The Senate Communications, Energy and Utilities Committee moved a bill forward Tuesday that authorizes the Florida Public Services Commission to create standards of reasonable and reliable service for investor-owned water and sewer utilities and penalize the companies when they violate those standards.

Stupak.
Etymology: Eponym for Congressman Bart Stupak.
Function: verb

1: In a legislative process, to obstruct passage of a proposed law on the basis of a moral principle (i.e. protecting the unborn), accumulating power in the process, then at a key moment surrendering in exchange for a fig leaf, the size of which varies according to the degree of emasculation of said legislator and/or as a reflection of just how stupid people are presumed to be. (Slang: backstabber.)

The upperclassmen of the Republican Party schooled Democrats on a slew of education bills on the Senate Floor Tuesday.

In the face of Democratic opposition, they rallied in preparation for upcoming contentious votes on approving teacher merit pay, changing high school graduation requirements, altering a state constitutional amendment to loosen class-size restrictions and expanding the states corporate-funded voucher program.

In an escalating political and legal battle over America's new health-reform law, Florida is again ground zero in an election year. And at stake is a renewed debate over who is setting the national agenda.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said he is taking up "the cudgel ... for the people of Florida." It would appear his big stick, however, is David B. Rivkin, Jr. Esq., a constitutional law expert with whom he has worked in the past. Rivkin is working at a reduced fee to be shared by all 13 states in the federal lawsuit, McCollum said. Naturally, he predicted the 13 states will prevail in challenging the constitutionality of the health-care reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

Under the headline "Costly Bill Seen as Saving Money," the San Francisco Chronicle last week began a front-page story with these words: "Many people find it hard to understand how the health care legislation heading for a decisive vote Sunday can cost $940 billion and cut the horrendous federal deficit at the same time."

It's not hard to understand at all. It is a lie.

Gov. Charlie Crist held a news conferenceon Tuesdayafternoon and addressed a number of topics ranging from Attorney General Bill McCollums lawsuit against the federal government for passing healthcare legislation to bills in the Legislature.

Crist was asked why the number of uninsured Floridians is on the rise despite his Cover Florida package being implemented in 2008. The governor insisted that Cover Florida was a success but he also said that his administration needed to do a better job at getting the word out.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

From "A Tale of Two Cities," Sydney Carton's words, as he rode the tumbrel to the guillotine, came to mind on reading the latest statistics on what open borders has done to a Republican Party that altruistically embraced it.

As Florida schools look for ways to cover ever-rising transportation costs, two bills authorizing districts to sell bus advertising would seem to be a natural.

But, a negative analysis by the state Department of Education has the measures going nowhere fast.