Florida ER: "Good Thing You Aren't a Teacher!"

I am writing this to you from the ER at my hospital in Central Florida. I had chest pains at 3am last night so decided not to take any chances. I was taken by a nurse, then poked, stabbed, and prodded, then back to my assigned room. (I'll be here overnight.) I was visited by a case worker, several nurses, a pharmacist, and of course, the bill collector. The bill collector was a nice, older lady that asked if I could pay all at once. I said yes. She told me it would be $100.00 with my insurance. Although I can afford it, I protested a little bit. I said it was $25 when I was here last (in 2001). She responded:

"Good thing you aren't a teacher."

I asked what she meant by that. She told me teachers now have to pay $300.00 JUST TO VISIT THE ER. A new teacher makes under $28,000 in Orange County, so I was surprised it was so much. I had chilling thoughts of young teachers bringing their children in and being forced to cough up so much just so their kids can be seen. I asked her how long has it been so high. She said matter-of-factly, "Just this year."

And then added, "Our new governor."

I started seething. Every day I am introduced to a way that teabag son-of-a-bitch is hurting people. It no doubt is contributing to my stress, which is probably why I'm here in the first place. But I couldn't resist. I blurted out how much of a bastard I think he is. She mumbled something about how he certainly doesn't seem to like teachers. I asked her what she tells teachers before she gives them the bill. Her response:

"At least you're not a firefighter."

She told me firefighters in the city have to pay $700 to be seen at the ER.

Teachers and firefighters are leeches in the eyes of our governor and his teabag cronies who run this state. This is ironic since the only ACTUAL leeches on the public dole are the governor and his teabag cronies: the ones who apparently get paid to hurt people, not help.

And these ACTUAL leeches don't see any problem with taxpayers being forced to give THEM sweet healthcare. Gov. Skeletor pays only $360 A YEAR for healthcare! That's less than any other government employee in the state, including his cleaning staff.

The FL teabag state legislators who rail against public servants and decry government "waste"?
They pay just $8.34 a month for healthcare!

No wonder my heart is giving out...

Congratulations to Obama on Libya

More dictators and terrorist leaders have fallen than all conservative presidents combined. After your speech in Cairo, the Arab Spring. Tunisia dictatorship... gone. Mubarak of Egypt... gone. Osama Bin Laden, the bastard George W. promised to hunt down and then got tired of chasing, GONE!!! Qadaffi, the man called the "MADDOG of the Middle East" by GOP savior Reagan... who made it his personal mission to oust him but utterly failed, GONE!!! (Well, he will be soon...)

Obama is a foreign policy master. He didn't oust Qadaffi unilaterally, spending TRILLIONS of dollars and thousands of American lives like a certain other president. When Qaddafi began to get the upper hand in Feb. and promised to go house to house and slaughter his own people, Obama calmly met with NATO allies and initiated the bombing campaign to stop the slaughter. The rebels got the upper-hand and now Libya will be freed.

Libya is the anti-Iraq.

Rick Scott's New Florida: State-Sponsored Intimidation!

My heart sank when I saw the document.

I go to to townhalls, and I do occasionally ask questions of my representative. I am firm, but always polite and respectful (unlike certain GOP leaders I know). My current rep., teabag extraordinaire Sandy Adams, doesn't do townhalls, but her cowardice is my fortune because right next to my house is the gerrymandered line of another bagger named Dan Webster. He was affectionately named "Taliban Dan" by his predecessor, one Alan Grayson. After you read this, you will understand how spot on Grayson was.

I had heard that Taliban Dan had his staff take video and pictures of everyone who spoke at different townhall meetings.

Now we know why.

Everyone at Dan Webster's townhalls who asked a tough question was put on a "Citizen Watch List"!

No, I am not exaggerating. You can see the creepy document here.

The document gives the person's full name, picture, and pointed questions to be shouted at the them at future townhalls or given to the media to helpfully interrogate them.

Who are these dangerous extremists that need to be "watched"? According to the document, they are professional trouble-makers who must all work for liberal groups like the dreaded MoveON. Except, they aren't. With one exception, none of them are associated with any group... and ALL OF THEM are constituents of Dan Webster!

The only link between them is that everyone on that list made the local news by asking a tough question at one of these townhalls. That's it.

For example, one person on the list, Ron Parsell, dared to ask a tough question.. and prefaced it by saying he was a Vietnam veteran.

According to the document, like-minded teabag attendees are supposed to shout questions or demand the media ask questions that insinuate he didn't really serve. (Are you really a Vietnam vet? What branch? What unit? Where EXACTLY did you serve?)

He, along with the others profiled, were also supposed to be interrogated as to whether they worked on Obama's campaign. (Like that would matter, but according to the Huffington Post, the one news outfit that picked this story up, NONE OF THEM DID!)

These are Webster's constituents. People he should be looking out for... NOT harrassing!

One of the people on the list is an unemployed gentleman who had the audacity to ask a question about jobs. Now he is regretting his right to speak up. WHY?

Because local organizers have said this document has been distributed as far away from Florida as Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina!


Hundreds of miles away, one GOP wingnut named Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark) handed out this "Citizen Watch List" to ALL ATTENDEES at his town hall meeting in Arkansas. Never mind that the document only had people from Florida District 8 who have NEVER attended a townhall outside of their own district. Like Webster, Tim Griffin had staffers on hand to photoraph and video each person who asked a question.

So why the hell would he pass out a Citizen Watch List featuring these people?

Simple. To intimidate. To scare. To make it perfectly clear: Ask the wrong question, end up like these poor saps!

Griffin's spokesperson, Jon Samford, tried to claim the document was prepared by an "outside group" when asked about it. This didn't explain why staffers ensured everyone had a copy, and why staffers were instructing attendees that this was their "homework"! The jackass then said these watch lists were passed out to show what they WERE NOT going to do. Right.

I would call for a full invetigation, but I know better. Our attorney general, Pam Bondi, is a wingnut with her own severe ethics problems, and our local media has completely ignored this story with the exception of a few blogs. Heck, not too long ago Rick Scott used law enforcement to intimidate protesters at a taxpayer-funded event.

Welcome to the New Florida.

HELP win back Wisconsin!

http://calloutthevote.com/



Stop Scott Walker and his thugs from ruining Wisconsin. I only wish we had a recall mechanism here in Florida.