Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam told state citrus industry leaders Monday that Florida GOP elected officials should be credited for not passing the “mistaken” state immigration laws now in place in Georgia and Alabama.

Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam (Pic via Facebook)

The Ledger reports that Putnam spoke at the 78th annual meeting of Citrus World Inc. on immigration, saying: “There’s just no good news here. … The best news would be if nothing happens.”

The Ledger adds:

“Thank God for Georgia and Alabama because they’ve given us examples of real-world consequences of these mistaken policies,” he said. “Because of the work done last year, I think this issue is taking a back seat in the Legislature, and I do not anticipate it taking such a large role next year.”

The arguments that alternatives such as unemployed U.S. workers or prison labor will make up for the loss of immigrant harvest workers has not come to pass in those states, Putnam added.

Alabama and Georgia both approved immigration enforcement laws that require police officers to verify the immigration status of anyone they stop, detain or arrest, and prohibits the enforcement of any contract with an unauthorized immigrant. Alabama’s law also requires that K-12 schools check the immigration status of their students.

Gov. Rick Scott recently said:

I tried to get an [immigration] bill passed last year. It got through the Senate. It didn’t make it through the House. It will happen this session.

State Senate President Mike Haridopolis said his chamber would pass the same immigration bill it passed in the 2011 session.

Citrus World Inc. is a cooperative that represents 13 Florida citrus growers associations: “The entire cooperative is made up of more than 1,000 grower-members who own more than 50,000 acres of fine citrus groves in the heart of central Florida.”

According to Open Secrets, from 2000 through 2008, the crop production and basic processing industry (which includes fruit growers) gave Putnam more than $428,000 in congressional campaign contributions.

Putnam was also the lead recipient of campaign contributions in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 election cycles from the vegetable and fruit industry, which have him a total of about $225,000.

That determination followed litigation brought on by Florida environmental groups that alleged the state wasn’t meeting the requirements of the Clean Water Act. Pollution brought on by failing septic tanks, home fertilizers, utility companies and agricultural interests often leads to large-scale algal blooms and fish kills — occurrences that wouldn’t be so frequent, say some, if Florida had stricter water pollution rules.

The EPA’s 2009 decision to force Florida to implement the so-called “numeric nutrient criteria” was not without controversy. Both Putnam and Bondi have argued, much like affected industries do, that the standards would be nearly impossible to meet and extremely costly. Environmentalists have argued that the new rules might not be strict enough.

In Monday’s filing, Putnam and Bondi argue that the EPA “failed to provide a record to support” its 2009 decision, “manufactured the basis for federal intervention” and “made the determination to settle a lawsuit.”

“EPA manufactured a basis for the significant shift in its policy toward Florida in order to justify making the … determination,” reads the filing. “The agency exaggerated the impact and threat of nutrients generally, and the situation in Florida specifically.”

The filing is signed by attorneys for the State of Florida, White Springs Agricultural Chemicals, the Florida Pulp and Paper Association and other industry agencies.

The EPA has committed to propose water quality standards for Florida’s estuarine coastal, and southern inland flowing waters by Nov. 14, and to establish final standards by Aug. 15, 2012, unless the state Department of Environmental Protection comes up with its own set of rules (which must then be approved by the EPA).

“There are times where I’m not thinking as clearly as I should, and in those unclear moments, I always think to myself, ‘Fire the first shot.’ ‘Bring it on,’” Breitbart said. “Because I know who’s on our side.”

According to Breitbart, because conservatives trump liberals in sheer numbers, they would easily win a war between the two.

“They can only win a rhetorical and a propaganda war,” he said. “They cannot win. We outnumber them in this country, and we have the guns.”

Though his comment that conservatives “have the guns” was met with laughs by the audience, Breitbart went on to say that he was serious: “I’m not kidding. They talk a mean game, but they will not cross that line, because they know what they’re dealing with. And I have people who come up to me in the military, major-named people in the military, who grab me and they go, ‘Thank you for what you’re doing; we’ve got your back.’”

“So there’s just a part of me that wants them to walk over that line,” Breitbart said.

Later, when asked why he is so confident that conservatives would win an electoral battle against liberals, Breitbart clarified his statements: “They’re talking about an electoral battle, and I’m talking about if they want to take it to the point of a civil war, and it goes to the streets, we’re the guys that have the guns. The people in the military who are not supposed to be political, when push comes to shove, they’re gonna be on our side.”

This Saturday, Breitbart is slated to appear alongside Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, CFO Jeff Atwater, Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam, Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon at the Presidency 5 event in Orlando. The event is being organized by the Republican Party of Florida.

Clips of Breitbart speaking:

Hat tip: FreeThoughtBlogs.com.

The funds will go toward acquiring easements from eligible landowners in four Florida counties, Glades, Hendry, Highlands and Okeechobee — maintaining that land as agriculture and open space. The easements will form a conservation corridor from the Kissimmee River to Everglades National Park, and “assist with wetland restoration on nearly 24,000 acres of agricultural land in the Northern Everglades Watershed,” according to a release sent out today. #

The effort aims to reduce the amount of surface water leaving the land, and should ultimately lessen the concentration of nutrients reaching Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. Nutrients in Florida waterways are a major problem, and contribute to toxic algae growth and massive fish kills. The Everglades suffers from methylmercurypoisoning. #

“Agriculture plays an integral role in the restoration of wetlands in the Northern Everglades,” said Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam in a press release. “Agricultural lands have some of the greatest natural resources of any private lands in Florida. The open space allows them to protect ground and surface water resources and preserve critical habitat for endangered and threatened species, while remaining working agricultural lands. USDA’s commitment to the Wetlands Restoration Program (WRP) will enable Florida agriculture to continue its important efforts to enhance the natural resources of the Northern Everglades Watershed.” #

With another election behind us, I still believe that conservative ideas define where the country wants to be and needs to be. And I believe that together we held the Democrats accountable and that we began to define some of the differences between our parties.

[…]

Yet, in part due to circumstances beyond our control, we were not successful in 2008. And I believe my instincts two years ago were correct, I can best contribute to our efforts to regain the majority and advance the interests of the American people in a different role in the 111th Congress. Therefore, I will not seek re-election as your whip.

Blunt lists a number of accomplishments he attributes to House GOP leaders over the past two years. Among them are: the defeat of a bill that would have provided health coverage to uninsured kids; support for the surge in Iraq; the prevention of “billions of dollars of frivolous spending” at the hands of the Democrats; the August coup to drum up public support for an expansion of offshore oil drilling; and “an unprecedented number of motions to recommit.”

The third-ranking House Republican, Rep. Adam Putnam (Fla.), resigned his post as conference chairman on Election Day.