Florida Bloggers in the News

Lots of exciting developments for some of your conservative Floridian bloggers...

The difference between me & Glenn Beck is when I rant and rave, I make sense!

On Tuesday, I was on The Ed Dean Radio Show to discuss Glenn Beck's comments about Newt Gingrich, his feud with Andrew Breitbart, and the latest on the Republican primary presidential race. Oh, and I go on a rant or two about the damage caused by unrealistic conservative commentators, the quest for a "perfect" candidate, and flirting with third parties.

Chris Dorworth on Ed Dean Radio

State Representative Chris Dorworth was on the Ed Dean Radio Show on Monday, to discuss Scott Maxwell's distorted stories about him (you can read my blog post about that here):


Ed Dean Radio Show | November 14, 2011

Discussing the Senate race on yesterday's Ed Dean Radio program

Yesterday I was a guest on the Ed Dean Radio show to discuss the  Florida Republican primary candidates for the 2012 Senate race. You can listen to the show here (I'm on at the top of the second hour):

Ed Dean Radio | May 17, 2011

Matthew Falconer appeared at the beginning of the program. Yes, that Matt Falconer.

Falconer attempts to defend an article he wrote defending Senate President Haridopolos' management of the Senate this year, an article for which he is rightfully getting shredded.

Falconer gets confused several times about what he's trying to say, flip-flopping from his  article's "most conservative Senate" statement to whine that Haridopolos' failures were due to the Senate being filled with liberals. Ummm, can't have it both ways, Matt. Either it's the "most conservative" Senate or they're a bunch of Lefties.

He also laughably claims he is not defending Haridopolos but then turns around and attacks anyone who would criticize Haridopolos, saying that it risks muddying up the eventual Republican nominee and making them vulnerable against a Democrat opponent.

What. A. Hypocrite.

This is the same Matthew Falconer who lied so much during his failed Orange County mayoral campaign, I'm surprised his pants didn't spontaneously combust.

He lied in his attacks on Teresa Jacobs, most egregiously sending out mailers and robocalls falsely claiming Jacobs was pro-abortion. Gosh, Matt, if the rule is "don't criticize Republicans," I'm fairly sure that covers making up complete and total lies to attack a Republican.

But Falconer has a long history of making up figures when it suits him and telling blatant lies, getting caught, and almost always refusing to apologize or issue a correction.

So, yeah, if Matthew Falconer wants to be the champion for Mike Haridopolos, I think that's perfect...

...because only someone with a history of being a blatant and unapologetic liar, only someone who is very talented at sticking his head in the sand and ignoring obvious facts, only someone whose political ambitions lack an anchor in reality, could look at Mike Haridopolos' disastrous legislative session, failure on the immigration issue, and rude dismissal of the tea party and still call him a great, conservative, tea party candidate.

Make sure to tune in to my part of the program too (starts at the top of the second hour), where we debunk Haridopolos' attempts to dodge blame for the crash-and-burn of E-Verify, have a good laugh at Charlie Crist's expense, and discuss other factors that may impact the 2012 Senate race.

UPDATE: Matthew Falconer sent me an email this morning, saying that he apologized to Teresa Jacobs for lying and saying that she was pro-choice. I checked with someone with Jacobs' campaign and verified that, yes, Falconer did apologize after the primary. So I've corrected the statement above that "Falconer has a long history...of refusing to ever apologize or issue a correction" to "Falconer has a long history of...almost always refusing to apologize or issue a correction."

But the larger point is that he shouldn't have said it in the first place. To make the accusation that someone is pro-abortion in a Republican primary when the candidate has never, ever made a statement to that effect, and your source is just some person passing on unfounded hearsay ("I heard she was pro-choice...") is outrageous. Falconer admits this in his email, stating that, "with that issue I should have heard it directly from the candidate."

My point exactly. Falconer has an ugly habit of creating out of thin air an attack to throw at an opponent and his excitement for the battle leaves him no time for fact checking.

UPDATE #2: Falconer also posted his email as a comment to this post, which you can see below. I don't have time to go line-by-line through all of it, but there are a few points I'd like to make.

Falconer repeats Doug Guetzloe's lie that I made "vile attacks" on Rick Scott. I endorsed Bill McCollum in the primary and did write some posts supportive of McCollum and critical of Scott but also wrote a lot of favorable things about Scott after he was our nominee and I had a chance to meet him (see here, here, and here). I thought it would be dishonest and hypocritical to go back and purge this blog of the posts I wrote in favor of McCollum, so I left them as is. The Rick Scott campaign clearly thought I was on their team, as they invited me to be listed on the blogroll on their campaign website, and I also did a lot of volunteer work for the campaign.

Falconer slams me for using the "politics of personal destruction" and suggests that it's not acceptable to criticize other Republicans. Again, I say: what a hypocrite. Falconer is absolutely lousy at practicing what he preaches. The Orange County Mayor's race was just last year - we all remember the attacks he waged on Teresa Jacobs, and can easily do a Google search to refresh our memories.

More recently, Falconer accused any legislator who performs consulting work as being corrupt per se. "Per se" is a Latin phrase meaning "by itself," meaning that the accusation stands on its own without any further proof needed. In other words, Falconer is suggesting that the mere fact that some elected officials who work as consultants or in the business sector is automatic, irrefutable proof that they are corrupt. One legislator that Falconer singles out is State Senator Mike Fasano, a Republican. As usual, Falconer's rule that no one is allowed to criticize Republicans must not apply to him.

There are many, many other examples of Falconer attacking Republicans, usually with little merit behind the attacks. Back in March, he wrote a post viciously attacking Congressman John Mica, claiming that Mica had awarded two $1.6 million earmarks to two companies that contributed $500.00 and $1,250.00 to his campaign fund. Seriously? Look, special interests' influence on elected officials is a legitimate topic of concern, but accusing a Republican Congressman of selling his vote for $500.00 is just plain ridiculous.

I also find it interesting that Falconer goes after me for criticizing Haridopolos, saying "Instead of tearing down Mike I plan to continue to influence him to get more conservative legislation accomplished," but apparently that same standard does not apply to Congressman Mica. If Falconer is going to write the rulebook for how conservatives are allowed to act, then maybe he should figure out how to agree with himself on what those rules are first.

Falconer also directs me to "try outlining policy differences." That's funny, that's exactly what I am doing when I point out issues with legislation and how this year's session went. If a Republican is doing something that in my opinion is unethical or not true to conservative principles, I'm going to criticize them.

Erick Erickson, the Editor of RedState, has stated that RedState's mission is "to fight the left and clean up the right," and that their philosophy is to be "conservatives in primaries and Republicans in general elections." I couldn't agree more with both of those statements, and I will continue to exercise my First Amendment rights to point out when Republicans are failing to "walk the walk."

Election predictions on Ed Dean Radio

I was on the Ed Dean Radio show earlier today to talk with Ed about our predictions for tomorrow's elections.  We'll see if I'm right in less than 24 hours!

Ed Dean Radio | Monday November 1st, 2010

I'm on at about the 22 minute mark.  Jesse Phillips with Citizen2Citizen.us is on starting at the one hour mark, and then Ed took listener calls.

Mike Yost on Ed Dean Radio

Mike Yost was on Ed Dean's Radio Show on Tuesday, talking about his race.

You can listen to the show here:

Ed Dean Radio | October 12, 2010

Mike is on starting at the 0:33 mark...check him out, I think you'll like what you hear.  

...and, oh yeah, I'm on the show too, during the hour right after Mike. :) 

Yesterday's Ed Dean Radio Show

Here's a link with my appearance on yesterday's Ed Dean's radio show:

Ed Dean Radio Show | October 8, 2010

I'm on during the first hour.  Talking about the rumors that Meek may drop out of the U.S. Senate race, the Orange County Mayor's race, and the free speech issues related to those evil nasty people who protest military funerals...and a little bit of making fun of Charlie Crist...because it's Just. So. Dang. Easy.

 

I'm on the Ed Dean Radio show today

I'll be on Ed Dean's radio program again today.  The show runs from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.  Other guests include Dave Ginsburg and Jim Tolley discussing the Firefighters' Unions and their endorsements.  I'll be on at 3:00 pm with Amy Tidd to discuss bullying in school and, of course, politics politics politics.  It's that time of year, you know! :)

You can listen in at 90.3 FM on the East Coast, 89.3 FM on the West Coast, or online at http://eddeanradio.com.

UPDATE: here is a link to the audio from today's show (I'm on during the second hour):

Ed Dean Radio Show | October 5, 2010

Amy Tidd is a Democrat and we differ on many of the issues, but after sharing this hour on the radio with her, I definitely have a lot of respect for her.  She does not share many of the extreme and radical positions that I dislike in many Democrats, like Alan Grayson...and even Amy admitted Grayson is a "radical left" liberal.  If the Democrats supported more candidates like Amy Tidd and less candidates like Grayson and Corrine Brown, they would be having an easier time in the polls right now.

Amy, I'm not going to support you but I applaud your honesty and common sense, and willingness to appear on a conservative radio program and hold your own...and I really do wish your party would put more people like you in charge.  I enjoyed the opportunity to debate the issues with you today, and appreciated your sincere views  even where I disagreed.  Political discussions these days too often turn to nasty attacks and ugly lies, so being able to debate with someone who is fair and respectful is a wonderful change of pace.

Sarah on Ed Dean Radio

On Wednesday, I was invited to be a guest on the Ed Dean Radio show (http://eddeanradio.com).  Had a great time talking about everything from Alan Grayson's latest obnoxious false attack ads (and how it's backfiring on him), the role of independents in this year's election, Charlie Crist's flip-flopping and floundering Senate campaign, and other issues related to the 2010 election.  Thanks, Ed, for the plugs for my little website, much appreciated.

You can listen to a webcast of the show here:

Sunshine State Sarah on Ed Dean Radio Show

The "Sunshine" starts at the one hour mark.  You can listen to Ed's show Monday through Friday, 2 to 4 pm, on 90.3 FM on the East Coast, 89.3 FM on the West Coast, or listen online on his website.

I've talked with Ed about making regular appearances on the show and will try and let y'all know beforehand next time I'll be on.  Have a great Friday, and hope to see many of you at the West Orlando Tea Party's Dick Morris event today.