By Chuck Hobbs, Esquire – Whether you support or despise the loose coalition of groups collectively known as the Tea Party, you have to admit that, if nothing else, the rise of this movement has coincided with a greater awareness of politics and the practicality of decisions made by political leaders. When considering the looming […]
Chuck Hobbs
Florida Governor Rick Scott returns State to Jim Crow Era on Civil Rights Restoration for ex-felons
By Chuck Hobbs, Esquire – There is an old cliché that “those who fail to understand history are doomed to repeat it.” This week, Governor Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and CFO Jeff Atwater, who collectively comprise the state’s Executive Clemency Board, repeated history by reversing a 2007 Order from […]
Rein in Spending? Let’s Talk Entitlements
Chuck Hobbs, Esq. – Over the past two years, perhaps the most pejorative phrase used against President Obama is that of “socialist.” Well, at least pejorative phrases that can be repeated in polite company. Whenever the “S” word is thrown around folks immediately think of Hitler, Mussolini, Tito and other tyrants known by their last […]
Race and Absent Black Fathers—Twin Roots of Crime and Punishment
By Chuck Hobbs, Esq. – Across America, there is a movement gaining momentum that would ease the overcrowding in prisons and local jails that are filled overwhelmingly by black men. In 2003, the United States Justice Department issued a report based upon the 2000 Census that noted that 10.4 percent of the black male population […]
Hobbs’ Hump-Day Hot Points
Posted on Tallahassee.com By Chuck Hobbs, Esquire I. Decline of the Dictators Two weeks after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak decided to step down from what was appearing to be a self styled “president for life” role (dictator) here we have Muammar Gadhaffi resurfacing from the shadows after years of being relatively quiet on the world […]
Is the Tea Party Causing Some GOP Members to Waffle on Key Issues?
One of the more maddening aspects of politics for pundits and casual observers alike is our elected officials’ penchant to change their positions, to paraphrase Captain Renault in the classic Casablanca, “based upon the prevailing winds.” Case in point; when then President Bill Clinton first sought universal health care in 1993, one of the major […]
Affirmative Action debate heats up at Florida Universities
By Chuck Hobbs, Esq. – On February 24th a debate between students at predominantly black Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Florida State University (FSU), its predominantly white cross-town neighbor, will center upon one of the most politically divisive issues of the past quarter century—Affirmative Action and the role it plays in government spending. The debate […]
Constituional Concerns regarding the Affordable Health Care Act
By Chuck Hobbs, Esquire – Over the past year and half, perhaps the most common argument against the Affordable Care Act is the idea that its implementation, specifically its mandate that individuals purchase coverage or face penalties, is contrary to the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution. As a result, the concept of “nullification”, […]
How Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott Should Cut the Corrections Budget
By Chuck Hobbs, Esquire – Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott recently has garnered praise from Florida Tax Watch and the Southern Poverty Law Center for his plan to cut the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice budget by ending incarceration for certain juvenile offenders. While I join in the applause, I go further and suggest that the […]