Video report from February 1st tells of the discovery of new burial sites at the Dozier School for boys in Marianna, Florida.

The official stance on 98 dead boys from the Dozier School in Florida is that they were "accidents," or that the children died from "natural causes." Increasingly, it seems that may not have been the case.

From The Independent:

'A concentration camp for little boys': For years, almost no one at the Dozier School even knew about the burial ground in a clearing in the woods on the edge of campus. It was forbidden territory. The soil here, churned in places by tiny ants, holds more than the remains of little boys. Only now is it starting to give up its dark secrets: horror stories of state-sanctioned barbarism, including flogging, sexual assault and, possibly, murder.

That the Arthur G Dozier School – a borstal for delinquent boys founded in 1900 – was not a gentle place was well-established. Boys as young as six were chained to walls, lashings with a leather strap were frequent and, in the early decades, children endured enforced labour, making bricks and working printing presses. When it was closed in 2011, it had already been the subject of separate federal and state investigations.

But, as suspicions deepen about how the boys in the burial ground died, pressure is growing again on the state to shine new light into the darkest days of the school in Marianna, a Florida Panhandle town that once was a bastion of the KKK and the site of the 1934 lynching of Claude Neal. The pressure is coming from some of the school's survivors, from relatives of boys who died here, and from Florida's top US Senator, Bill Nelson."

All Apologies: A NATO commander describes the shooting of children, both under 10, as case of "mistaken identity" during fight with Taliban.

A report in the New York Times explains that sharing on Facebook now comes at a cost.

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Despised dog abandoner Governor Rick Scott of Florida, plagued by low approval ratings in the polls, finally has a new group of supporters -- the Satanists.

The Satanic Temple is planning its first major rally, which will be held in support of Gov. Rick Scott later this month for signing a bill that allows for the possibility of prayer in public schools.

Via:

The Florida bill that has delighted the Satanists is Senate Bill 98 and gives students "sole discretion in determining whether an inspirational message is to be delivered" at a student assembly. The bill prohibits school officials from participating in or influencing whether an inspirational message will be delivered.

Satanists feel that the policy "does a lot to support religious diversity," according to Greaves.

"The Satanic Temple embraces the free expression of religion, and Satanists are happy to show their support of Rick Scott who -- particularly with SB 98 -- has reaffirmed our American freedom to practice our faith openly, allowing our Satanic children the freedom to pray in school," the Temple said in a release announcing the rally.

'This is a great country. Everyone has a voice,' Gov. Scott's press secretary wrote in an email to ABCNews.com when asked about the rally."

A spokesman for The Satanic Temple estimates that "thousands" will attend the rally, based on online interest.

Too funny!

The Palm Beach Post reports:

"Jolted by the re-election of President Barack Obama, the defeat of congressional tea party icon Allen West and the cracking of Republican anti-tax orthodoxy during the recent federal budget showdown, the tea party movement is trying to rebrand and repackage itself in South Florida."

"The South Florida Tea Party — the group that helped Marco Rubio launch his Senate bid and that hosted Donald Trump during his last flirtation with a presidential run — is shedding the words “tea party” as it undergoes a name change."

'“We felt for branding reasons that we wanted to differentiate ourselves from certain organizations that have the name ‘tea party’ and we can’t control,” said Everett Wilkinson, leader of the organization that will now be called the National Liberty Federation."

The real reason for the name change couldn't possibly be the results of this poll from last week:

"Views of the Tea Party movement are at their lowest point ever, with voters for the first time evenly divided when asked to match the views of the average Tea Party member against those of the average member of Congress. Only eight percent (8%) now say they are members of the Tea Party, down from a high of 24% in April 2010 just after passage of the national health care law."

The organization formerly known as the "Tea Party" can change its name to whatever it wants, when the same old hate-filled, racist zealots show up...that "party" will be over, too.

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Evan Axelbank, a reporter with WPTV in Florida, was tweeting late Tuesday night about a memo he received from a GOP campaign adviser to a local candidate there that contained some good news...for Democrats. (See the memo above.)

Axelbank tweeted that a "Worried GOPer leaked memo to me because they wanted to motivate the base, show that loss is possible."

The text of the memo reads:

The early and absentee turnout is starting to look more troubling.

As of yesterday, Republicans made up only 22% of early voters and 30% of returned absentee votes.

This is closer to (and worse than) 2008 where we saw 19% EV and 38% of the absentees. 2010 (our blowout year) was 33% of EV and 45% of AB.

Conslusion: The Democrat turnout machine in the county has been very effective and they are cleaning our clock. Even if Romney wins the state (likely based on polls), the turnout deficit in PBC will affect our local races.

When you are calling or canvassing, remind people how effective our opposition has been and how they must not only get themselves to the polls, but their friends and neighbors as well.

Axelbank spoke with Palm Beach GOP Chair Sid Dinerstein, who is responsible for leading the ground-game criticized in the memo.

Dinerstein says he believes that motivation will not be a problem for GOP voters in Palm Beach Co.

"We are broken glass Republicans, meaning we will walk over broken glass to vote."

Obama has been surging in Florida's early voting for three days now, and apparently it's taking its toll on Florida Republicans to the point that even they don't believe Mitt Romney is going to win. And not that I enjoy kicking anyone when they're down -- okay, I do make an exception for Republicans -- the latest numbers from FivethirtyEight give President Obama a 77.4% chance of winning the election, 299 electoral votes projected for Obama, and 50.4% of the popular vote projected to go to Obama.

By Cora Currier -- ProPublica

Florida has the highest percentage of home loans in foreclosure in the country. So why is more than $300 million that could help homeowners sitting unused?

Florida was awarded those millions in February as part of the $25 billion national settlement between five of country's biggest banks and forty-nine states and the District of Columbia. The settlement resolved allegations of wrongful foreclosures and other mortgage servicing abuses, and required banks to offer some homeowners the opportunity to modify their loans or refinance, or, in some cases pay homeowners directly for wrongful foreclosure.

The banks also had to pay $2.5 billion directly to state governments. Florida's sum was the largest, after California, in part a measure of how deeply the mortgage crisis affected the sunshine state.

Yet Florida is one of just a few states where the Attorney General has not announced plans for a significant portion of the money. We've contacted every state to find out what they were doing with that money. Of the $2.5 billion going to states, just over a billion dollars has been pledged for housing-related programs, while a roughly equal amount has been diverted to plug budget holes or fund programs unrelated to the foreclosure crisis. $378 million is still to be determined, and almost all of that is Florida's.

Florida's funds are caught between the Attorney General, Republican Pam Bondi, and the Republican state legislature. Bondi has pledged to make the money available to homeowners; earlier this year, she called for suggestions from the public. Some state lawmakers, however, insist that it needs to go through the regular appropriations process u2014 where it could potentially be siphoned off into other programs. And that wouldn't happen until March, when the legislative session begins.

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Florida GOP Rep. Bill Young is running for reelection for the 22nd time. But according to Young, he has far bigger problems on his hands.

Young claims that there have been multiple break-ins at his residence, possibly by the evil forces of the Florida Consumer Action Network or the Occupy movement. Young told the Tampa Bay Times that he doesn’t really know who’s behind the break-ins, though he noted: “The Occupiers are after me.”

Young believes that both FCAN and Occupy are “not happy” with him, after an incident where he was caught on video telling a constituent who asked him whether he’d support raising the minimum wage to “get a job.” Both of the groups have denied any involvement.

According to police, there’s no evidence that there have been any break-ins:

Via:

“They have investigated one incident. In July an alarm went off at the condo, but police concluded there was no burglary. Instead, they said, a storm blew open a garage door with a faulty lock, setting off the alarm — the second time that has happened in two years.

‘There were no pry markings nor impact marks that would be consistent with a forced entry,’ Officer Shaun Griffin wrote in his report on this year’s incident. Griffin said in a recent interview that, despite the wet conditions outside, police found no wet footprints anywhere inside the condo, another sign there was no break-in.”

Young disagrees with the police report, and said the intruder ”left an item in a very, very prominent place to make sure I knew they had been there,” so then “the wind must’ve blown that item into the house and placed it in a prominent position. That’s a pretty smart wind.”

A Florida resident's answering machine captured a call from a volunteer with the Republican Party of Clay County who was reaching out to potential voters with several important lies about the upcoming presidential election.

From the audio:

"Y'all sound like y'all are senior citizens, right? Yeah. You don't want Obama. You really don' want Obama. Because he'll get rid of your Medicare. You might as well say goodbye to it."

"I don't know if you've done any research on Obama or not, but he is a Muslim... if he had his way, we'd be a socialistic country."

"Pay attention to Fox News."

The head of the Clay County GOP told the St. Augustine Record that the woman was "off-script completely."

We have everything scripted,” Dougher said. “Those are clearly not the views of the Republican Party of Clay County or the Mitt Romney campaign.”

Hmm, I think I'd like to take a look at those scripts.

One week after the release of secretly taped videos of Mitt Romney from a private fundraiser sent his poll numbers into a tailspin, the Obama campaign is using the controversial comments in a new television commercial that began running Monday.

In the 30 second ad, the narrator gets straight to the point, saying “Mitt Romney attacked 47% of Americans who pay no income tax, including veterans, the elderly and disabled."

The narrator refers to the secret video clips released last Monday in Mother Jones of Romney at a private fundraiser in Florida in May. The material, recorded without the candidate’s knowledge, showed the Republican challenger telling the audience that 47% of voters are dependent on the government, see themselves as victims, and would “vote for the president no matter what.”

One of the clips is incorporated in the new spot. “My job is not to worry about those people,” Romney says while standing at the podium.

The narrator then asks viewers “Doesn’t the President have to worry about everyone?”

“Mitt Romney paid just 14.1 percent in taxes last year,” says the narrator, claiming that “he keeps millions in Bermuda and the Cayman islands.”

The spot ends with the narrator saying "Maybe instead of attacking others on taxes, Romney should come clean on his."

Just don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen!

Voting Rights Act: The State of Section 5

by Suevon Lee ProPublica, Aug. 30, 2012,

Aug. 30: This post has been updated.

A single provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been playing a key role on the election front this year. Section 5 has blocked photo voter-ID laws, prohibited reduced early-voting periods in parts of Florida and just Tuesday barred new redistricting maps in Texas.

It's the reason South Carolina is in federal court this week to try to convince a three-judge panel its photo voter-ID law will not disenfranchise minorities. It's the reason that Texas went to trial on the same issue last month — and on Thursday, lost.

Not surprisingly, then, Section 5 is increasingly the target of attack by those who say it is outdated, discriminatory against Southern states and unconstitutional.

Under the provision, certain states and localities with a history of anti-minority election practices must obtain federal approval or "preclearance" before making changes to voting laws. In present day, that requirement is burdensome, "needlessly aggressive" and based on outdated coverage criteria, two petitions filed in July with the U.S. Supreme Court argue.

Section 5 applies to nine states — Texas, South Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia and Alaska — and currently to parts of Florida, California, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Michigan and New Hampshire. The original coverage formula looked at whether states imposed unfair devices like literacy tests in November 1964, whether less than 50 percent of the voting-age population was registered to vote as of that date, or if less than 50 percent of eligible voters voted in the November 1964 presidential election. In 1975, the formula expanded to include jurisdictions that provided election materials only in English when members of a language minority made up more than 5 percent of voting-age citizens.

Momentum is building at the highest levels to narrow or even eliminate this provision. In a 2009 majority opinion to a Section 5 challenge from Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 in Texas, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that preclearance and the coverage formula "raise serious constitutional questions," though the justices didn't settle them at the time. In January, in a separate concurrence to the judgment in the Texas redistricting case, Justice Clarence Thomas stated that Section 5 is unconstitutional (for more on how that case reached the Supreme Court, see our previous explainer).

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A new attack ad from the Obama-Biden camp mocks Mitt Romney's planned re-packaging during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, as he desperately tries to morph into someone who at least registers on the likeability scale.

Good luck with that epic task, Team Romney.

From the video release:

This is the exclusive online trailer premiere of the Romney-Ryan campaign's GOP convention reinvention of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: "The Do-Over."

Romney advisers believe he's viewed as "stiff, aloof and distant" and that the GOP Convention will be "a chance for a fresh start". Their plan includes Mad Men "slick packaging" and a "theatrical," hollywood-style reinvention.

Opening this week in Tampa, Florida—Mitt Romney's convention reinvention: "Do-Over".

Make sure Romney's do-over stays on the cutting room floor: http://OFA.BO/CYghPw