Florida Pirg is a great organization. Their topics and campaigns range from drug safety all the way to environmental issues.

Once your signed up, it's easy to take action on the different issues if you want and they don't send you a million e-mails.
They also give you background info on what they're asking you to support so it's not like they're asking you to support something you know nothing about.

Anyway, we have until the 26th to ask Governor Crist to veto SB900.

Here's a link to his his contact info (e-mail, phone, and fax):
http://www.flgov.com/contact_form

6:22:33 a.m. on June 21, 2007
LEANNA TAYLOR | 06.21.07 - 6:27 am | # |Report as offensive

Editorial right on target. Citizens should never be denied the right to place initiatives on the ballot. Big business groups, like the Florida Chamber of Commerce, want to deny citizens this right. Incidentally, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce has been a big proponent of Bush's immigration reform, saying that there aren't enough skilled Americans to fill available jobs so we need to import cheap labor. Hope FPIRG and its allies opposes oppose the immigration bill, too.

7:16:14 a.m. on June 21, 2007
GARY TORTORA | 06.21.07 - 7:21 am | # |Report as offensive

I hope the bill passes. It should be very hard for the public to amend the constitution. Their record of doing so is pretty poor, i.e. pregnant pigs, bullet trains, class size. etc. Most people will vote for anything that sounds good without checking into the cost to taxpayers.

7:21:32 a.m. on June 21, 2007
JULIO SANCHEZ | 06.21.07 - 7:26 am | # |Report as offensive

One more thing. We are not a democracy! We are a representative republic. Our founding fathers knew that democracies were a failed form of gov.

7:24:34 a.m. on June 21, 2007
JULIO SANCHEZ | 06.21.07 - 7:29 am | # |Report as offensive

"We are a representative republic."

And unfortunately when big money talks we lose more of our representation and this bill wants to take away what little power we have left.

As I've said before, I would rather say "what were we thinking" rather than "what were they (politicians) thinking".

If Governor Crist is truly "the people's governor" he'll veto it.

8:23:43 a.m. on June 21, 2007
LEANNA TAYLOR | 06.21.07 - 8:28 am | # |Report as offensive

Talk about closing the barn door after all the livestock has already run away.... Get real. Government of, by and for "the people" has been dead for decades. At all levels, our governments are owned lock, stock and barrel by big business and special interest groups. They pick the candidates, fund the election campaigns and determine how those elected vote.

You have to get deep into rural America to find any populist government bodies.

9:49:14 a.m. on June 21, 2007
DAVID MYHRE | 06.21.07 - 9:54 am | # |Report as offensive

PIRG is funded by left wing groups and actually quotes Jimmy Carter in their 2006 Annual Report.
They are aligned with ACORN and the labor unions so please do not think that this group is "non-partisan".
SB 900 is a great bill which demands accountability for petition gatherers who are paid anywhere from $3-$8 per signature.
Can you imagine the fraud?? Yeah, I actually have been approached by a petition gatherer and when I asked who was funding them, how much they were getting paid, whether it was per hour or signature, they practically ran away.
I have nothing wrong with the process, let's just make sure its fair and the nonfraudualt.
Mr. Ashwell's article is filled with half-truths and misleading statements. The Chamber is not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars bringing in people from California to gather petitions, special interests are.
This group is a left wing hack job.
SB 900 is a great bill which I encourage the Governor to sign into law.

10:47:38 a.m. on June 21, 2007
BECKY LIDDELL | 06.21.07 - 10:52 am | # |Report as offensive

"Eliminating the citizens' ballot initiative has long been a priority for the Florida Chamber of Commerce"

I hope the readers remember who is behind this. I do not know exactly when the Chambers of Commerce stopped representing small business and became the lobbyist machine they have turned into for special interest groups but make no mistake, they are not looking out for you or me. The national Chamber of Commerce is the power broker behind the push for amnesty for all illegal aliens, the state Chamber of Commerce is the power broker behind the attempt to eliminate our right to ballot initiatives, and our local Chambers of Commerce are the power brokers behind all the recent comp plan changes that have allowed developers to exploit our county so. What ever happened to representing the local hardware store owner. Why is it that the Chambers of Commerce, at all levels, work so hard to usurp the will of the many for the benefit of so few?

12:22:35 p.m. on June 21, 2007
BILLY DONER | 06.21.07 - 12:27 pm | # |Report as offensive