Sugar-Laced Agency Airs Acrid Gallagher Ad

The Tampa Tribune ^ | Sep 3, 2006 | WILLIAM MARCH and MICHAEL FECHTER

[8mmMauser]

TAMPA - Florida's sugar industry, which has spent millions attacking Jim Davis in the Democratic primary for governor, has now piled in on the other side of the race, helping fund an advertising attack on Tom Gallagher in the Republican primary.

Since Aug. 11, Big Sugar has poured around $800,000 into an organization called "Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Government," which is running the ad against Gallagher.

The ad attempts, with no factual basis, to link an ethics complaint against Gallagher to Florida's crisis in homeowners insurance rates.

The Truth and Integrity committee is linked to and is supported by another committee financed largely by a supporter of Charlie Crist, Gallagher's opponent in the Republican primary.

On Thursday, around the same time its ad began running, Truth and Integrity received $500,000 in contributions from major Florida sugar companies including U.S. Sugar Corp., Flo-Sun Inc. and related companies.

Truth and Integrity had previously received $100,000 from companies associated with Alico Inc., a sugar, citrus and cattle agribusiness, and $255,000 from another committee called the Coalition for Florida Families, an organization funded in part by U.S. Sugar through still other political committees.

Spokesmen for the sugar companies couldn't be reached for comment Friday and Saturday.

[floriduh voter]

I wouldn't buy a used car from him either. I hope Floridians aren't buying his act.

This just in:

http://www.conservative-spirit.org/

[floriduh voter]

This is an important thread showing what lengths Charlie Crist will go re: negative attacks. There is also an explanation of the Ethics Panel re: Tom Gallagher herein.

He's not in big trouble. It was not a major ethics violation. It's all on this thread. See the article and please ping and bttt.

This thread shows you that a 527 organization wants to politically take out Rod Smith (D) and Tom Gallagher (R), the two smartest candidates running.

Tom Gallagher is still the only conservative running for governor.

[floriduh voter]

Hi, nothing's more fun than elections in Florida.

[floriduh voter]

I know. Gallagher ran out of bumper stickers a couple of months ago.

[T'wit]

>> I'm just sure the framers intended business to influence government in this way, to their own financial advantage.

What was it Adam Smith said? Two businessmen never meet without colluding to fix prices. But, of course, private enterprises have no power of their own to make consumers buy an overpriced product. For that, they have to cut a deal with government. Corruption is for sale! The only thing is, it's always done in back alleys. The bureaucrats should just adopt truth-in-advertising and hang out their shingle: SWINDLES, GRAFT & PRIVILEGE BOUGHT AND SOLD HERE.

P.S. My solution to ADM is never to use, or to buy products that contain, high fructose corn syrup.

[T'wit]

>> Hi, nothing's more fun than elections in Florida.

Dunno about that, I like famines, plagues and tornadoes at least as much, and volcanic eruptions in the back yard can be fun for the whole family.

[8mmMauser]

From across the nation and even far-away (in some ways) Canada, the media cries out! Tomorrow will determine to a large extent which way Florida goes.

Republicans nationally are having a tougher time this year, with ethics problems in Washington, high gas prices, the war in Iraq and low approval numbers for President Bush , the governor‘s brother. In Florida, though, voters have been able to separate their opinion of the president and the governor, and the leading candidate, Republican Attorney General Charlie Crist, is running a campaign that appeals to a broad base instead of just the party faithful.

His strong leadership during hurricanes has helped him maintain his popularity with independents and some Democrats, even though most voters disagreed with his intervention in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case.

Hopefuls see Fla. race as ‘08 bellwether

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Terri's Legacy List

(Original Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to September 2.)



Terri on the road to recovery before the second stage began.

[8mmMauser]

As an aside, I've heard that too much sugar hurts the immune system.

More than just empty calories, I heard that sugar actually leaches out some of the good stuff. And it teaches the body to bahave to an easy fix not too different from the addictive qualities of alcohol. Anyway, we practically eliminated it from our diet, politics or no politics, and feel the better for it.

[8mmMauser]

From World Net Daily...

Thus, we hear a great deal from these people about a "Republican war on science," but nothing at all about the moral implications of such "scientific advances" as embryonic stem-cell research. Perhaps that is because they wholeheartedly and full-throatedly support sticking needles into the skulls of babies who are partially-delivered from their mothers' wombs, then sucking the babies' brains out. If they have no moral qualms with the cold-blooded killing of partially-born babies, what chance does a human embryo have with them? Or a brain-injured woman who can't speak to defend herself, like Terri Schiavo?

Worshipping at the altar of science

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[Lazamataz]

Saw the ad.

Wasn't funny.

[8mmMauser]

Steven Ertelt's pro-life review: I hope the polls are wrong on Crist...

Florida Poll Shows Davis-Smith Race Close, Crist Leading Gallagher

Tallahassee, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll in Florida shows Jim Davis holding onto a modest lead over Rod Smith in the Democratic primary for governor. Both candidates back abortion. A new Miami Herald poll shows Davis edging out Smith by five percent, the same as last month's poll. Meanwhile, the poll, conducted by Zogby International, finds Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist is ahead of state Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher by about 30 percentage points in the GOP race. Crist's lead has risen by 10 percent despite opposition to his candidacy from pro-life groups and Terri Schiavo's father Bob Schindler. Meanwhile, pro-life Rep. Katherine Harris has almost three times as much support as her opponents combined in the GOP primary. Harris received 39 percent, pro-life Orlando attorney Will McBride shot up 10 percent to 23 percent, and the other lagged further behind. Harris will likely win and likely go down in defeat to pro-abortion Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in the general election.

Florida Poll Shows Davis-Smith Race Close, Crist Leading Gallagher

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[8mmMauser]

Nat Hentoff, of The Washington Times, not your usual MSM or PABE (Print and Broadcast Enemy... a Lazamataz term), comments on Mikey...

Connecticut voters were not informed that Democrats as well as Republicans were in favor of intervention by federal courts, including Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, who is deeply knowledgeable about disability rights.

Nor, of course, did Mr. Schiavo, while on the hustings, mention that when the feeding tube was removed, Terri Schiavo was not terminal, was breathing naturally on her own and, according to several of the neurologists who had examined her (others disagreed), was not in a persistent vegetative state. And not only her parents and siblings witnessed that though she could not speak, Terri was responsive.

Revisiting the Schiavo case

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[8mmMauser]

Another Life News reference...

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll sponsored by St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KMOV-TV claims 58 percent of Missouri voters back a November ballot initiative that would promote both human cloning and embryonic stem cell research there. The poll, conducted by the Maryland-based Research 2000 firm, found 37 percent opposed it and five percent were undecided. Research 2000 has come under fire before for biased bioethics questions in the case of Terri Schiavo. The firm polled 800 likely voters Aug. 28-31 and the poll had a 3.5 percent margin of error. Missouri residents who oppose the Amendment 2 proposal have outnumbered those attending pro-human cloning rallies. Opponents of the initiative have complained that backers don't represent grassroots Missouri residents as the group heading up the initiative has received more than $16 million from a stem cell research firm, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, that stands to gain from the referendum passing.

Missouri Poll Claims Voters Backing Human Cloning Ballot Proposal

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[T'wit]

I have my own take on these matters, to wit, anybody who puts his faith in politicians or politics is soon going to be disappointed. The way to solve our problems is our own heart and conscience, not the voting booth.

[8mmMauser]

Now, this is a PABE, (See above for definition) New York Times. I can't post much...

The generally ho-hum race to succeed Gov. Jeb Bush has turned caustic in the final stretch before the primary election on Tuesday.

In Days Before Primary, Hackles Start Rising in Race for Florida Governor

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[8mmMauser]

I have my own take on these matters, to wit, anybody who puts his faith in politicians or politics is soon going to be disappointed.

I am not often disappointed.

[8mmMauser]

Ping to Coleus thread on sorting and culling embryos...

As Chad Kingsbury watches his daughter playing in the sandbox behind their suburban Chicago house, the thought that has flashed through his mind a million times in her two years of life comes again: Chloe will never be sick.

Couples Cull Embryos to Halt Heritage of Cancer

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[T'wit]

Without getting into Science vs. Religion, we can certainly note that French philosophy from Rousseau forward was moonbatty. It just goes to confirm Chesterton, if you won't believe in God, the danger is not that you'll believe in nothing, it's that you'll believe in ANYTHING. The French pretty much still do :-)

One could make a heckuva case that the American/European Left is the offspring of the French Revolution, where the American Right/European liberalism descends from the American Revolution and from Locke and Adam Smith. Critics, you go make the case yourself, I don't have time.

The core-less, godless, moonbatty nature of modern leftism is particularly French. So is the extreme emphasis on egalite. The Left-Right spectrum as employed by the Left, where the Right = fascism and Naziism, is of French origin too, simply due to seating in the Chamber of Deputies. They were all socialists. The American spectrum is, rather, based on degree of state intervention, from totalitarian on the left to libertarian/strict constitutional on the right.

[8mmMauser]

Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort! and stuff like that.