, do you suppose there's a big sign that says, "Capes funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act"?

I wonder why they feel a need to raise awareness of their services. Are there so many competing federally funded jobs agencies in the Orlando area that they have to aggressively market themselves?  

But mostly I'm thinking: They're fighting Dr. Evil Unemployment with capes. With stagflation looming on the horizon, how long until someone brings back WIN buttons?

Whip Inflation Now button

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Marco Rubio: “A Generational Choice”

Posted by Richard on October 29, 2010

Check out Senate candidate Marco Rubio's excellent two-minute ad and share it with your friends in Florida.


[YouTube link]

HT: Patterico, who also has some good commentary on those lopsidedly Democratic polls out of California — and David Aitken, who passed along the Patterico link.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Defense wins ball games

Posted by Richard on January 9, 2009

Will everyone who thought the Sooners would only score twice please raise your hands?

Hmm, that's what I thought. I think half of you with your hands up are lying. You other three guys must be rabid SEC football fans.

My hand was half-up. I wasn't that surprised by Oklahoma's mere 14 points, and I fully expected Florida to hold them to no more than 20-something.

Actually, what surprised me was how well Oklahoma's defense played — at least for the first half. But Florida eventually wore them down, and Tebow really made that triple option play work in the second half.

As I've said before, the SEC is clearly the strongest football conference, and especially when it comes to defense. I bet at least half a dozen SEC teams could hold the Sooners to less than half their average offensive output.

Which reminds me: Sam Bradford may have had the more impressive stats this year, but I still think Tebow is the better QB and should have won his second Heisman. His achievements were against those tough SEC defenses, not the largely porous ones in the Big 12. 

Oh, well, Tebow is only a junior, and I suspect he'll be back next year.

Congrats, Gators!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Social conservatism on the wane?

Posted by Richard on September 10, 2006

Matt Towery wrote an interesting column the other day entitled Republican voters rejecting social conservatives. His sample size is still a bit too small for drawing sweeping conclusions, but it’s certainly noteworthy when Florida Republicans reject a social conservative for a candidate who endorsed gay civil unions:

… Following the election blowout of Judge Roy "Ten Commandments" Moore in Alabama and the defeat of former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed in Georgia comes Tuesday’s overwhelming victory by Florida’s moderate Republican Attorney General Charlie Crist. By a two-to-one margin, he defeated the more socially conservative state Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher and moved one step closer to succeeding Jeb Bush as governor.

Towery noted that backing civil unions would once have been the "kiss of death" for a Republican, and he has a theory about what changed that:

But ever since Congress, in 2005, rushed to pass through a law to keep alive brain-damaged Terri Schiavo in defiance of Florida and federal courts, the public’s mood on core social issues has shifted.

Indeed, a spokesperson for Schiavo’s family during her final days alive was beaten soundly in a Florida state Senate race on Tuesday.

This trend can be seen in public survey after survey across the nation over the past months.

This isn’t to say social conservatives and the organizations through which they speak and act — like the Christian Coalition — won’t again rise to prominence. But for now, Republican voters across America are tending toward moderation on social issues. They are instead showing more concern for things like immigration, energy costs, security and their own financial futures.

I certainly hope he’s right, and that the GOP gets the message. Here in Colorado, we have a great opportunity to pass the Domestic Partnership Amendment (Referendum I), and I’d like to believe that lots of reasonable and fairminded Republicans will be persuaded by the simple argument of proponents: "It’s not marriage. It’s basic legal rights."
 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »