Free Republic

After months of thinking it over, Sen. Paula Dockery is poised to kick-off her candidacy for governor, party insiders told the News Service of Florida on Friday. The Lakeland Republican is expected to open a campaign account early next week – as a prelude to a formal campaign announcement the following Tuesday in her hometown. It would set the stage for a potentially combative Republican primary contest with Attorney General Bill McCollum, who had seemed on an unimpeded path to the nomination. Democrat Alex Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, doesn’t appear likely to face a serious primary challenge. For...

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – Officials say a Florida Panhandle Fish and Wildlife officer lost a 5-foot alligator after bringing it to his daughter's school for show and tell. Searchers scoured a wooded area surrounding the school Friday afternoon. The alligator jumped out of the man's vehicle Friday morning. The animal's mouth was taped.

National Republicans met with two potential challengers to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson on Wednesday as the GOP establishment continued to search for a candidate who can topple the outspoken freshman Democrat... State Rep. Eric Eisnaugle, R-Orlando, and businessman Bruce O'Donoghue sat down with GOP lawmakers and strategists from the National Republican Congressional Committee in meetings that participants described as productive -- although no verdict was reached. "It's great to see that these folks are very serious about the direction that this country is going," said O'Donoghue, who wouldn't commit to run. "This race is going to draw national attention, and...

Note: The following text is a quote: Superseding Indictment Returned Charging Members of the Krazy Locos Criminal Street Gang with Two Homicides, Robbery, Firearms, and Narcotics Charges Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael F. McAuliffe, Palm Beach County State Attorney, John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, Hugo Barrera, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations, and Ric L. Bradshaw, Sheriff, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office,...

Alan Grayson's recent self indulgent behavior has paralyzed his ability to serve as an advocate for the citizens of Central Florida. On December 16th 2009, the day on which the Sons of Liberty dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, Central Floridians will again say no to the overreaching government intrusion propagated by Grayson. Central Floridians will drop a money bomb to show Grayson and Pelosi that an oppressive, overreaching government has not and never will be what makes America great. Pledge your support today, so that Grayson is defeated.

Alan Grayson, lame Congressman Rick Sanchez, lame news readerSeparated at Birth?

A group of angry Florida voters has launched the Web site MyCongressmanIsNuts.com in a drive to oust Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson, the outspoken congressman who grabbed national headlines earlier this month by calling an adviser to the Fed chairman a "K Street whore." The site is raising money to defeat the Orlando-area congressman and the site's organizers describe it as a "more appropriate alternative" to Mr. Grayson's CongressmanWithGuts.com, which the Grayson campaign says helped raised more than $250,000 in the first three weeks of October. As of Friday morning, the "Nuts" site took in about $3,335 since its launch Thursday...

CBS4 I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock went undercover with other I-Team member to find suspect medical clinics operating in South Florida one step ahead of the law. The grainy, shaky undercover video tape shot by the CBS4 I-Team shows dozens of...........

A Florida manatee whose exciting yet perilous voyage to the frigid waters of the Northeast that amazed spectators along the Eastern Seaboard is recuperating at the Miami Seaquarium from injuries related to cold stress he suffered from his two-week stay near a Linden, N.J., oil refinery. The rescue, which took nearly eight hours and the help of 30 people, entailed using a large net and Conoco-Phillips johnboats. Rescuers failed capturing it three times, but the fourth time was the charm. Once they got the 1,100-pound, 10-foot-long manatee onto the muddy creek bank, a truck transferred Ilya to an indoor heated...

Conservative columnist and radio host Andrea Shea King had her Radio Patriot site at Google's Blogspot taken offline last night by Google.King had maintained the Radio Patriot at Blogspot for over three years. The site was taken down without warning and without explanation. King's efforts to contact Google have been for nought so far. Attempts to bring up the site get this message:Blog has been removed Sorry, the blog at radiopatriot.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.King is a vocal opponent of Barack Obama. She has posted many entries criticizing his presidency and reporting on...

Talk about desperation. Charlie Crist has set up a fake website to cover the “truth” about Marco Rubio.. Why do I call it a fake website?The website has blog posts time stamped all the way back to 2007 even thought it was only created yesterday. (http://truthaboutrubio.com/) It tries to tie Marco Rubio to a Hitler video parody of Charlie Crist — a video Rubio condemned upon finding out about it (he should have gone after it for a lack of comedic value other than the sun tan jab), but that this Charlie Crist backed site is fixated on. Funny how...

LATEST RALLY DRAWS OVER 1,000+ IN LIBERAL SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA (ON THE ROAD IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA) - Crowds continue to build as the Tea Party Express II: Countdown to Judgment Day (www.TeaPartyExpress.org) gains momentum! Yesterday in the very liberal San Francisco Bay Area, more than 1,000 people turned out to show their support for smaller government, less deficit-spending, and opposition to government-run healthcare. The rally held particular importance as a Special Election for Congress takes place on November 3rd in California's 10th Congressional District. Conservative candidate for Congress, David Harmer, spoke at the event. The Tea Party Express II...

Charlie Crist is the front runner in the Florida Senate race. He is also the incumbent Governor of Florida. By any reasonable measure, including fundraising, the Florida Senate race should be his for the taking. Except it is not happening for him. Charlie Crist is becoming so desperate that his campaign has descended to farcical parodies of Nixonian tactics. The campaign has decided to attack itself and blame Marco Rubio. We know this because, when caught, their lame cover up proved they were behind everything. Let’s review from the very beginning. Marco Rubio announced he would be running for the...

Video: Rubio on Morning Joe, Buchanan on Fox

A Florida man says he was fired from his job at The Home Depot for wearing an American flag pin that said "One nation under God, indivisible." Trevor Keezer, 20, said he had worn the button ever since he started working at the home improvement retailer 19 months ago. He said it was his way of supporting U.S. troops, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Keezer, whose brother Army Spc. Steven Keezer Jr. is set to return to Iraq in December, said none of his supervisors had anything negative to say about the pin until last month when he began bringing his...

ARCADIA, Fla. | President Obama's visit to a massive solar power plant Tuesday was supposed to highlight the benefits of his $787 billion stimulus plan, passed soon after he took office. But one sign that the message may not be connecting: The Republican governor who in February publicly embraced both the president and the plan was nowhere to be seen this time. In fact, Gov. Charlie Crist was noticeably absent from all of the president's events in Florida on Monday and Tuesday. He did not appear once with Mr. Obama, and even went so far as to imply Tuesday that...

PORT CHARLOTTE - Two men, armed with a knife and tire iron, reportedly forced their way inside a Port Charlotte home Saturday night, only to find the occupants had guns. The botched home invasion robbery ended quickly when one of the suspects sustained a nonfatal gunshot wound to the stomach, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities have arrested one man, and intend to charge the other upon his release from a Fort Myers-area hospital in connection to the attempted robbery at the 21000 block of Beaverton Avenue. The incident occurred around 10 p.m. as Peter L. Gilmore, 69,...

PALM BAY, Fla. -- An illegal immigrant in Palm Bay faces multiple counts of sexual battery after officers say he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl. David Sanchez, 28, investigators say, used a family friendship to rape the child. Sanchez is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who has already been deported once for doing the same thing to another child in Alabama. Investigators say he returned to the U.S. in mid-2008 where he began having an unlawful sexual relationship with a then, 12-year-old child. On Sunday detectives arrested Sanchez after the girl’s father found him having sex with his daughter...

While many people were wondering what President Barack Obama did to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite began researching another question: Can he even accept the award? Yes, she concluded, but only if he asks her for permission. Well, her and the rest the lawmakers on Capitol Hill. So on Tuesday the Brooksville Republican sent a letter to Obama requesting that he fulfill a "Constitutional obligation to obtain Congress' consent." The letter, co-signed by Republican Reps. Cliff Stearns of Ocala and Ron Paul of Texas, sets off debate about an obscure provision of the U.S. Constitution that...

DAVIE - The father of a 3-year-old allegedly molested by a family friend may get a harsher penalty than the alleged offender police say he and a neighbor severely beat. Thirty-eight-year-old Luke Petruschke was so badly hurt in the weekend attack he had to be placed in a medically induced coma. Police say 27-year-old Manuel Vega and a friend tried to make it look like he was in a car accident. The boy's grandmother says Vega is a good dad who just "lost it." If he recovers, police say Petruschke will face charges of lewd and lascivious molestation. Vega and...

Yeah, granted, he offered this as part of his boilerplate opening pleasantries, but ask yourself how the media would have answered the question of the day had it been Bush saluting a congressman who’d recently called a woman lobbyist a “K Street whore” — on Alex Jones’s radio show, no less. Even Democrats went after Grayson, with Anthony Weiner going so far as to say he’s “one fry short of a Happy Meal” before lamely apologizing. The RNC is naturally leaping at the chance to rub Obama’s face in it, but the beauty of Grayson is that he’s spewed so...

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning that he didn't know President Barack Obama was in Florida yesterday. Last week, Crist spoke candidly about his decision to appear with President Barack Obama during his first visit to Florida, saying that it was appropriate to show respect for the nation's highest office. But Crist didn't appear with Obama when the latter spoke in Jacksonville yesterday, and the governor has no plans to appear with him today.

...Among liberals and progressives, there is a puzzling admiration for Crist, long considered by Democratic and Republican veterans of Florida's political scene to be something of an opportunist if not a lightweight....

Marco Rubio, the underdog gaining steam in his race against Gov. Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate, will appeal to Broward Republicans Monday, setting up what could be a showdown between the two candidates in Broward. The former state House speaker is scheduled to speak at the Broward Republican Executive Committee's monthly 7 p.m. meeting at Sheraton Suites in Fort Lauderdale. The meeting is not closed, which means Rubio supporters could pack the room. Broward is important turf for Crist -- in the past it has produced a loyal base for the governor. A straw poll in Broward went in Crist's...

A spokesman for Rep. Alan Grayson is defending the Florida Democrat’s use of the word “whore” to describe a female official at the Federal Reserve, pointing to a secondary dictionary definition to argue that Grayson meant only that the woman had sold her soul for financial gain. “The attack was on her professional career, not her personal life,” Grayson spokesman Todd Jurkowski wrote in an e-mail to POLITICO. “The second definition of ‘whore’ in the American Heritage Dictionary is 'A person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain.’ “I think a reasonable person could believe that a person who...

Please protest Bill Ayers speaking to the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education in Orlando Fl - Friday Oct, 30th! He will be influencing young college students who are becoming teachers!!!!!!!!

Last time President Barack Obama visited America's biggest battleground state, our unemployment rate was nearly two points lower and his approval rating in Florida nearly 20 points higher. It was February, and he was in Fort Myers touting the $787 billion stimulus package. Today as he visits a new solar energy plant southeast of Tampa, the political climate is a lot chillier. Unemployment has risen, anxious seniors have spent months fretting about the health care debate and independent voters have increasingly soured on the president. It could all add up to problems for Democrats in the midterm elections. (snip) Gubernatorial...

When Gunnery Sgt. Marcus Hyman was told he’d get to sit down with Barack Obama on Monday, the Marine knew what he wanted to find out: What’s the president’s plan for Afghanistan? Obama didn’t go into great detail answering Hyman, the young man said after their chat, but the future of the faltering war was clearly on the president’s mind during his afternoon visit to Jacksonville Naval Air Station. (snip) Not everyone in the audience was as excited — some sailors said they were upset about being ordered to come — but for many, the speech was a unique opportunity.

Alan Grayson, Florida Democrat, has a reputation for inflammatory rhetoric, but he took it even further when showing his disdain for Federal Reserve senior adviser Linda Robertson by calling her a “K Street whore” in a recent radio interview. “This lobbyist, this K street whore, is trying to teach me about economics,” Mr. Grayson fumed in a segment for a radio program hosted by Alex Jones on the Genesis Communications Network. “This K street whore is trying to teach me about economics,” Mr. Jones repeated back to the congressman. "Who was that particular K street whore?" “I don’t remember her...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is drawing criticism from his congressional colleagues, but President Obama offered him some warm words at a Miami fundraiser for the Democratic congressional campaign committees last night. Obama, in introducing the members of Congress in attendance, called Grayson – along with Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Kendrick Meek – as “outstanding members of Congress.” Obama may regret his praise of Grayson, who is now drawing fire from members in both parties for referring to Linda Robertson, the adviser to Obama’s Fed Chief Ben Bernanke as a “K Street whore” in a radio interview last month. And...

Republicans and Democrats slammed Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) for calling Linda Robertson, an adviser to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, a “K Street whore” in a month-old radio interview that circulated on Capitol Hill Monday night. “There’s no call for that language. No call for it. That’s absurd. If he was standing here now, I’d say that to him,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) “He’s out of control,” added Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. The remarks are the latest to surface in a string of controversial statements by Grayson, who said on...

Based on legislation and case law, the U.S. government's attitude toward increased rights for gun owners has been more favorable in recent years than ever before.In the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use. It was the first Supreme Court case in U.S. history to directly address whether the right to keep and bear arms is a right of individuals in addition to a collective right that applies to state-regulated militias.As a result, additional pleas to increase...

South Florida homeowners walking away from underwater mortgages By MONICA HATCHER Miami Herald Sunday, October 25, 2009 Andres Duque thought he got a real steal when he paid $125,000 for his Little Haiti condo. But four years later, similar units are selling for $35,000 and even less. And so, faced with the prospect of being underwater on his mortgage — owing more than the unit is worth — for the next 20 years, Duque, 33, made what seemed to him like a rational choice: to cut and run. He stopped paying the mortgage, basically forcing the lender to take the...

ORANGE PARK, Fla. — Investigators have finished interviewing all the registered sex offenders who live near where a slain Florida girl first vanished but don't believe there is a suspect in that group, authorities said Friday. ...

Oct. 25, 2009— The man who made $7 billion in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, Jeffry Picower, was found dead in his Palm Beach, Fla., swimming pool Sunday. The Palm Beach Fire Department told ABC News that Picower had no pulse when fire rescue workers arrived at his oceanfront mansion after his wife called 911. She and his housekeeper pulled his body from the pool shortly after noon. No one benefited more from the Madoff scheme that Picower, according to bankruptcy lawyers who sued him and alleged he had taken out $7 billion more than he had put in. Click...

Republican activist Ed Napolitano has apologized to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, and resigned from all his Republican Party positions, over the actions of a Wasserman Schultz political opponent at an event sponsored by the club Napolitano used to lead. Napolitano’s resignation and apology were prompted by what happened at the Southeast Republican Club on Oct. 6. Instead of the usual community center meeting room, the Napolitano-led club met at a gun range. Among the approximately 40 people at the event was Robert Lowry, a Republican seeking his party’s nomination to run against Wasserman Schultz next year. Lowry shot...

Marco Rubio capitalizes on a photo of Charlie Crist hugging Barack Obama. BY CARLOS MILLER Marco Rubio has less political experience than Charlie Crist. And he hasn’t raised nearly as much money in his run against the governor for U.S. Senate. And he still lags behind the governor in polls leading up the November race. But he hasn’t hugged Barack Obama. And that just may be his ace in the hole. The former republican House Speaker has seized on a February photo that shows Crist hugging Obama as to why he is the better candidate. And it appears to be...

Authorities say he was found at the bottom of his Palm Beach home's pool Sunday afternoon by his wife and could not be revived...

Ghost hunters say Deering Estate is ground zero for lost spirits A Coconut Grove paranormal team says it has found evidence of ghosts at the Deering Estate. Neither the hot film Paranormal Activity nor TV's popular Ghost Hunters can compete with Miami-Dade's historic Deering Estate at Cutler. Ghost trackers investigating paranormal activity on the site say they recently found more than 60 disembodied voices coming from the county-owned estate -- once the home of wealthy industrialist Charles Deering, of International Harvester fame. One voice captured on a digital recorder seems to say, ``We're trapped here.'' Don't believe it? The Deering...

The Tea Party Express II launches at 11:00 am today from San Diego's Tuna Harbor Park, just across from the USS Midway!! Woo hoo!! We'll be there!! The coast to coast Tea Party Express schedule includes San Diego and Los Angeles today, Bakersfield and Fresno tomorrow, and then it's on to Nevada and beyond to Florida!! Conservative groups have joined forces to make this massive national effort possible. Besides the lead sponsor, the Our Country Deserves Better Committee, the Tea Party Express II enjoys support from Grassfire.org, ResistNet, Free Republic, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, National Tax Limitation Committee, Americans for...

The GOP needs to shed its image as the "old white guy party," Jeb Bush said this week. Speaking at George Washington University, Bush said Republicans need to reach out to a more diverse group of voters. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that in order for a political party to be successful it has to reach out to everyone," Bush said, according to the GW Hatchet. "In politics, you never win when you say 'us and them.' We need a more welcoming message."

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Bryce Williams wasn't expecting to walk through a metal detector or have his bags screened for explosives at the Greyhound bus terminal near downtown Orlando. But Williams and 689 other passengers went through tougher-than-normal security procedures Thursday as part of a random check coordinated by the U.S. The idea is to keep off guard terrorists and others who mean harm, thereby improving safety for passengers and workers. There was no specific threat to the bus station on John Young Parkway south of Colonial Drive. Although the TSA is best known for its agents at airports, the agency's Visible Intermodal Prevention...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a big number that only tells part of the story. The number of banks that have failed so far this year topped 100 on Friday — hitting 106 by the end of the day — the most in nearly two decades. But the trouble in the banking system from bad loans and the recession goes even deeper. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively — partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad...

The Florida solar panel plant cost $150 million to build. A field of orange trees makes more sense. The state of Florida is completing the final touches on a solar panel plant that cost $150 million to build and will only power 3,000 homes. Barack Obama will visit this solar-paneled cash dump next week. The AP reported: The Desoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center will power a small fraction of Florida Power & Light’s 4-million plus customer base; nevertheless, at 25 megawatts, it will generate nearly twice as much energy as the second-largest photovoltaic facility in the U.S. The White...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2009 – The Army Reserve’s top enlisted soldier retires this month from an Army that’s vastly different from the one he was drafted into almost 40 years ago. Then-Army Staff Sgt. Leon E. Caffie points to a hit during Army Reserve training in Florida in the 1970s. Caffie is finishing his military career at the top enlisted soldier in the Army Reserve. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "The Army Reserve has finally arrived," Command Sgt. Maj. Leon E. Caffie said. The Army has learned hard lessons, he added, and the Army Reserve now is...

Pinellas Park, Florida-- A six year old girl sent to live with her grandparents as a baby is now being evicted from her home, for being too young. The grandparents, Jimmy and Judie Stottler, live in a Pinellas Park retirement community that doesn't allow children. The Home Owners Association now wants the child removed. "For some reason, there's a few, just a few who don't want Kimberly. And I just don't get it," said Judie Stottler. The granddaughter was taken from her home at just six months old after the state discovered her mother was abusing drugs. She's lived with...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The group most threatened by swine flu and most in need of the new vaccine, world health authorities say, is that of pregnant women. For example, Aubrey Opdyke. On June 27, Opdyke, a 27-year-old waitress and former high school swimmer who weighed 135 pounds before her pregnancy and had no health risks other than a smoking habit, came down with mild flu symptoms. She just came home from the hospital three weeks ago.

Fred, Yesterday, we received a double dose of encouraging news in our effort to elect Marco Rubio to the U.S. Senate. Early in the morning, we learned about a new Quinnipiac poll showing Marco has cut Charlie Crist's Senate primary lead in half.  What was once a 55-26 margin is now down to 50-35. Late yesterday, a second poll was released by Rasmussen Reports.  While it showed a similar margin (49-35) in the Republican primary, it also showed Marco leading Democrat frontrunner Kendrick Meek by 15 points, 46-31. Thanks to supporters like you, we are making progress – not...

"We'll get you," Diena Thompson said today on "Good Morning America." "And, hopefully, justice will be served."