WASHINGTON -- Evidently Hamid Karzai did not get the memo on terminology. U.S. military commanders have stopped using the word "operation" to describe the drive, now delayed, against the Taliban in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city. This word connotes danger and stirs dread among the population, whose allegiance is the prize for which counterinsurgency is waged.
Health care executive Rick Scott, a political phenomenon who went from virtual unknown to the leading candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the course of a mere two months, filed his paperwork to make his bid official lateThursday morning.
Flanked by state Rep. Dean Cannon and a South Florida Tea Party representative, Bill McCollum appeared to be well-covered politically and geographically at his official filing Thursday for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
But appearances can be deceiving.
While McCollum racks up endorsements from GOP bigwigs and receives air support from political organizations in the form of hard-hitting TV ads, the attorney general continues to cry poor mouth as he is outspent by billionaire Rick Scott.
A pair of Senate Democrats Wednesday called on the State Board of Education to investigate delays in the scoring of the states FCAT tests and its contract with test assessment company NCS Pearson.
But the boards chairman said Wednesday that the boards own investigation shows proper procurement procedures were followed, the company has taken responsibility and has gone a long way toward mending fences over delays that jeopardize its $250 million contract with the state.
Across the country, former governors are seeking to win back their old jobs. While the focus remains on California, where Jerry Brown, who was first elected governor in 1974, is seeking another chance, four other former governors -- Roy Barnes of Georgia, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Robert Erhlich of Maryland and John Kitzhaber of Oregon -- are waging campaigns for their old positions.
Could that happen in Florida?
In 1992, the feminists in the media rejoiced at what they called "The Year of the Woman," when 10 Democratic women (and one Republican) were running for the Senate in the aftermath of Anita Hill's unproven sexual-harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas. Just two years before, seven Republican women (and two Democrats) ran. But the media yawned.
Finally succumbing to pressure from a legion of Florida public officials, members of Congress and the president of the United States, British Petroleum agreed Wednesday to set aside $20 billion in an independently managed escrow account to compensate for losses caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Anger may be rising against the two-party system, but Florida's "third" parties have yet to convert it into candidates.
Though the state Department of Elections lists 30 minor parties as "active," only a tiny handful of them have candidates on the 2010 ballot. And some of those hopefuls aren't even running under their party's banner, opting instead to appear as write-ins or NPA (No Party Affiliation), as newly independent Gov. Charlie Crist is doing with his U.S. Senate bid.
