Good Mica

Wow, Florida Republicans are fighting some of President Bush's dumber policies. Blast Off!:

Following a similar move by the House on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted a short time ago to override Drunky McStagger's veto of a water resources bill with crucial benefits to Florida. To achieve the first override of Drunky's presidency, quite a few Republicans had to support the bill, and they actually did.

"Rep. John Mica, a Winter Park conservative who votes with the president about 90 percent of the time, led the charge in the House, which voted 223-138 on Tuesday for override. Sen. Mel Martinez, who was the president's hand-picked chairman of the national GOP until recently, voted to override. And Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist took time out from a trip to Brazil to lobby Florida lawmakers to split with the president. All the Florida Democrats and 12 of 17 House Republicans voted to override Bush."

If they keep doing things like this, we might have to start thinking that some of these people are actually sane. Naaahhh, that won't happen.

Round-up of Mica Stories

Here are the latest stories on John Mica posted at the blog Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida.

The Congressman Who Helps St. Augustine City Hall's Mistakes: "Rep. JOHN MICA's office brags on getting $1.3 million for our $22 parking garage."

Rep. JOHN MICA Seeks Federal Funds for St. Augustine City Hall: "Seventh Congressional District Rep. JOHN MICA brags of working to bring federal funds to pay for St. Augustine's neglected City Hall roof, for which a grant deadline was missed by City Manager WILLIAM HARRISS, who formerly employed a nephew to work on federal grants."

REP. JOHN MICA'S WEBSITE REPORTS MICA WORKING TO GET FEDERAL FUNDS FOR St. Augustine City Hall: "Rep. Mica is working with the City of St. Augustine to renovate the historic City Hall building."

Mica Secures Beach Restoration Funds: "U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-St. Johns) announced today that several Northeast Florida beach restoration projects have been approved by Congress in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) which passed in the House late Wednesday evening. Projects to study and restore beaches in St. Johns, Flagler, and Volusia counties were approved."

Representative John Mica claims he voted no on children's health care bill because of 'flawed' financing plan: "Additionally, I found several other controversial provisions objectionable. These included weakening current citizenship verification provisions that would provide federally funded health care to illegal aliens, elimination of a state's ability to consider family income and expansion of the program to include those up to 300 percent above the federal poverty level increasing income level eligibility in some states to cover families making well over $100,000. I continue to support a reasonable increase in the SCHIP program, and will vote to increase both funding and eligibility."

REP. JOHN MICA's Rabidly Anti-Environmental Record: "Anti-environmental Congressman John Mica had a 2005 League of Conservation Voters rating of 9%. In 2006 the rating was 0%."

Letter: Mica's vote wrong on Endangered Species Act: "On Sept. 24 U.S. Rep. John Mica participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Education Center at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM ERR) which protects, studies and celebrates wildlife. What a great photo opportunity! Just five days later Mica voted against really protecting the animals."

Race pitting Hogan, Mica turning into war of words: "The congressional race for District 7 is one of stark political contrasts. A conservative Republican and former businessman faces a liberal Democrat, an attorney famed for his lawsuits against businesses. Incumbent congressman John Mica, a friend of President Bush and a Capitol insider, runs against storied Jacksonville attorney Wayne Hogan."

JOHN MICA'S" FAMILY VALUES"?: "1. Put your kids on campaign and public and corporate lobbying payrolls. 2. Vote against health care for other peoples' kids, refusing to override veto. 3. Yammer about being "pro-family" when your real agenda is serving multinational corporations, including those who want to drill for oil off Florida's coasts, selling airplanes for Boeing in China and traveling to Tibet on our dime."

ORLANDO WEEKLY: Rep. Mica Drags Heels on Protecting Americans' Jobs From Importing Foreign Professionals -- VISA ABuSE: "He's also been sparring with his congressman, Rep. John Mica, a fight which led to Emmons' own aborted run for Mica's seat in the House. After Emmons contacted Mica with his concerns about the visas in 2002, Mica wrote back stating, 'Please know that this issue is of grave and urgent concern to me and I will continue to press for the most expedient solution." Later, when Emmons learned that Mica received campaign donations from Siemens, he felt betrayed. "I've called this man 'honorable' for far too long. He obviously doesn't give a damn about his constituents, he only cares about transportation and his corporate supporters,' Emmons says."

ORLANDO SENTINEL: MICA'S MILLIONS -- Unearned Millions From 1980s Federal Cellular Telephone Lottery Speculation Helped Propel John Mica Into Congress: "He’s a crowd-pleaser on crime, steering federal money toward Central Florida as a "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area" and voting to try 13-year-olds as adults. And as the first and only representative of a heavily Republican district drawn in 1991, Mica has taken off the gloves to fight powerful interests such as ... average federal workers, with dramatic hearings on what he regards as wasteful labor-union activities performed on government time. Mica also has been fiercely partisan in his attacks on President Clinton, co-sponsoring an early impeachment resolution and calling the president 'the little bugger' from the floor of the House."

John Loves Bush

Pushing Rope notes the percentage of the time Florida Republicans vote in line with President Bush, one of the worst presidents in American history. Not surprisingly, John loves Bush:

2007 - 88%
2006 - 95%

John Hates Children and the Elderly

Congress recently had a chance to help out children and seniors across the country. Guess which way the Florida delegation voted?

FL-1: Jeff Miller (R) - Nay
FL-2: Allen Boyd (D) - Yea
FL-3: Corrine Brown (D) - Yea
FL-4: Ander Crenshaw (R) - Did not vote
FL-5: Ginny Brown-Waite (R) - Nay
FL-6: Cliff Stearns (R) - Nay
FL-7: John Mica (R) - Nay
FL-8: Ric Keller (R) - Nay
FL-9: Gus Bilirakis (R) - Nay
FL-10: CW Bill Young (R) - Nay
FL-11: Kathy Castor (D) - Yea
FL-12: Adam Putnam (R) - Nay
FL-13: Vern Buchanan (R) - Nay
FL-14: Connie Mack (R) - Nay
FL-15: Dave Weldon (R) - Nay
FL-16: Tim Mahoney (D) - Yea
FL-17: Kendrick Meek (D) - Yea
FL-18: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) - Nay
FL-19: Robert Wexler (D) - Yea
FL-20: Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) - Yea
FL-21: Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R) - Nay
FL-22: Ron Klein (D) - Yea
FL-23: Alcee Hastings (D) - Yea
FL-24: Tom Feeney (R) - Nay
FL-25: Mario Diaz-Balart (R) - Nay

Let these people know what you think about them. Go to their page at the FPC Wiki to find their contact info.

John Mica Resources

For those interested in learning more about John, here are a list of relevant resources:

FPC Wiki Page

Official House Site

Official Campaign Site

Wikipedia Page

Congresspedia Page

WaPo Voting Database

FEC Report

On the Issues

Open Secrets.org

Project Vote Smart

Welcome

This is a new local blog for Florida's seventh Congressional district and watching the actions of John Mica, the Republican representative who misserves us in Washington.

If you are interested in posting at MicaNotes, drop me a line at quinnelk@hotmail.com with some idea of your Democratic and/or progressive credentials and I'll add you as a blogger.