A die-hard Repub in our area is going Independent. His letter today.

[madfloridian]

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050326/NEWS/503260334/1037/EDIT
Published Saturday, March 26, 2005

"Perversion of GOP Precepts

"There is a great deal of merit to suffering. . . . Suffering has a purpose . . . and there's actually a lot of meaning in that" -- Fla. Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala.

There, stated plainly, is the fate in store for all of us if those in charge of the Florida Republican Party, along with their conservative-Christian supporters, have their way. They mean for all of us to suffer if possible because of their feeble, perverted view of Christianity. Not me!

I am a registered Republican, I voted for President Bush, Sen. Martinez and Rep. Putnam in the last election, and I have had enough."END SNIP

Yay for him. I am going to post the article about what Baxley said. He is the GOP legislator who is not known for much intelligence, but a lot of piety. He is also the one who introduced the bill to stifle so-called liberal professors.

And my disclaimer so I am not accused of being against Christians...I am one myself. A real one. I am a recovering Southern Baptist.

[mmonk]

1. Let us hope

reason and cool heads prevail more often in the repub party and more leave.

[madfloridian]

9. Two more letters, one I know is a Republican. Angry ones.

There is hope for sure.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050325/NEWS/503250319/1037/EDIT04

"Lawmakers Out of Bounds

Regardless of the let-live or let-die position you take on the Terri Schiavo case, two fundamental truths are inescapably clear: Politicians will pander to vote getting, using any cause. Right-to-life, to be viable and meaningful, must mean life in the true sense of a living life. It must also encompass right-to-death -- and right-todeath must incorporate humane methods."

And the 2nd one:
SNIP.."Our state Sen. J.D. Alexander announced that he voted against legislation to get involved because it could, and almost certainly would, open up terrible legal situations in the future.

I support him and am proud of him for that. But I think the most important reason is it's already bad enough having the doctors and lawyers playing God without having our God-forsaken government doing it too......"END SNIP

[fasttense]

2. A recovering Southern Baptist?

I was raised Catholic, my husband was raised Southern Baptist and we attend a Lutheran church. I wonder if we are both recovering from our upbringing?

[madfloridian]

8. I think a lot of folks are re-examining their traditional bases of belief.

What I used to believe in and have faith in has been corrupted by the likes of Falwell and Dobson. Now I am not sure how much of it I really believed. Maybe I just accepted it.

I think my core beliefs are in some ways the same, but I now realize the narrow-minded takeover happened before I realized it.

[stepnw1f]

3. Welcome to the Big Tent of Independence!!!! (nt)

[Snotcicles]

4. Great post there is hope for FLA. one person at a time. n/t

[coloradodem2005]

5. That quote above, is used by people who need to justify...

...why things suck when they do.

[madfloridian]

6. More on the good Baxley and his "suffering is good"

Baxley is a trusted friend of Jeb. Representative Baxley's statement about suffering...from the Gainesville Sun:

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050320/EDITORIALS/203200312/1096/editorials&template=printart

But one lawmaker said otherwise. Ironically, it was Rep. Dennis Baxley, the Ocala Republican whose job as a funeral director involves those conversations in his daily business. And it was Baxley who was the head salesman for the House effort to keep Schiavo's feeding tube operating beyond Friday's deadline for the tube's removal.

"What I find is a lot of people are afraid to sign them just because they're afraid of being misused," Baxley said. "It's not that they think anybody's out to kill them, they just feel like, 'They might give up on me too quick.' "

Baxley has no living will.
"I operate at a high level of trust with my family," he said. "I don't feel like I need (advance directives). And I'm not afraid of somebody giving me a feeding tube," Baxley said with a soft laugh on Thursday.

Baxley's feelings were also colored by spending time with his mother during her dying days. He said he enjoyed spending time with her, even though she was largely unable to communicate. "This is hard for some people to appreciate. There is a great deal of merit to suffering, and lengthy illness gives you a chance to adjust to some things that you wouldn't otherwise," Baxley said.

"It allows some things to be said, some time to be spent, some wounds to be healed," Baxley said. "Suffering has a purpose and we want to avoid all that, but there's actually a lot of meaning in that."

He also introduced the bill to stifle professors:
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050323/NEWS/503230348/1004

TALLAHASSEE -- University students would be guaranteed "free inquiry and free speech" in the classroom under a bill approved by a House committee Tuesday.

But detractors said it would open up legal assaults from students upset by the absence of fringe views.

"Students that say, `I don't believe the Holocaust happened. I believe that birth control is a sin. I think that prayer is a way to deal with illness rather than medical intervention.' All of those people (would) have standing to go to the courts" if college professors discussed those broad topics without addressing their particular concerns, said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.

House Bill 837's sponsor, Ocala Republican Rep. Dennis Baxley, disagreed forcefully, saying conservatives are targets of "persecution" on campus. Baxley recalled his first day in an anthropology class at Florida State University when the professor said, "Evolution is a fact. There's no missing link. I don't want to hear any talk about intelligent design and if you don't like that, there's the door....."

[madfloridian]

7. And another great letter from the same paper today: Jeb's Doublespeak.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050326/NEWS/503260332/1037/EDIT

Gov. Bush's Doublespeak

SNIP..."I guess I have finally figured out what matters to Gov. Bush. It certainly isn't care for innocent victims. He has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention time by state legislators, in promoting his own view of what is right for one woman. A law was passed at his urging, while knowing full well that it would not pass constitutional muster.

But, to quote Mr. Bush in the March 22 edition of The Ledger concerning a request for a law pertaining to sex offenders: "We should be cautious about doing something that would expand the net so wide as to not accomplish the desired effect and get into a problem."

I believe that George Orwell dubbed that ``doublespeak."

Gov. Bush will fight to the end against your right to decide when to die, but your children be damned....."