Where My Florida Ladies At?

For all the women in Florida I think you want to pay some special attention to the Governor's race next year. If you don't go out and exercise your right to vote you may end up losing other rights before you know it.

TALLAHASSEE - A proposed Constitutional amendment that could outlaw birth control pills in Florida looks a lot like federal legislation that state Attorney General Bill McCollum co-sponsored while in Congress.

McCollum, frontrunner GOP candidate for governor, took no stand last week when asked about the "personhood" question that anti-abortion activists are trying to place on Florida's ballot. The proposed amendment to the state Constitution would establish a human being's "personhood" at the start of biological development, which its sponsors define as fertilization.

That would outlaw abortion and, critics fear, might also lead to bans on oral contraceptives and intrauterine devices, because they can prevent a fertilized egg from developing,

Asked about the initiative, McCollum campaign spokeswoman Shannon Gravitte said that McCollum is firmly "pro-life" but "will not be commenting on hypothetical issues … if this proposal ends up on the ballot voters will certainly know where General McCollum stands."

But history draws a connection between McCollum and the "personhood" initiative, since he co-sponsored similar legislation in Congress in 1988. Then-U.S. Rep. McCollum signed on to California Rep. Bob Dornan's House Joint Resolution 529, which would have assigned to "preborn" persons the protections of the Fifth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments governing rights to due process, citizenship and freedom from slavery.

The resolution defined "personhood" to mean "from the moment of conception and without regard to age, health, or condition of dependency."

Paul Dunn, campaign director for Alex Sink, state Chief Financial Officer and McCollum's Democratic rival in the gubernatorial race, called the 1988 resolution "just one example" of McCollum's Congressional record that is "far outside the mainstream."

Now I understand that quite a few women are pro life and against abortions, but are we really living in a world where you don't want to have the option of taking birth control either? I don't think so. And I don't think that kind of thing will fly in Florida either. Bill McCollum is out of the mainstream and its up to the citizens of Florida to drive that point home to him.

In Which The St. Pete Times PWNS GOP Candidate For Governor, Bill McCollum

Looks like right wing Attorney General Bill McCollum is one of those elected officials that President Obama was referring to last night who is engaging in "scor(ing) short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge."

Leave it to Bill McCollum to further cheapen a national debate on health care that already has been degraded by simplistic, inaccurate buzzwords. Florida's Republican attorney general Tuesday blasted the idea of a government-run health insurance option and tore a page out of the Washington GOP playbook as he warned of the evils of socialized medicine. If these are the sort of scare tactics McCollum plans to engage in during his run for governor, it's going to be an awfully long campaign with too many slogans and too little serious discussion of the challenges facing this state.

McCollum spent 20 years in Congress, and he should be able to read and process legislation. So why did he distort the bills under consideration? "You're proposing that everyone have a socialized government plan that limits my choice of a patient and doctor, my choice of insurance, and limiting the care you're going to get," McCollum told reporters. Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again. These might be the talking points of right-wing radio, but they have been wholly discredited for weeks by reputable sources that have actually analyzed the bills. Florida's attorney general and his party's favorite candidate for governor should have some respect for detail.

If he lies about something as important to our nation as health care reform, you have to ask yourself what he WON'T lie about.

Just, sayin.