List of Reasons Why Crist Has Failed Us...

I am glad that Crist is not a hair-brained, right-wing wacko that recognizes Obama is our president. Given that other GOP leaders are now questioning whether Obama is even a citizen, it might be tempting to gush over someone who marginally grasps the idea that the overwhelming majority of Americans elected Obama and maybe, JUST MAYBE, the GOP should put hyper-partisanship aside during this unprecendented GOP-inspired crisis for, I don't know, say 2-3 weeks, and let our elected leader try to clean up their mess.

Yes, he's better than most GOPers. That's not saying much. As a Floridian that has had to live under Crist, it is important that people outside this state understand the type of man that Crist is and why he doesn't deserve our support for his inevitable next stepping-stone.

• First of all, let me state in no uncertain terms that Charlie Crist has flopped as governor of Florida. The GOP governor has a supermajority in both houses, and for some reason is still popular with the masses. Yet Charlie hasn't made good on any campaign pledge, and our state now holds the record in home foreclosures and massive job losses.





• So far, the biggest "accomplishment" for Charlie has been passage for his infamous AMENDMENT 1. He campaigned hard across the state for this -- Floridians got a mild property tax cut but it has cost the state billions and induced trauma on the already bleeding services many Floridians depend on.





• Our school systems are suffering tremendously. Florida ranks next to LAST in school funding per pupil. But Crist wants to push for more property tax relief ala Amendment 1.





• While lecturing Florida that is time for everyone to tighten their belts, he went on a "foreign excursion" which cost the taxpayers about a half a million dollars! That's right, he blew that money vacationing in London, Paris, St. Petersburg and Madrid but laughably called it a "trade mission".





• His Lt. Gov, Jeff Kottkamp, flew to and from Fort Myers 248 times on trips that involved picking up or dropping off the lieutenant governor. Fort Myers is where Jeff Kottkamp and his wife own a $1.4 million house. 208 of those flights occurred before July 1, 2008, when it was against the law to use state aircraft for "commuting purposes".
  
  
  
  (By the way, the GOP legislature inserted language in a massive budget bill that no longer makes it illegal for "top officials" to use state aircraft for commuting---nice.)
  
  
  
  There is a movement now to get rid of the Lt. Gov. position, since it has no responsibilities. Although cutting everything from teachers to emergency personnel is on the table, cutting this position and saving the state over a million a year is apparently off the table.





• Crist is trying to tap into the Chiles Fund, a fund that was set up to provide health care to children and seniors, to make up for his and the GOP legislature's bad budget decisions. The Chiles family is furious, saying the state sponsored health programs and other services directed at improving the lives of children and seniors have already been cut from the state budget.





• Crist won the race against Democrat Jim Davis partly because he ran misleading "empty chair" ads saying Jim Davis didn't show up to work enough days. (In reality, Jim Davis had a solid record until the year he was running and campaigning). Charlie said in 2006: "I'll come to work everyday!" Like the hypocrite he is, Charlie took off more personal days last year than he has worked--twice the amount of time Jeb Bush did in the first 19 months of office.





• Crist picks EXTREMISTS for our Supreme Court. He was heavily lobbied to pick Charles Canady and Ricky Polston by members of the Christian right and former Bush staffers. Canady (yes, that one from the Clinton impeachment trial) invented the misleading term "partial-birth", has pushed for legislation to end preferential treatment by race in college admissions and worked to allow federal aid to schools only if they allowed voluntary school prayer.





• Crist kept the tradition of picking cronies for top government slots. The most egregious pick was the six-figure dermatology assistant whom Crist said was the "most qualified" person to head up the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC), the most important job concerning our public employee's labor relations and union issues. Her husband was coincidentally the wife of Crist's general counsel.





• Crist supported Amendment 2, which enshrined discrimination in our state constitution against not only Gay Marriage, but also domestic partnerships.

He is nowhere near as corrupt and bad for Florida as JEB was, and we are much luckier than other states (like Louisiana). But he is not a friend to anyone but his own ambition, and despite what you may hear, even from misguided Democrats, he has not been good for Florida.

What the new GOP "hip-hop" image will look like...

How do you reach out to minorities after you've insulted, marginalized, and in some cases, villianized them for so long?

You talk in their "language". For example, as you all know from watching McDonald's commercials, African-Americans will only respond to marketing if there is rapping or dancing involved.

Enter Mike Steele. His new public relations campaign will "update" the GOP's image with minorities using an "urban-suburban hip-hop setting". Oh, he promises it will be "off the hook". Unfortunately, what Steele doesn't realize is that the GOP has tried this before. It looked something like this:





MC Rove not fresh enough for ya? Mr. White (real name) tried to jazz up McCain's sagging campaign with this "Cribs" video:




See--talking the language! And not insulting in the least!

Mitt Romney gets it. Mr. "Who let the dogs out!!" with accompanied barking...



If all goes according to plan, this will be the speech at the GOP convention in 2012...




In no time, African-Americans will forget about those silly voter-suppression tactics, Katrina, and the fact that the GOP likes to make fun of them in radio ballads.

A few more targeted spots featuring some R&B and rapping, and our party could be in deep trouble. Next up, Steele will relate to the Hispanics and Arabs still hung up over the GOP's whole "they are destroying our country" meme. (Good Grief! You villianize an ethnic group a couple hundred times and they just NEVER let it go...)

Then the climax. Next election cycle, the GOP will gaurantee the woman vote by putting a woman on the ticket as veep! Any woman will do--no matter how stupid, extremist, or even anti-woman. If they do that, we are so hosed because every woman in this county will just vote for her.

Once that happens, the only ethnic group left for the GOP to win over will be "one-armed midgets" whom Steele just offended. And once he figures out how to relate to them in their language--we will be so screwed.

CristWorld: Cut firefighters/teachers; Keep "political placeholder"

As far as I can tell, Charlie Crist has so far flopped as governor of Florida. The GOP governor has a supermajority in both houses, and for some reason is still popular with the masses. Yet Charlie hasn't made good on any campaign pledge, and our state now holds the record in home foreclosures and massive job losses.

So far, the biggest "accomplishments" for Charlie as been passage for his infamous Amendment 1-- which has cost the state billions and induced trauma on the already bleeding services many Floridians depend on, and his "foreign excursion" which cost the taxpayers about a half a million dollars. That's right, he blew that money vacationing in London, Paris, St. Petersburg and Madrid but laughably called it a "trade mission".

Meanwhile, we are stuck suffering from the worst budget crises in years. Everything to be cut is on the table--with one exception...

If you live in Florida, by now you have heard of the investigation by the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel concerning Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp. The Sentinel found that state planes flew to and from Fort Myers 248 times on trips that involved picking up or dropping off the lieutenant governor. Fort Myers is where Jeff Kottkamp and his wife own a $1.4 million house. 208 of those flights occurred before July 1, 2008, when it was against the law to use state aircraft for "commuting purposes".

(The GOP legislature inserted language in a massive budget bill that no longer makes it illegal for "top officials" to use state aircraft for commuting---nice.)


According to the paper, Jeff Kottkamp billed taxpayers $425,000 for 365 flights on state planes during his first two years in office. The majority of those flights involved getting Kottkamp to and from Fort Myers. According to the flight records, state planes flew empty one-way 70 times to pick him up or drop him off in his hometown.

That was last week. This week, the Orlando Sentinel had on its front page how little work the Lt. Governor actually does. For entire months, Kottkamp only had one or two items on his calendar. In fact, that is more than he is supposed to do. The only, and I mean ONLY designated purpose he serves, is to stay alive if something happens to the governor.

Then Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel tabulated how much he cost: the state pays about $725,000 for the office and staff this year alone. For that, we get seven staffers -- including a chief of staff (salary $120,000), a senior analyst ($62,000), a program analyst ($55,000) a special assistant ($50,000), an executive assistant ($45,000), a scheduler ($32,500) and the L.G. himself ($127,398) -- and office expenses of about $220,000. Throw in about $150,000 a year on security and bodyguards.

We have only had a Lt.Gov. since the sixties, when the post was brought back for some reason. Several other states have figured out it is a sensible thing to cut--especially since that money can go to save jobs that actually make a difference.

Our legislators aren't having any of it. Least of all Empty-Chair Charlie. They would much rather have a do-nothing post who doesn't do anything to earn his salary, while simultaneously wasting hundreds of thousands, than use that money to save police, teachers, and emergency medical personnel who will all face the budget ax this cycle.

This means it will take a citizen initiative, (as usual), to do the real work of the people. If there has ever been a need for Florida netroots--it's now.

Seminole Commissioner Van Der Weide Phone Scandal Still Unresolved

Channel 9 in 2005 did an expose focusing on Seminole County Commissioners' uncontrolled spending. To this day, the citizens of Seminole County have not gotten answers. Although the report also focuses on Randy Morris' questionable expenses, it primarily hammered Dick Van Der Weide for charging our county taxpayers hundreds of dollars for "extra charges", including roaming charges that exceeded the already outrageous cost of a taxpayer-subsidized cell phone.

(Why he couldn't get his own damn phone is beyond me. The Seminole commissioners are the highest-paid such officials in Central Florida. In 2005 they made a $74000 annual salary, and today that has increased to over $80000. With such benefits as health insurance and retirement plans, compensation for Seminole commissioners totals more than $104,196 annually. What recession?)

At least Van Der Wiede was considerate enough to not use taxpayer money to call one of those expensive nasty sex lines, which would have really added up. No, instead, his county cell phone only called a 1-800 sex line: three times in one hour.

Well, Kudos to George Curcio for following up on this. He harmlessly asked the good commissioner if he had followed up on this wasteful spending, which he had promised to do. His response is both disappointing shocking. You can read it on George Curcio's blog. Or you could email Dick Van Der Weide directly at deswine@seminolecountyfl.gov and ask him yourself.

You could also call him at (407) 665-7207, but that is assuming you can get through. He does seem to like using his work phone for things other than county business.