Nutz 2 U revisited
May 4, 2008 at 9:36 pm by Wayne Garcia
Last week, we wrote about the incredibly stupid bills that often preoccupied the — and we’re quoting the Gainesville Sun’s editorial page here — “political romper room†that is the Florida Legislature this year. The session (mercifully) ended last week, and here is a follow-up on which bills we wrote about passed and which (for the most part) died a lonely and deserved death:
Passed
HB 1363 Salvia Divinorum is criminalized, and possession or sale becomes a felony with a five-year prison sentence. Only four legislators in the entire Legislature had the guts to vote against this silly and unnecessary addition to our “War on Drugs.†They included two Bay area lawmakers: Rep. Rick Kriseman of St. Peteresburg and Rep. Keith Fitzgerald of Sarasota. Bravo, guys.
Failed
SB 1992 Anti-Truck Nutz provision in a larger transportation bill. It passed 37-2 in the Senate, but House members took out the Nutz in the bill they passed, leaving the ban dead.
SB 744 Sexual Activities Involving Animals. This bill criminalized bestiality, which is not a crime in Florida. The bill, backed by animal rights groups and St. Pete Rep. Bill Heller, failed.
HB 257 Ultrasounds before abortions. By Rep. Trey Traviesa of Tampa. This thinly veiled attempt to stop women from having legal abortions passed the House 70-45 but died in the Senate on a rare 20-20 tie vote.
SB 302 “The Saggy Pants Bill.†Would have forced schools to ban the exposure of your boxers or bloomers. It failed in the House after passing the Senate 28-11.
HB 401/SB 2010 “I Believe,†Christian license plate. Failed despite several attempts to, ahem, resurrect it by Sen. Ronda Storms.
SB 2692 Academic Freedom bill (allows alternative theories to evolution)
Sen. Storms bill passed the Senate but failed after the House adopted an altered version that was unacceptable to her and hard-liners in the Legislature.
HB 73 Immigration. This bill — a wide-ranging crackdown on undocumented workers similar to an Oklahoma law — failed, along with 10 other immigration-related pieces of legislation. That includes SB 1118, which would have banned the use of the term “illegal aliens.â€
SB 1354 Florida Commercial Anti-Pornography Act.
Didn’t even get a hearing in committee.
HB 977 Public Transit Safety. Requiring more frequent bathroom breaks for bus drivers. Went nowhere, unlike the drivers, who need somewhere to go.
SB 386/HB 437 Food Service Restroom Inspections. The “I can’t spare a square†bill by Tampa’s Sen. Victor Crist would require toilet paper and clean restaurant bathrooms. It was flushed down the drain.
SB 2464 Implanted Microchips. Making it a felony to implant microchips in someone without their consent. This sci-fi plot device is safe in Florida; the bill failed.
SB 504/HB 193 (and four others) Cell phone prohibitions. Bills cracking down on under-18s, prohibiting texting while driving and requiring hands-free headsets all failed.
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May 5th, 2008 at 2:38 am
It’s a shame that legislators waste valuable time trying to ban a fad item, when the item will probably have a limited lifespan anyway. Remember those annoying “baby on board” signs that every third car seemed to have? Where are they now? When almost everyone has them, the novelty quickly wears off.
The manufacturers of “Truck Nutz” must surely be disappointed; a ban would provide a level of advertisement they could never afford.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Doobie — was hoping you had a comment on Salvia Divinorum’s outlaw.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Obvious - I’ll take a crack at it (so to speak).
Legislator do two basic things - they spend money and they boss people around. If there’s less money to spend on hometown projects (or to dole out to private businesses who should be self-sufficient anyway), they do more bossing around.
It gets worse if there’s what they think is a ready-made example they can scare people with. Salvia is such an example. They get to preen and look effective to the folks back home instead of the hapless doofuses they are. Salvia is under the gun right now because it’s a hallucinogen, but there are ornamental plants in hundreds of thousands of yards that are more dangerous. But nobody is talking about outlawing oleander, daphne, or wisteria.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:52 am
The Florida Legislature wants to cut the prison budget, yet mandate five-year sentences for possession of salvia.
Are their heads up their asses for the warmth?