You need to know about Judges

For the upcoming election? Here's my info that I took several hours to dig up. Please understand I am a weird sort of Progressive/Libertarian so I MOSTLY think/vote Democrat (unless it comes to general public protection vs. individual rights.)

VOTE TO RETAIN?
Lewis
- Approved under Lawton Chiles (Dem)
- Voted that sentences could be shortened in sex-w/minors cases if the minor conceded (umm, yeah, I don’t really support this at all)
- Voted against three-strike rule (WHAT! I support the three-strike rule)
- Voted against including sex offenders in three-strike rule (WHAT! Three strikes is three strike, ya perv!)
- Voted for keeping sex offenders in prison indefinitely even if the crime that landed them in prison was not a sexual one (Yeah, see, this smacks of totalitarianism – I believe we should convict and sentence the person on the crime they committed, period.)
- Voted for life-in-prison option for single pedophile cases esp. if victim is under 12 and/or crime included assault (Support this)
- Voted to support the same-sex marriage ban passed by state legislature (Not single court justice voted against this – I personally wish they all did as I think that homosexuals should be able to share in the misery that heterosexuals have had for centuries. BTW, everyone on the Supreme Court did.)
- Voted against Jeb on Schiavo case (YAY!)
- Pro-workers comp. (In the cases they heard, I support this)
- Florida lawyers support (This is a neither/nor for me, because I think all lawyers are litigious in order to protect their bread-and-butter, but it matters to others)
- Voted that home insurance-rate hike was legal (BOO – everyone on the Supreme Court did)
- Voted that phone rate hike was legal (BOO)
- Very pro-education; voted against Jeb, who wanted to change the class size bill (YAY!)
Not sure how I’ll vote yet, but I am leaning towards NO a little right now. Anti-gay marriage, against three-strikes, not as strong on pedophiles as I’d like, a bit fascist

Pariente (SNA=see notes above)
- Approved under Lawton Chiles (Dem)
- Voted that sentences could be shortened in sex-w/minors cases if the minor conceded (SNA)
- Voted for three-strike rule (YAY)
- Voted to include sex offenders in three-strike rule (YAY!)
- Voted against keeping sex offenders in prison indefinitely even if the crime that landed them in prison was not a sexual one (YAY – SNA. BTW, everyone on the Supreme Court did.)
- Voted for life-in-prison option for single pedophile cases esp. if victim is under 12 and/or crime included assault (YAY-SNA)
- Voted to support the same-sex marriage ban passed by state legislature (BOO-SNA)
- Voted against Jeb on Schiavo case (YAY!)
- Pro-workers comp. (SNA)
- Florida lawyers support (SNA)
- Voted that home insurance-rate hike was legal (BOO – everyone on the Supreme Court did.)
- Voted that phone rate hike was legal (BOO)
- Voted against overturning bill on limiting classroom size (YAY)
- Cancer survivor – mastectomy – she’s VERY active in cancer fundraising
- Very pro-women’s rights (YAY)
- Headed up a project to make the courts more family-friendly and less intimidating to children (YAY)
Not sure, but leaning towards YES

Quince
- Weird thing with three governors involved (Chiles approved her, Bush – who had just been elected – agreed not to fight. Chiles dies last three weeks in office and interim governor Buddy McKay – who lost the election to Jeb Bush – signed her in… Neither here nor there but fascinating)
- Voted that sentences should not be shortened in sex w/minors case if minor conceded (YAY-SNA)
- Voted for three-strike rule (YAY)
- Voted to include sex offenders in three-strike rule (YAY!)
- Voted against keeping sex offenders in prison indefinitely even if the crime that landed them in prison was not a sexual one (YAY-SNA)
- Voted for life-in-prison option for single pedophile cases esp. if victim is under 12 and/or crime was assault (YAY)
- Voted to support the same-sex marriage ban passed by state legislature (BOOO!!! BTW, everyone on the Supreme Court did.)
- Voted against Jeb on Schiavo case (YAY)
- Pro-workers comp. (YAY-SNA)
- Florida lawyers support (SNA)
- Voted that home insurance-rate hike was legal (BOO – everyone on the Supreme Court did.)
- Voted against phone rate hike (YAY )
- Voted against overturning bill on limiting classroom size (YAY)
- 1st black Florida Supreme Court Justice (Neither here nor there to me)
This is most likely a YES

Thompson - District Court of Appeals
- Florida lawyers support him overwhelmingly (Neither here nor there – SNA)
- Was elected in 78 to the National Endowment of Humanities (Cool!)
- United Way Community Service award 1977 and 1978 (Cool! – this is before the anti-gay stuff)
- Led an Oct. 19/20 Judicial Ethics session on Charitable Fund-raising by Judges (Cool!)
- On the Florida Judicial Ethics board (Cool!)
- Voted against Muslim women wearing a veil on Driver’s license photo (I agree with this decision in that I believe this could open the gates for all sorts of criminals claiming weird religious rights to hinder law enforcement)
- Fights for rights of mentally ill in courts (This is awesome since I dedicate time to NIMH and La Amistad)
- Works in Orlando black community to prevent crime, speaker at the last five years of Crime Symposium Convention in Orlando (Cool)
- Daughter was convicted of identity fraud (I don’t hold this against him, though, but thought you should know)
- Gets a lot of good and bad attention for his fund-raising, esp. for the Calhoun Center 9Cool, as long as he’s ethical about it, and it seems that every attempt to prove otherwise has failed)
- Sided with Wilton Dedge in DNA-retesting case (this was weird case where Dedge was convicted of rape and kept in prison for nearly 20 years. And then DNA evidence proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dedge wasn’t the perpetrator. The prosecution and Jeb Bush STILL wanted his conviction upheld for life in prison. Thompson led the panel of judges that released Dedge.)
A DEFINITE YES!

ETZLER VS. DAVIS
Etzler
- 15 years experience as a cop
- 11 years legal experience
- 5 years state attorney for Orange/Osceola
- Private criminal defense lawyer since 2000
- Supported by lawyers three times for positions like this one
- Worked mostly in large Orange County court
Davis
- 19 years experience
- 4 years Orange/Osceola Public Defenders attorney and supervisor
- Has worked in small courts like Osceola
I go with Etzler, because she has more experience and has worked in larger markets. Plus, I respect her well-rounded experience as an officer, prosecutor, and defense attorney.

ADAMS VS. HANCOCK
Adams
- 7 years state attorney’s office
- Considered tough and prosecution-friendly
- Taught at Valencia Community College's law-enforcement academy
- Taught classes to law enforcement officers on how to avoid mistrials
- Volunteered for Teen Court
Hancock
- 16 years experience as an Orange/Osceola public defender
- 2 years as a criminal defense attorney
- Teaches business law at Valencia
- Volunteered for Teen Court
- Seen as defendant-friendly
I am voting for Hancock, because he’s more experienced, and Adams’ experience scares me a little. She’s very prosecution-heavy and even helps teach officers how not to get a mistrial. She has NO defense experience. Hancock may be defendant-friendly, but he’s had more years of experience. And I personally believe that the American judicial system does not exist to punish all the guilty but to PRIMARILY ALWAYS protect the innocent, whether they are victims or they are the people standing trial.

This "Town" Just Got a Little Drearier

The album comes out tomorrow; a friend got me an early copy.

Growing up in the 80s in small town Iowa, I was surrounded by metal heads and corn. That was about it. Def Leppard fans, corn, Bon Jovi fans, corn, and corn. In short, it was all corn, in on sense or another…

My desperate circle of friends included deeply closeted homosexuals, Goth wannabes, and the occasional good girl longing for some style. And then one day, there entered this one “guitar god” who had recently moved from California and introduced us all to Depeche Mode and The Smiths. And then arrived a German exchange-student dominatrix who introduced us all to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Bauhaus. Me? I got to contribute a deep love of Crowded House, New Order, and the gloriously amazing Duran Duran.

Duran Duran - with their ridiculously fancy clothes and hair, their “man makeup”, and slick music - showed us there was more to the world than our particular brand of corn. God, I wanted to be on a sailboat, sipping fluorescent martinis, and being seduced by beautiful models only wearing body paint! Suddenly, the pig farms and Friday night football of southwestern Iowa lost a bit of its gossamer shine.

Our little group saved us all. It was vitally important that we separate ourselves from our beer-stealing Cro-Magnon classmates by stealing more expensive, harder liquor while daring to wear eyeliner and listening to fancy European bands. It took more courage than you could imagine. The local community college kids helped us out; they took us under their wings and made us the envy of the hair-band fans and their lame-ass “high school” parties.

For a long time after I moved on, the poor Midwestern kids didn’t have anything like this music to save them. Grunge, rap, and hip-hop killed any chance of fantasy, gloss, and glamour.

Then a couple years ago, into town blew The Killers, a band of young men from Las Vegas; men who wore eyeliner, tailored suits, and skinny ties! Their debut, Hot Fuss, became huge in the UK first (naturally). I saw them in the Orlando House of Blues when they were still barely known here. And then, boom! They somehow caught on, sold 5 million units, and were all over the radio!

It’s that surge in sales and popularity that I blame for the tragedy that happened next.

Sam’s Town. Even the album’s name suggests let-down.

Gone were the makeup and tailored suits. Now it’s all Credence Clearwater Revival haircuts and grubby facial hair. Much of the synthesizer was purged, and in its place came the crunchy, arena-style guitar. Duran Duran danced out of the picture, and Bruce Springsteen waltzed in.

Sam’s Town is a blatant play at injecting some Americana into the band’s image, thereby jettisoning any European slickness for down-home appeal.

Well, damn them!

The production is too fuzzy, the music is too bombastic, the wit is largely gone, and everything plays like it’s supposed to be a stadium sing-along for mullet-wearing, lite beer guzzlers. Apparently Lead screamer Brandon Flowers doesn’t know that his shaky-ish voice will sound tiny and weak in big venues like Madison Square Garden. The lyrics are all small town American poetry and rock cliché. I bet there will be nary a body-painted supermodel seen in any of their videos, nor a fancy sailboat.

Yes, I should loathe this crap!

But, damn, if these so-so songs ain’t catchy in that super-group sort of way! The synths are still there; they make a better contribution in the latter half of the album. (Incidentally, that’s by far the better half, too.) No, this ain’t Born to Run or even Rio. Sam’s Town (do they mean Sam Walton, the founder of that small town killer, Wal-Mart?) is almost a shy parody of The Boss and Duran Duran that you can accidentally take seriously if you really want to. I guess if the world really needs big venue, fuzzy and loud, mediocre pop rock pomposity, we could do much worse.

But boys? Killers? Listen, you know you took your band name from a New Order video. You may not have to wear the eyeliner. But please, just bathe, shave, and get dressed up again. There are still stylish kids in Iowa who desperately need your help!

Bridge to Nowhere

It’s called Build a Bridge for a reason.

Audra McDonald, a four-time Tony winner with an achingly gorgeous voice, strives to link her rich Julliard-trained pipes and her beloved Great White Way with some of America’s best pop songwriters. She bravely mines tracks from Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright, Laura Nyro, Neil Young, and Randy Newman and bolsters them with a couple of pieces by musical composer Adam Guettel.

Here is “Being Green,” Kermit the Frog’s famous tune, next to Rufus Wainwright’s ode to opera characters (“Damned Ladies”) and Adam Guettel’s lovely little aria to a couple drifting apart (“Dividing Day.”)

Some theatre-obsessed people – namely me – have been waiting for years for a great singer and actress like McDonald to build this bridge. We wanted an album we could use to impress drama-shy friends and family.

“See this is why you should be listening! You don’t need to get all of your angst from people on reality TV!” we’d say waving the CD jewel case. ”You can actually get some well-executed Sturm und Drang from some actual talent instead of unskilled Midwesterners seeking attention by eating bugs on some island or doing vocal calisthenics at the top of their lungs through overdone pop songs!” (“Vocal calisthenics” is my term for what most R&B singers and American Idols do today.)

McDonald is utilizing the album to capture this year’s concerts at the Lincoln Center (she had a stint earlier, she has another in October.) It’s part of the American Songwriter series, where a venerated artist gets the honor of putting together her own program of great American songs she loves.

In concept and design this album is stunning, and she would seem to be starting on the right foot. And if anyone could fuse these disparate influences into a seamless work of pop art, McDonald could. But it all fails in its execution. Shockingly, both the musical arrangements and her honey-tipped voice are marred with bland, unemotional sameness.

The almost entirely superdull scoring – mostly by brothers Doug and Dan Petty – wouldn’t necessarily have been the architectural error that brought this Bridge down. McDonald’s aural talents could have propped this project up to glorious redemption. But, tragically, the singer and her producers seem to want to rein her in, like she’s just a breathy chanteuse a la Norah Jones instead of one of the most exciting voices currently on Broadway. Gone is the fire she brought to stage works like Ragtime and earlier recorded tracks like “Come down from That Tree,” gone is the cleverness she brought to Carousel and her small roles in TV’s Annie and Wit. There is no reason to truncate such dramatic talent; the exclusion is disturbingly tedious.

How did four tracks in the center of this album blend into one single tedious malaise? Could this be the same woman won four Tony Awards, two for acting? (And an Emmy nomination, by the way.) Is the same diva whose lovely sophomore album ripped through so many of Broadway’s great composers with edgy aplomb? Perhaps, those unanswered questions are the only drama this project has!

There is one track here that matches her brilliant second album How Glory Goes. Randy Newman’s pensive classic “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” closes the album with aching tenderness. However, on the other twelve tracks, Audra McDonald’s once-stunning emotion, wit, charm, inflection, intonation and drive seems completely removed in favor of a lovely but vapid vocal sameness. It’s a painful omission that leaves this brilliant woman’s Bridge – a structure that could have been breathtaking – forever unfinished.

Oh well, uneducated family, back to your reality TV.

No Sing-Along For You!

And my more personal and longer Indigo Girls.

I remember being in college in southern Iowa when Indigo Girls started singing their biggest hit, "Closer to Fine." God, I wanted to get closer to that, too! Here was my generation’s Simon & Garfunkel. Finally, I had an album to replace the James Taylor and Cat Stevens vinyl I stole from my parents' forgotten collection at the age of seven. Indigo Girls were talented, and they came with diversity included; I couldn’t wait to take my boom box to the next pot-fueled college bon fire! I did, and it only took a few listens and we were all singing along.

Because of their ever-present talent, Indigo Girls have fans that are in for thick and thin. Even if their first album in 1987 only caught the attention of REM fans in their native corner of Georgia, their second release – Indigo Girls – sealed them in the hearts of late 20th century hippie-wannabes, feminists, and lesbians alike.

Fans commit for life, because each of IG’s eleven studio albums has a few tracks that are songwriting jems, glowing with sing-along harmonies. (And if you’ve ever plan to got one of their warm-fuzzy concerts, you’d better know the lyrics to at least a few of their songs!)

The distinct problem with the Girls lies not in the dynamic duo’s skill, but in their team’s execution. Anyone can separate the IG’s albums into two categories: those with great songs and interesting production, or those with great songs and ho-hum production. In the former category are their eponymous album, Rites of Passage, and Come on Now Social. In the latter are also a few, namely: their last album and this one, Despite Our Differences.

One would think with uber-producer Mitchell Froom at the sound board, there’d be very little to worry about. Froom is largely responsible in transferring Neil Finn from his experimental Split Enz days to the glories of early Crowded House. Froom also helped make his wife, Suzanne Vega, stand out as a folkie who had a few good chart hits in the late 80s and early 90s. He also helped Vega create one of the most gloriously weird folk albums of all times: 99.9 Fahrenheit Degrees.

Froom goes boom! He fails. He lets down this dynamic duo and their legions of fans.

The Indigo Girls are basically a Southern lesbian Simon & Garfunkel: a folk duet - although they do have a slight, slight punk rock leaning. Emily Saliers and Amy Ray really need a producer who can capitalize on their anarchy, their experimentation, and their individuality. If not, IG albums sonically end up being the same stuff you can hear strummed out at any Borders or Barnes & Nobles on any Saturday night across America. Froom completed a squeaky clean album. Meaning: he wasn’t up to the task of helping define and refine these lovely melodies into a kick-ass album.

Perhaps, too much of his bland latter-day piano work informs Despite Our Differences. Perhaps, there was a fear of taking risks like the IGs have previously done so successfully by including bongos, or singing with The Roches, or electrifying the guitars a bit, or having REM’s Michael Stipe blow out a cheap tin whistle for the bridge of a song.

Sad, because Emily’s missive to Amy – the title track – is extremely personal and emotionally stirring. Amy’s “Dirt and Dead Ends,” an eulogy to a meth-addicted friend, is downright arresting. They’re always helped by brilliant craft on their part. One track is assisted by some lovely background growl from pop singer Pink. Sadly, Despite Our Differences is just hindered by an utter lack of imagination on producer Froom’s part.

Guess I’ll just have to wait another couple years till I have a great disc to take to a pot-fueled sing-along bonfire.

Get Down, Get Down, Get Sorta Down Tonight!

I decided to rewrite my Scissor Sisters as a full length with much more personal input.

Scissor Sisters are our hope.

They are for those of us who missed the 1970s, that glittery decade fueled of disco glamour, questionable fashions, random drug use, and even more random sex. Didn’t some of us sadly watch as our parade float of excess roll into the pinstriped Wall Street of Reaganomics, with “Just Say No” and friends and lovers dying of AIDS? Some of us – like me - became adults in the paler glow of the 1980s where so much more than just silence equaled death. Some of us suffered through grunge and clasp at raves as our chance to get down, get down, get down tonight. Some of us are so young, we didn’t even have that.

Scissor Sisters are our saints, our deliverance to a land of outrageous costumes, high falsettos, flashy lights, and disco balls.

For a boy from Iowa, the Sisters' pillaging of this glam decade is heady stuff. They dress like Ziggy Stardust, they sing like Bryan Ferry and the Bee Gees, and they dance like Abba on speed. In my youth, this abandon was only seen white-washed in Saturday Night Fever on late-night HBO. So, now I admit, I have a big heart on for Scissor Sisters.

For those of us who love the Scissor Sisters, it would be hard to live up to the sheer joy and massive hype of their first album. However, the sophomore release Ta-Dah comes damn close, even with some trippy sojourns through the dark nightlife of the Soul Train. Jake Shear’s falsetto and the band’s glittery music still sound like they’re channeling 1970s Elton and the Gibb brothers. But then again, when you have a successful formula, why change?

And the Scissor Sisters do have a pretty solid approach. By mixing B-52s every-concert’s-a-gay-party panache with updated disco gloss, they had the biggest UK album of 2004 with their debut, Return to Oz. Critics said things like “Thank God!” and “[this is] their first greatest hits album.” (The Scissor Sisters caused barely a blip in America, but then again, our Brit friends were always a little better at reveling in glam and weirdness. Bowie, anyone? Or for that matter, Boy George?)

On Ta-Dah, their follow-up album, the party they started is still in full swing, but a few people are starting to get bitter! (Sadly, it’s bound to happen at every great gathering…) The danciest song on the album, one of the two that Sir Elton helped write, is entitled “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’.” Some song lyrics even go so far as to say “I can’t decide whether you should live or die.” In short, the boogie-oogie-oogie sound of the first album is always there, but now it’s filtered through a strong sieve of regret and muted with a crunchy production that buzzes in your ear like coming down hard off of a handful of Studio 54-style Quaaludes.

The Scissor Sisters cannot keep this Me Generation exorcism going on forever, true. So, the song “Intermission” has woe-is-me lyrics (think Morrissey or Rufus Wainwright), but it’s implemented with gorgeous string composition by the legendary Van Dyke Parks. “The Other Side” sounds like a particularly good Roxy Music homage (or plagiarism, take your pick.) Both tracks are good indications of where the band could go next.

The truth is Ta-Dah is a perfectly lovely if gloomy dance album. The Scissor Sisters wrest their strength not invention, but in re-invention. They have successfully mined and uploaded the 70s sound. And they do it with a true aficionado’s love. However, it’s obvious - like the sad passing of the decade they lift so much from – that next time, the primary thing they’ll need to re-invent is themselves.