The Late Great Jobs Myth

I just updated this post which originally appeared on my "Rick Scott Must Go" blog, and will now put it here as well as part of a planned series on the Seminole Democrat blog expanding on my list of 200+ reasons to dump Scott. This is an expansion on the whole "jobs" myth that surrounds Scott.

****

Updated 5/25/2014.

No doubt the centerpiece of Rick Scott's re-election campaign will be the claim that he vastly improved Florida's employment problem. He ran on a platform of job creation, and even made it his "report card."

That he has improved this situation is a mythology that has been disproved with ease. But we will collate the information on that here for the reader's ease, as well as discuss whether the Scott administration has ever dealt with the reality rather than the mythology.

Let's start with the base figure that's always at the forefront -- the unemployment rate.

No one would dispute that Florida's raw unemployment rate number has gone done since Scott took office. In January 2011, it was 10.9% The latest available number as of this original writing, in August 2013, is 7 percent. In January 2014, it was at 6.1%. In March 2014, it went up to 6.3% -- which should be kept in mind for later. The latest statistic, for April 2014, has it back down to 6.2%.

For the sake of argument, let's assume that this reflects a real gain in employment for people, and nothing else. Does credit fall to Rick Scott for that drop?

To begin, we should admit that there's plenty of debate over just how much any particular single official can change the unemployment rate -- whether a governor or a President. There are so many other factors involved that for a single person to take credit (or blame) is too simplistic. We don't need to go into that in detail, though, because a much broader number shows this to be the case all by itself, and makes a mockery of any attempt by Scott to take credit.

During the same time, the national unemployment rate dipped from 9.1% to 6.3% (in April 2014, the latest number I found as of this update). The obvious point is that Florida's lowering unemployment rate undoubtedly must have some connection to the nationwide rate being lower, too. And while Florida's number has been substantially better in proportion for part of this time, this does demonstrate that it is in some measure a function of Florida's participation in a national economy.  (The April 2014 number is only 0.1% different, which makes this even more clear.)

This point is highlighted by something recorded by Politifact when checking Scott's promise to bring 700,000 jobs to the state of Florida. With respect to that promise, they noted:

That goal, of course, was that his 7-7-7 plan would create 700,000 jobs on top of what state economists predicted the economy would churn out anyway as it recovered from a painful recession. At the time, they predicted the state would add 1 million jobs by 2017 regardless of changes in policy.

In other words, regardless of who Florida elected as governor, economists expected the normal economic patterns to add a million jobs to Florida's market. That should actually have been somewhat embarrassing to Scott, inasmuch as his promise to add 700,000 could be read as a promise to create less jobs than should have been made. 

But the black humor of that aside, Politifact notes that when confronted with this point, Scott modified his promise:

Scott promised during his campaign for governor to create 700,000 jobs in seven years as part of his signature plan to jumpstart Florida's economy. As we've written several times before, the extra jobs were to be in addition to those jobs economists predicted would be created no matter who was elected governor (Scott has since back-tracked on that condition).


This is a point that should not be forgotten. Scott clearly modified his promise unthinkingly when confronted with the fact that his "700,000" promise was actually a lower estimate of how many jobs would be created under any circumstances. He changed it so that he promised, in effect, to create 1.7 million jobs. Now he has quietly "forgotten" that modification. He has openly deceived Floridians on one of his most critical promises, one that most strongly affects the lives and welfare of the people of this state, and the ones thing which most likely contributed to his election. This is both unconscionable and unforgivable.

But let's return to the matter of jobs created as part of a normal cycle, and why it is a false step for a governor to take credit for them. Here's a practical example. If Company X in Texas (where unemployment is even lower than it is in Florida) is doing well, so that it opens an office in Florida with 100 employees, then those 100 employees will help make Florida's unemployment rate go down. But it would be ludicrous for Rick Scott to simply take credit for the corresponding dip in the rate.  

You may say, "Well, maybe Rick Scott asked Company X to open an office here, or maybe they were drawn here by the great business climate he created!"

Those possibilities can be granted, which is why I said "simply take credit." You would of course need to show that this was the company's reason for moving here. To illustrate, let me discuss an obvious example which doesn't work that way.

Amazon Books, the huge online retailer, plans to open a warehouse in Ruskin, Florida, which would create 3000 jobs by 2016. Scott was quick to take credit for this:

"Amazon's commitment to create more than 3,000 new jobs in Florida is further proof that we've turned our economy around," Scott said in a statement. 

"Amazon will continue to work with (state officials) on its ongoing projects which will include a return on any taxpayer investment, and we look forward to the company's announcements as it chooses locations."

But how much credit does he actually deserve for it? Don't be too quick to give him much. For one thing, as Amazon has grown, it has made it so that it would be absurd for them to not have a warehouse in Florida -- and that would be the case no matter what state Florida's economy was in. Having a warehouse in Florida can only be a help to Amazon in distributing its goods in a market with a dense population where they no doubt get a lot of orders:

More significant is being close to customers. Amazon currently has to ship orders to Florida from out of state, making it difficult to do next-day delivery or start grocery service.

For another, the build is inspired by tax incentives from Hillsborough County. Scott certainly can’t take any credit for that.

So what role did Rick Scott play in this affair? At first, his role was actually that of a blocker. He initially rejected the deal because it would have compelled Florida citizens to pay tax on purchases from Amazon. He was caught between two of his professed priorities: low taxes and jobs. Jobs won out. Whatever the virtues of that flip-flop, Scott's only clear role has been that of a negotiator. That's a role that could have been fulfilled by any sitting governor. What is lacking is clear evidence that Amazon would not have come to the state at all, unless Rick Scott had acted. And that is far from clear. Nor may it be forthcoming:

The Scott administration, however, as well as the department have refused to release any documents tied to its conversations about an agreement with Amazon.com. The department contends that any information related to a "particular taxpayer" is confidential. A spokeswoman has said whether the "taxpayer" actually pays taxes is "not relevant" and the department can withhold all information that identifies a company.

With the complexity of taking credit in mind, let's now take a closer look at why that unemployment rate number went down. There are three numbers that need to be checked as well: The total jobs gained or lost; the total workforce, and the long term unemployment rate. A focus on the unemployment rate alone can obscure the reality all too easily, as this 2012 source explains:

On its surface, it's great news that Florida's unemployment rate in January (the news was released by the state Tuesday) dropped to 9.6 percent from 9.9 percent in December. That momentum, though, was muted in the same report saying Florida had lost -- not gained -- 38,600 jobs in January. That's more jobs lost than in any other state in January and more than four times the 9,000 jobs lost in Pennsylvania, the next state after Florida with the greatest loss of jobs.

It seems counterintuitive that the unemployment rate could drop while total jobs also dropped. The reason for this has been observed repeatedly: The unemployment rate can also drop because frustrated job seekers drop out of the market. 

The Scott administration has kept its focus on two numbers that seem the most beneficial: That basic unemployment rate, and total jobs added. We've seen why the first one needs to be looked at with a critical eye, and recent events show this even more. As we noted, in March 2014, the rate ticked up 0.1%. When confronted with this, Scott immediately said the uptick was due to more people entering the workforce. Again, keep this in mind for later.

But there's also more reason to look critically at the second factor, total jobs: Total jobs added doesn't always mean jobs added for Floridians. 

It's one thing when a company like Amazon adds new jobs to the state's pool. It's quite another thing when a company adds to the pool while also taking away from the pool of another state. Let's say Scott lures Company Y to Florida from New York, and they bring 600 jobs here. How many of those jobs will come here already filled by people who lived in New York? (The much touted example of Hertz fits this mold.)

In fact, Scott has a reputation for poaching jobs from other states.  Kentucky, Illinois, and Maryland are just three states that were a subject of a campaign he put together to draw jobs away. But let's return to this issue: If 600 jobs come from New York, how many of these jobs will go to Floridians who are currently unemployed?

You may say, "Well, even if these jobs are poached, that at least brings workers here who will spend money here and create jobs."

Well, apart from the questionable ethics of poaching jobs from other states, you may consider that by angering other states, Scott reduces incentives for people to come here for tourism and for doing business. Being a jerk isn't the best way to ensure long term business relationships. By poaching, Scott may be making himself look good in the immediate sense, but he does so at the expense of Florida's future. And he'll be out of office when those damages come rolling in.

Another point worthy of consideration is this one. Scott claims so far to have created about 600,000 jobs (April 2014). But how many of those jobs are actually "worth having"?

In this area, we hear many anecdotes about this or that company coming to Florida with 100, 500, or some other small number of jobs that pay well. That's great, if any of them are actually going to be offered to Floridians, and they aren't poached jobs. But none of these numbers comes close to adding up to 600,000. The obvious question is, how many of those are low paying jobs that won't support a family? How many are "burger flipper" jobs?

Florida's economy is centered on tourism, so to be fair, we would naturally expect a lot of new jobs to be of that variety anyway. But conditions should not be such that these are the basically the bulk of what is being created. One source puts it this way:


Meanwhile, what growth there is has been generated in low-paying jobs, such as in the tourism industry. From July 2010 to July 2011, the largest number of new jobs created in the state came in the leisure and hospitality industry, which pays average annual wages of $21,448. That compares to $41,750 for all Florida industries, according to statistics from the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation. (Tourism is historically a strong industry here. In 2006, the height of Florida’s boom years, it grew 44 percent. This lagged behind the “enormous growth,” 173 percent, in the higher-paying professional and business services industry, according to a 2007 FIU study.)

Along with hotel workers, Florida’s job-creation machine is also making administration and waste management services — with jobs such as secretaries, office administrators, janitors and office cleaners — one of the three fastest-growing industries, according to the “State of Working Florida,” a study published in September by Florida International University’s Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy in Miami. Between January and July 2011, the state added about 14,000 of these jobs. Meanwhile, jobs with benefits in higher-paying industries such as information, finance and insurance, wholesale trade, along with federal, state and local government, all saw negative growth.

And the surge in tourism and cleaning jobs doesn’t mean those workers are getting paid any better. The bottom 20 percent of earners in Florida have seen their wages actually drop, according to the FIU study, while they went up modestly for the state’s top 20 percent of earners.

Adding low paying jobs like these is nothing for Rick Scott to be proud of.  Yes, they will always be a necessary part of any state economy, especially a state devoted to tourism. But when it comes to jobs people can advance into in order to live the American Dream, the best Scott has ever offered is news bites featuring 600 here, 200 there. That won't help when it comes to the long term economic health or Florida and its citizens.

That leads to the final point: The most telling number of all in this debacle, which is the long term unemployment rate. 

For the past several years, over 50% of Florida's unemployed have been out of work for more than 6 months. Florida has ranked at the top of this statistic among states during Scott's administration.

If you think about it, this adds up. Drawing jobs from other states, jobs which are already filled by people from other states, doesn't take any of those long term unemployed off the jobless rolls. At the same time, as noted, when these long term unemployed give up looking for work, they are taken out of the state's labor workforce, and are no longer counted when calculating the unemployment rate.

Recently, Scott's economic adviser Rebecca Rust has tried to salvage this debacle by pointing out that many people retire in Florida, which could account for many of those people who drop out of the workforce. No doubt it does to some extent. But tellingly, Rust provided only speculation and no hard numbers (e.g., number of retirees in Florida) to back up this point. And clearly, she either cannot or will not quantify that number or give us a measure of the true impact of retirement on the workforce participation rate. 

At the same time, it can be responded that: 

* Many of those retirements were forced: People told that they could either retire, or be laid off.
* The vast majority of retirees come from other states, which means that although they may lower our workforce participation rate, this also means that the more Rust attributes this to retirees, the more it also indicates stagnation in the employment of working Floridians. That, in fact, coheres far better with Florida's horrible long-term unemployment rate.)
* Migration to Florida by retirees has been part of the state's history for a very long time. If what Rust says is true, then our workforce participation rate should almost always have been low.
* Boston College's Center on Aging and Work analyzes data in this regard and showed that in 2008, 28.1% of Florida's population was over 55, and of that group, up to age 64, 56.8% were employed. This leads to a point: Not all "retirees" leave the workforce! 
* Finally, while retirees are moving here, so are younger people.

The bottom line is that Rust's claim needs much better quantification. More can be found in a study by the Chicago Fed Letter, which says that just under half the decline in workforce participation can be attributed to retirements. That coheres fairly well with estimates that 50 to 60 percent of the unemployment rate's lowering has to do with frustrated people leaving the workforce.

These factors are the most telling of all in terms of what Rick Scott has -- or rather, has not -- accomplished in Florida. Now the question is: What does he have to say about it?

Nothing. Aside from Rust's recent effort, he avoids the issue like the plague. Back in 2012 he avoided it to the point of rhetorical violence:

Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday cut off a journalist who tried to ask him about a report from a top state economist who said Florida’s fall in unemployment is almost exclusively due to people leaving the workforce.

“Mike! I said I’ve answered all your questions,” said Scott, briefly abandoning his normally laid-back demeanor and raising his voice in response to Bloomberg reporter Michael Bender.

The reporter had pointed out the findings of Amy Baker, the Florida Legislature’s chief economist, which showed that Florida’s unemployment rate is falling for a dire reason: a shrinking workforce...

When reporters questioned Scott about the unemployment rate on Tuesday, the governor became elusive and dismissive. Here’s the partial exchange with Bender:

Reporter: “Are you saying those numbers from the state economist are wrong, Governor?”

Scott: “I’m saying we generated 130,000 jobs.”

Reporter: “But that’s not all of the—“

Scott: “Mike, I’ve answered all your questions on that.”

Reporter: “But, no, my question is about the unemployment rate drop—“

Scott: “Mike! I said I’ve answered all your questions.”

This exchange should be brought up again and again and repeated any time anyone touts Scott's jobs record. It reveals in nutshell the dishonesty that lies at the heart of his claims. It also reveals the bankruptcy of his character in refusing to deal with it honestly, as tens of thousands of Floridians suffer long term in joblessness. This is especially the case because, as noted, Scott appealed to a growing workforce as the reason why the rate went UP in March 2014. He denies this factor when it goes against him, but calls on it with pleasure when he thinks it will help him.

Let's not ever forget that conversation with Bender. It's a microcosm of why Rick Scott must go.

Sources: Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,

To round off this posting, here are a number of reasons Scott deserves to be dis-elected from our featured list in another post, concerning jobs.

Jobs and Employment

Rick Scott has made, and no doubt will continue to make, the creation of jobs his “report card” for voters. However, while he has posed himself as a success in this regard, he has actually been a failure, taking credit for achievements he did not perform, and causing greater hardship in the lives of the people of Florida.

1) Rick Scott has ignored his original campaign promise, to create 1.7 million jobs.

Scott had been campaigning, saying he would add 700,000 jobs to Florida’s economy. When told that economists predicted a million jobs would be added by 2017 regardless of who was governor, Scott quickly amended his promise by saying that he would add 700,000 jobs on top of the 1 million jobs predicted. But he has let that promise of 1.7 million jobs fall by the wayside, and still uses that 700,000 number in public statements.

To make matters worse, Scott later said he could argue that all he had to do to perform satisfactorily is not lose any jobs – rather than create them. It is also ironic that Scott’s promise of 700K jobs by 2017 would still have Florida with 200,000 fewer jobs than it had in 2008, and this even as Florida’s population continues to grow.

http://www.politifact.com/florida/promises/scott-o-meter/promise/588/create-over-700000-jobs/

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/10/rick_scott_i_dont_have_to_crea.php

http://www.businessinsider.com/rick-scott-promises-to-make-florida-do-worse-than-the-nation-in-job-growth-2012-1

See our post at http://rickscottmustgo.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-late-great-jobs-myth.html for analysis, including claims related to retirements and workforce participation.

2) Rick Scott has “created” many jobs by poaching them from other states.

While there’s nothing wrong with friendly competition between states, it goes too far to poach jobs from other states. This sours relations with other states, who will encourage their citizens to take their tourism dollars somewhere besides Florida.  Scott has poached jobs from multiple states, including Illinois, Massachusetts, and Kentucky.

This would include jobs poached with things like tax incentives to relocate. Incentives should be to open new locations in a state, not move jobs to another state.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/kentucky-governor-fires-back-at-scotts-job-poaching-efforts/2127253

3) Rick Scott’s poached jobs do nothing to employ out of work Floridians.

Jobs poached from other states often come already occupied by a person from another state. This means that by poaching a job, Rick Scott either causes someone in another state to be out of work (if they cannot move with their job to Florida), or else claims credit for creating a job in Florida that does not employ an out of work Floridian.

4) Rick Scott has repeatedly misrepresented the lower unemployment rate in Florida as part of his success.

Florida’s unemployment rate has gone from a high of 11.4% in January 2010 to a November 2013 rate of 6.4%. But Scott cannot take any credit for this. Part of that reflects the trend of an improving economy nationwide, where the jobless rate has gone from 9.8% to 7.3% (October 2013) in the same period. But far too much of it also reflects the fact that many frustrated Floridians are unable to find jobs, and are leaving the workforce. One 2011 report indicated that 69 percent of the lowering of the rate was due to Floridians leaving the workforce, not finding jobs. A more recent report gave that number as 59 percent. But even 1% is 1% too many. (By the way, this is not to deny that the nation as a whole faces similar problems, nor to say, e.g., “This is Obama’s recovery.” I do not give Obama any credit, either. The real credit for any level of recovery goes to the hardworking people of this state and this nation.)

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-capview-column-deslatte122913-20131227,0,7510043.column

5) Rick Scott has misrepresented his success by ignoring long term unemployment.

Reflecting that so many have left the workforce, Florida also ranks among states with the worst long-term unemployment rate in the nation. This shows that Scott’s policies are not creating jobs. If any credit is to be given, again, it is to the hardworking people of Florida, who have achieved a degree of recovery in spite of Scott’s efforts to harm the state.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/jul/19/drop-in-states-unemployment-rate-mostly-from-not/?print=1

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/sep/17/rick-scott/rick-scott-brags-about-floridas-declining-unemploy/

6) Rick Scott has misrepresented the quality of jobs created in the state.

Though he anecdotally highlights 50 jobs here, 1000 jobs there, brought to Florida by something like a high tech company, the reality is that the majority of new jobs in the oft-touted 400,000+ total are lower wage jobs.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/03/2982699/jobs-are-back-but-good-ones-not.html

http://peoplesworld.org/florida-s-economy-lags-behind-nation-low-wages-contribute/

7) Rick Scott’s creation of low wage jobs costs Florida more money in the long term.

Persons in low wage jobs don’t have as much money to pump into Florida’s economy, and many require government assistance. Scott’s recipe is long term poison for economic recovery.

http://fcir.org/2013/10/22/report-fast-food-industry-florida/

8) Rick Scott has cut state workers’ jobs.

Although touting himself as a job creator, Rick Scott has laid off thousands of state workers – even though Florida has the lowest per capita rate of state workers in the country (117 per 10,000 residents, versus 216 per 10,000 for other states). Many of these were in critical areas like juvenile justice and social services for children. In doing so, he threw these laid off employees headlong into a terrible job market situation. Many would be compelled to draw on unemployment or other social services to survive.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/workinglife/state-layoffs-of-1300-employees-hitting-home/1178821

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-12-10/news/os-capview-column-deslatte121210-20101210_1_state-workers-state-workforce-retirement-accounts

9) Rick Scott has hurt the long-term unemployed by implementing a glitch-filled website for unemployment benefits.

As governor, Rick Scott is ultimately responsible for the difficulties caused by the new “Connect” website. Not only did this website overhaul cost $63 million, it has also caused families in need to not receive unemployment benefits they needed to pay their bills.

This is also especially relevant because it reflects Scott’s indifference to quality in terms of what private contractors he hires to do work for the state. The company hired for the website revamp, Deloitte, has an extended record of incompetence. (One excuse that has been made is that the state is required to take the lowest bidder. This is not always true, but even if it were, Scott as a businessman should have had the acumen to have that rule changed as soon as possible.)

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/10/bill-nelson-wants-feds-to-investigate-floridas-unemployment-website.html

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/10/18/florida-new-unemployment-website-designed-deloitte-also-draws-complaints/327piDd0jG6QAvopQChC3L/story.html

10)  Rick Scott lowered unemployment benefits by tying them to the state unemployment rate.

Unemployment benefits were tied to the state unemployment rate so that, the lower the unemployment rate was, the fewer weeks benefits could be collected. The logic was apparently that a lower unemployment rate means it should be easier to find a job. But that is flawed because so much of the lowering unemployment rate is due to frustrated people leaving the workforce.

11) Rick Scott has continually evaded questions about the lower unemployment rate being related to people leaving the workforce.

A typical exchange on this was between Scott and reporter Michael Bender. However, he has continued the same evasion of switching to the number of jobs added even to this day.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/18/3009230/gov-rick-scott-annoyed-at-questions.html

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-11-22/business/os-florida-unemployment-october-20131122_1_unemployment-rate-florida-unemployment-drops-local-jobless-rate

12) Rick Scott has bragged about reducing unemployment benefit payouts as though it were the result of his jobs policy.

In reality, payouts have been reduced because he has made benefits harder to get, and cut the amount of time they are received. This includes the following:

13) Rick Scott has authorized the use of a useless skills test when applying for benefits.

In reality, the test does nothing to gauge job skills, and is a waste of 45 minutes for people who need to be using their time looking for work and applying for benefits to pay their bills. Scott’s administration has also spent millions on its implementation.

14) Rick Scott’s tax incentive schemes to bring jobs have a 96% failure rate, and have been countered by a greater number of layoffs he has done nothing to stop.

Although he religiously attends groundbreakings where there are alleged to be jobs coming, because of tax incentives he supported, depth study of the results of Scott’s efforts show them to be a dismal failure. An explosive series by two leading newspapers in Florida gives these examples:

Of the jobs Scott can influence most, only a fraction now exist. Scott has pledged $266 million in tax breaks and other incentives in return for 45,258 new jobs. But 96 percent of the jobs have yet to materialize, according to state data..

The total number of new jobs Scott ultimately might deliver doesn’t offset the jobs lost at companies with more than 100 workers in the same time period. Between January 2011 and November 2013, large Florida employers reported 49,163 layoffs, according to federal data.

Nearly 14 percent of Scott’s deals — 46 in all — have collapsed for various reasons, the state says, and more projects are dormant.

Florida offers tax breaks in most cases only when a company creates the jobs it promised, and $45 million sits idle waiting to be claimed by companies that have not yet reached hiring goals.

Scott has been so busy trying to “attract” jobs that he has failed to notice how many are being lost at the same time.

http://www.miamiherald.com/static/media/projects/2013/rick-scotts-jobs-record/part-1/

149) Rick Scott is oblivious to the difficulties an average unemployed person has in finding a job.

When asked what he planned to do about the dysfunctional CONNECT website, Scott offered a clueless reply, which reads as follows:

"The state's unemployment website has been a disaster, what are you doing to make sure this gets solved?" Brown asked Scott.

"First off, the most important thing we can do is help people get jobs," said Scott.

"What do you want to say to the people who can't pay their bills right now because of this?" Brown asked.

"Again, my biggest job is to make sure people can get a job. We have 279,000 job openings in the state. We're recouping money, holding money back from Deloitte to make sure it gets better quickly," said Scott.

Scott answers as though all one of the unemployed has to do, is walk outside and snag one of those 279,000 open jobs. He does not even consider the fact that many of those jobs have literally hundreds of applicants, dozens of them qualified. He also does not consider that the unemployed are competing for jobs with others who are still employed, but are looking for a new job because they don’t like their current one. Finally, it is a point of fact that there are still at least three unemployed people in Florida for every job available. Even if all 279,000 of those jobs were filled, we’d have about 550,000 unemployed people left who would need unemployment benefits. Scott clearly has lost touch with what it is like to have to beat the path to look for work.

http://m.wftv.com/news/news/local/gov-scott-refuses-answers-wftvs-questions-about-br/ncQD6/

173) Rick Scott has dodged questions about mis-spent money by Enterprise Florida.

From the article below:

CBS 12 demanded 20 months worth of spending from Enterprise Florida, Florida’s public-private economic development machine.

Our Waste Watch investigation showed Enterprise Florida, which is 97% publicly funded, spent tens-of-thousands of your tax dollars on luxury sky boxes, upscale steakhouses, and at posh hotels, but created less than half of the 200,000 jobs initially promised.

"These abuses of taxpayer money are just excessive and need to be reined in," Dan Krasner of watchdog group Integrity Florida said.

Wednesday night, the Governor's office responded to our report with a statement, "Governor Scott is laser focused on creating job opportunities so that every family can pursue their dreams in the sunshine state."

Enterprise Florida continues to defend its spending habits, releasing a statement less than 24 hours after our report aired. It said in part, "Stadium expenditures were for site selection consultant events, key to building relationships with corporate decision makers while promoting Florida as a premier state for business."

Really? You need a luxury skybox to build a relationship with some  people?

http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_13620.shtml

179) Rick Scott evaded explaining why Crist should be blamed for the 2008 recession’s effects in Florida.

In the State of the State speech, Scott said:

Some say these statistics were all because of a global recession. They say it doesn’t matter who was running our state – that anyone would have been just a victim of the times. 

I disagree.

As Americans, our freedom and our optimism make us anything but victims – even in the worst circumstances and the toughest times.

Our leaders especially – and every person in our state – are not simply bystanders in the arena of life where the hard battles are fought and history is made.

He goes on like this for a while, but the one thing he doesn’t do it explain what, exactly, Crist (or any state governor) was supposed to do about a worldwide recession. Optimism won’t pay your mortgage. Scott goes on about fighting battles and not being a victim, but he never gets around to explaining what, exactly, ought to have been done – because he can’t. The reality is that if he had been governor in 2008, he would have been standing around with his jaw dropping the same as so many other politicians.

Battle To Save The South's First Water Park

Wild Waters in Silver Springs, FL has been a summertime fun tradition since 1978 and it has also provided summer jobs. It is one of the South’s first and oldest Water Parks and with large live Oaks and Palm trees, it’s one of the most beautiful in the US.

Wild Waters and Silver Springs, home of the world famous Glass Bottom Boats and place where movies such as Tarzan, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Legend, the Sea Hunt TV Series where made, was being managed by Palace Entertainment for the past 20 years.  Prior to that is was owned by ABC Entertainment.

Governor Rick Scott let Palace Entertainment out of their contract last year which was supposed to run until 2029. He then put our Water Park & Silver Springs under the control of the Florida Park Service. That has turned out to be a huge mistake for the people in Central Florida.

Since the Florida Park Service took over Silver Springs, we have suffered a considerable downgrade in services and entertainment. They eliminated the small zoo, the animal shows, rides like the safari ride, boat rides, kids attractions and more. Now there is barely anything left worth going to Silver Springs to see other than an occasional concert on the weekend.

Recently, the same Park Service bureaucrats who ruined Silver Springs has recommended closing our Water Park, Wild Waters. It is important to note that some of the management of the Florida Park Service are also members of the Silver Springs Advisory Group.

In the Star Banner article, “Wild Waters days are numbered”, Mr. Lew Scruggs who’s position is the Chief Office of Park Planning, stated that they plan on spending 15 – 20 Million Dollars on Silver Springs.

That statement proves money is not an issue.

The same article states that they plan to "phase out" Wild Waters within 3 to 5 years and State officials have "come to see it as an eyesore”.  Advisory Group members have also stated in public records that Wild Waters is "Not compatible with park service mission" and “contributes to blight”.

With statements like those, it appears that the real reason the Advisory Group want to close our Water Park is that certain members are biased against it and just want it gone because it doesn't fit into their "Park Service" mindset.

They plan on replacing our Historic Water Park with a "swimming hole" in Silver Springs Park.  Most of the people who attends the Water Park do not want anything to do with a place like that and will not go there. We already have swimming in places like Juniper Springs and they are not well attended. 

There is no comparison between water slides, wave pools and a park “swimming hole”.  A Water Park is a much more safe and clean environment which is preferred by families for their small children.  It’s far more enjoyable to slide down a water slide and be in a wave pool than a park “swimming hole”. The idea that creating swimming in the springs is what everyone wants is absurd and proves how out of touch the Advisory Group and Park officials are.

It's rather incredible that the Advisory Group is proposing to spend 15 – 20 Million dollars on Silver Springs which is usually empty except during concerts, while wanting to close our water park which is jam packed during the summer.  A fraction of that 15 – 20 Million dollars would go a long way towards restoring and preserving Wild Waters. 

We have received almost 3,000 signatures in the past 60 days in support of keeping Wild Waters open and comments from people all over the United States (including our troops in the Mid East) condemning the Advisory Groups recommendation of eliminating our Water Park.  I’m sure we could easily get 10,000 signatures if more people knew the petition existed.

Our water park is loved and well patronized so this is not a matter of there not enough income to sustain it's operation. The fact that thousands of people patronize Wild Waters each year proves people wants this Water Park to remain open.

Additional proof that more people supports Wild Waters than the Advisory Group plans it is the fact that 3000 people signed a petition to keep Wild Waters open. The Advisory Group and Florida Park Service has not obtained one (1) signature which support their plan to close it.

The ultimate purpose of the Park Service is to serve the people.  The Advisory Group and Florida Park Service plans to eliminate Wild Waters are in direct opposition to what the people want. 

It would be a travesty if their plans become reality and are forced upon the people of Central Florida.

Members of the Advisory Group and other State officials including Governor Rick Scott, Silver Springs Park Manager Ms. Sally Lieb, Republican House Majority Leader Mr. Steve Crisafulli, Republican Senate Majority Leader Ms. Lizbeth Benacquisto, the Ocala City Council and the Marion County Commissioners have received copies of the petition. Their response has been to completely ignore the pleas from citizens to keep our Water Park open.

On the Save Wild Waters facebook page and in the petition comments, people are expressing that they have cherished memories and a strong attachment to this incredible place.  They want it to stay open from now on.

I'm a firm believer in Democracy and feel the will of the people should prevail. Every state official is paid by taxpayers and are therefore Public Servants. These Public Servant State Officials should be doing what the majority of the people want instead of trying to cram what they want down out throats.

Tax payer subsidized Golf Courses are being provided for the more affluent and senior citizens of Ocala.  If there’s money for Golf Courses, there should be the same for Wild Waters so families have a local place to take their children, and people of all ages can enjoy water slides and the wave pool during the summer.

Daytona Beach, Orlando and other cities have Waters Parks…  there is no legitimate reason why we shouldn’t be able to keep ours. Losing our Water Park would be a huge step backwards for the people of Central Florida.

It seems to me that ultimately, Governor Rick Scott is responsible for the potential loss of our Water Park and jobs. After releasing Palace Entertainment from their contract which would have ran until 2029, he should have made sure Wild Waters was preserved until at lease 2029 for the people in Central Florida instead of putting it under the control of Park Service People who see it as an “Eyesore”.

Scott is always taking about creating jobs... this will cost jobs.

He’s planning on spending 100 million dollars to get himself re-elected but failing to take action to keep our Water Park open for families and children in Central Florida who need it.

If our Water Park is closed it would be devastating to thousands of families and children in Central Florida who enjoy going there every year during the summer. There is very little entertainment here in Ocala as it is.

There are over 90 pages of signatures on the Save Wild Waters facebook petition and over 40 pages of comments.

People are literally pleading for Wild Waters to remain open but no one is listening or respecting our wishes.

If this travesty is not exposed by the news media soon, these bureaucrats will move forward with their plans and the South’s First Water Park will be lost forever.

Our facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/wildwaters2

Sign our petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/save-wild-waters-petition

Finally! Trial Begins Over FL-5: Most Gerrymandered District in the Nation

Florida Voters in 2010 passed the “Fair Districts” amendments for both legislative and Congressional races in our Florida Constitution. The amendments were very clear that districts could not be gerrymandering when drawn. It is important to note that these amendments passed was supermajorities in 2010, the year of the GOP/teaparty wave, which shows that they had strong bi-partisan support among voters in this state. Both Democratic and Republican voters made it clear... play fair.

Unfortunately, legislators did the opposite. They drew the maps in secret using a "shadow process", and completely ignored the will of the Florida voters. Case in point, Florida District 5-Corrine Brown's district. This monstrosity packs every minority cluster from Jacksonville to Sanford, which allows the surrounding districts to be "bleached" for the GOP base.

The Democratic party of Florida said FL-5 “as enacted by the Florida Legislature stands out among all of the districts as presenting both the most numerous and most flagrant constitutional violations”.

If you want to see what a fair district map SHOULD look like, Click here.

Incredibly, Corrine Brown is fighting alongside the GOP with this battle. Sure, gerrymandering hurts voters and is illegal; and sure, it manages to give the GOP a guaranteed majority despite the state having more Democratic voters by a 2-1 margin. But hey, she might have to fight in a fair district so screw the party and screw the voters. Despicable.

No sane or fair judge can say FL-5 is in anyway not drawn to cluster as many Democrats into one district as possible, a flagrant violation of the Florida Constitution. We either have laws in this state or we don't. It's cut and dry. Believe it or not, I'd be screaming the same thing if the situation was reversed and Democrats were gerrymandering, which by the way, they did back when they had the power. If the Democrats back in the 90s did the right thing and ensured fair districts, it would have been a hell of a lot harder for the GOP to do what they are doing to us today.

I don't mind losing, but we Floridians deserve a fair fight.

Rick Scott's Florida: Fracking in the Everglades Now a Reality

#CXXX of My Stupid State

As I have mentioned here many times, Florida's environment is under assault. Under Rick Scott, Florida has become the 2nd most polluted state in the union.

In Rick Scott's first year in office, environmental protection fell to a an all-time low. Charlie Crist's Environmental Commissions were eliminated. The agencies charged with protection were slashed or abolished, and employees from those agencies who did their job safeguarding our wetlands were severely punished or fired. Our natural springs, which are critical for our freshwater supply, are dying from algae and slime thanks to slick Rick allowing large batches of wastewater discharge and "combustible fossil fuel" disposal.

However, fracking is one thing we thought we were safe from. Our media told us it wouldn't happen here:

“I think it’s possible, but when you look at the other plays in the U.S. and North America where those resources will be more attractive than Florida,” [UNF Professor Christopher Brown] says. “I believe the panhandle of Florida if any of this were to happen. I think Southwest Florida will be a lot less likely. Not impossible, but a lot less likely."

Florida currently does not have a law banning fracking in the state. Officials have said in the past that there is no law because the state does not need one.

That is one reason why the media blew off Rick Scott, an avid climate change denier, when he said that he not only supports fracking, but supports fracking in our own Everglades!!

But don't worry, we were told it could never happen.

Except.....

Pamela Duran of Naples recently received an odd letter concerning an emergency evacutation plan. She called the number listed, and was told of Hughes Oil planning to drill a well 1000 feet from her home and warned her of a potential "hydrogen sulfide explosion or gas leak". This freaked out Ms. Duran. She teamed up with other concerned citizens, like Karen Dwyer, to fight what we were told was unthinkable:

Texas-based Dan A. Hughes Oil Company recently used a form of “enhanced extraction,” which fits the description of fracking, in Naples, the gateway to the Everglades. The drilling took place in the Sunniland Trend, an underground limestone formation with an oil reserve stretching from Fort Myers to Miami....

The drilling is also happening in the endangered Florida panthers’ habitat and the Collier-Hogan well, now shut down, is next to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, a 5,000-year-old-forest with the last remaining old growth cypress trees in the world.

“Drilling three miles deep through all our fresh water aquifers in the Big Cypress Swamp watershed is not safe,” Karen Dwyer wrote in a letter urging the state to deny the drilling permit next to the Durans’ home.

“If something goes wrong, the watershed that feeds the Picayune Strand State Forest, 10,000 Island National Wildlife Refuge and Everglades National Park could all become contaminated.”

Now, to be fair, Hughes Oil is arguing that they aren't "fracking" per se. They were just injecting "a dissolving solution at sufficient pressure to achieve some openings in the oil bearing rock formation that would be propped open with sand in pursuit of enhancing oil production".

You might say to yourself "that sounds like the very definition of fracking". But Hughes Oil is arguing that fracking uses water mixed with chemicals to cause fractures. They, on the other hand, aren't using water.

They are using acid.

So that should make you feel much better.

Hughes Oil was allowed to perform one of these totally non-fracking "acid treatments", which have never been done in Florida before, by our own Department of Environmental Protection (headed by Scott's crony Jeff Littlejohn). Our fiercesome environmental agency asked for some information before they did a second one, but the company essentially said "screw that" and did a second one anyway. Those rapscallions. Oh well, they can be forgiven for thinking officials wouldn't care... because they really don't. They were given a slap on the wrist (25K fine) and then kissed and made up.

Democratic politicians are trying to fight this. Senator Bill Nelson is strongly opposed to Everglades fracking. Florida state senator Dwight Bullard called this the “absolute worst area to begin a drilling project in the history of drilling projects.”

Naturally, Rick Scott thinks its just fine. Florida's oil lobby are big fans of Rick.

The rest of us, not so much.

Don't Get Mad. Get Active. Get Rid of Scott This November

Rick Scott's Secret Travels

Before Rick Scott, we all had access to the itinerary of our sitting governors. But Rick Scott's travel, which YOU are paying for by the way, is a state secret. When challenged on this, Rick Scott said it was a "security" decision by the FDLE. This is balderdash--because no one can get access to any trip he as taken, even if its months or years ago! What possible security risk is knowing what restaurant you ate at in February?

The places that weren't blacked out, such as a nearby Panera Bread, had the people he was meeting with blacked out. That is a consistent item hidden. Who is our governor meeting with that he doesn't want us to know about?

Rick is so secretive, Channel 9 had to do an investigative report on the whereabouts and meetings of our own damn governor:

Common Core Test Questions To Make Sure Your Kids Don't Turn Gay

By now you may have heard about Florida's Rep (R-Looneyville) Charles Van Zant. He is the teabagging genius who said commmon core supporters are attempting to "attract every one of your children to become a homosexual as they possibly can".

(He doubled down on that wackiness just yesterday.)

I had no idea consistent testing standards could simultaneously turn a kid gay. Shame on you, CC supporters. (I'm looking at you, Jeb!)

Bill Cotterell had the same concerns. He helpfully wrote a few test questions for Common Core that will keep our kids on the straight and narrow:

• If you find yourself developing “double-mindedness,” what is a quick, effective way to become narrow-minded?

• John and Mike have lived together 19 years, are productive, law-abiding citizens and aren’t hurting anybody. List three things we can do to get them out of town.

• Which of the following will make you gay:

A) Elton John music

B) Watching “Ellen” in the afternoon

C) Subscribing to Vanity Fair and The New Yorker

D) Voting for Hillary Clinton

E) All of the above

• John begins to suspect that some of his co-workers might be gay. He should immediately:

A) Mention to them that hetero-conversion therapy is covered by your company’s insurance

B) Ask the boss to fire them

C) Discretely warn everybody else about them

D) Find another job

E) Mind his own business

• Rank the following in order of the threat they pose to society:

A) International terrorism

B) Global warming

C) Political corruption

D) Drug addiction

E) Rachel Maddow

• You’re the clerk of court and a 19-year-old stripper brings in a mildly intoxicated 81-year-old rich guy for a marriage license. Behind them in line are two young women who have filled out the same application. Explain why only the first couple should be allowed a civil marriage license.

• Write a limerick starting with, “A sultan who rules in Brunei/Was really a heck of a guy ...”

• What are the three most dangerous items on the “gay agenda”?

• President Obama scrapped the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, because he wants to:

A) Weaken our national defense

B) Improve choreography of military bands

C) Increase recruiting in San Francisco and Key West

D) Enhance cuisine in the mess hall

• Research project: In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Florida Senate had a special committee to investigate communism and the civil rights movement, but it quickly turned into a witch hunt for gays in government and universities. The Charley Johns Committee recklessly smeared people, invaded privacy, violated civil rights, drove good professors out of their jobs, spread fear among public employees and made Florida a laughingstock.

Explain why we need a committee like that now.

A 500K donation to Rick Scott meant the utilities got EVERYTHING they asked for

Rick Scott appointee with shady past just got busted for bribery...

Suspended Orlando Expressway Authority board member Scott Batterson offered the agency's lucrative engineering contract to another company – if the firm was willing to hire some of his friends, according to documents released moments ago by State Attorney Jeff Ashton.

READ MORE

Rick Scott Makes us First...in Foreclosures!

This speaks loudly but not just for itself. It's no doubt happening for a lot of reasons, but one of them is undoubtedly that middle class families can't make enough to pay the bills. Naturally it also raises the question of how this can be happening if things are as rosy as Rick Scott makes them out to be.

I'm thinking Scott will say what a great thing this is -- because it keeps bankers in a job.

Everything you need to know about "Benghazi"...

PSA from FL House Rep: Common Core Will Make You Gay

#129 of My Stupid State

The following can be considered a public service announcement brought to you by Florida Rep. Charles Van Zant (do you really need to for me to tell you the party he's affiliated with?)

In a breaking development, it turns out that Common Core and its supporters are "promoting as hard as they can any youth that is interested in the LGBT agenda".

Yes, my fellow Floridians, that is just the kind of intellectual debate that is typical from our teabagging GOP lawmakers in Tallahassee. So threatcon normal.

But then he went on to say something crazy:

These people, that will now receive $220 million from the state of Florida unless this is stopped, will promote double-mindedness in state education and attract every one of your children to become as homosexual as they possibly can. I'm sorry to report that to you."

See for yourself:

You might be asking yourself, how do you get as homosexual as you can? Is there some kind of gay meter?

Yes there is. You can be low-gay, elevated-level gay, and, if you work hard enough, severe gay. (Anything over that is Marcus Bachmann territory).

You might also be asking yourself, does this mean current GOP frontrunner for prez, one Mr. Jeb Bush, is promoting children to become as gay as possible?

Yes he is. He is so pro-Common Core/gay agenda he even defended it at an ALEC meeting!

Stay away from Jeb Bush at ALL COSTS!

This has been a public service announcement brought to you by the Florida GOP: Bigoted rednecks with legislative power can make a difference.

The more you know.

Florida’s First Lady invests quietly in investment firm that mirrors governor’s old company

Florida officials are not required to disclose a spouses assets. First Lady Ann Scott has taken full advantage of that and has kept quiet on the 10's of millions of assets Rick Scott transferred to her after the election in 2010.

READ MORE

Just Sad: Tea Partier Goes Nuts No One Showed Up (Video) #AmericanSpringExcuses

I admit, I haven't had this much schadenfreude pleasure since watching the insulated GOPers cry on election night 2012. There is something just awesome when they are forced to confront reality outside the protective bubble of propaganda, skewed polls, conspiracy theories, and misinformation they are constantly fed (so they can be scammed off of later).

It was a little too much for red shirt guy on this video. For those of you who can't watch youtube, he literally screams in the camera: “WHERE ARE YOU AT? Where are you at? We put the call out last week, two months ago, five months ago. You talk about being here–Where you at? Cause we’re HERE!”

It is followed by someone even better...she said the revolution is "unstoppable" except for that drizzling rain. She explains on camera that millions are coming but they are currently "trapped in the camps" due to the rain and flooding. (Should have stayed in the FEMA camps. They are built better.)

Please Enjoy!

The trending hashtag on the Twitters has been #AmericanSpringExcuses

It is utterly hilarious. Some good ones:

1. They couldn’t figure out a way to get there without using a government-built road.
2. They were there, but you couldn't see them because of the cammo
3. BENGHAZI
4. It’s meth-cooking season, so couldn’t leave their meth labs.
5. It was national discount day at Golden Corral.
6. There were too many puddles to navigate around.
7. COPS was being filmed in their trailer park that day and didn’t want to miss an opportunity to be on television.
8. There was a Duck Dynasty marathon on A & E all day.
9. Saw a rainbow over Washington, and turned around, thinking that getting near it might make them gay.
10. They were given ultimatums by their cousins that they’d break up with them if they left for a day or two.
11. Roadway sign said "Washington Left", so they did
12. Illegal to ride lawn mowers on the streets of Washington.
13. They couldn’t find their teeth, and they don’t go out without them.
14. If you count the voices in the heads of the people who showed up, there were 30 million people there.
15. Just finishing up the signs. How many "K"s in Amerikka?
16. Wanted to march against tyrannical min.wage but can't afford it. Thanks Obama!
17. Had doctor's appt. I have health care now for some reason.
18. Told Librl troll I'd show up after the first nonwhite person did.
19. Our grassroots funding from the Kochs were late to arrive.
20. Everybody stayed home for fear the internet comments would be left untended.
21. Truck is on concrete blocks in front of our house.

Save Our Internet

I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on Net Neutrality on the Leslie Marshall Show out in Los Angeles. I not only favor it, I think it is one of the most important issues of our time.

Internet Service Providers are NOT going to build a "faster" lane, they will put speed bumps on our service till it slows down to dial-up and give the current broadband to the big boys. Take a moment and tell the FCC to reclassify broadband internet as a title II common carrier telecommunications service: http://goo.gl/xHnB4n.

Share Your Story

If you've already decided to cast a vote for Charlie Crist for the primary, and/or for the next election, you may be interested in taking part in this, where his website is collecting stories of why you want to support him. They're also interested in stories of people who have been hurt by Rick Scott's policies. I sent him one of mine.

Meanwhile, I'm working on my project to buzz bomb county Florida Republican Facebook pages. I'm posting a question asking why Rick Scott didn't lower the auto tag fees earlier. So far, Dade County Republicans erased my post, and so did the ones in Collier County.  That's only two but something tells me there's a pattern brewing.

Top Conservative Blogger Gloats to "Libs" That Nigerian Girls Have Probably Been Sold

Jim Hoft, (@gatewaypundit), is one of the top conservative bloggers and is often quoted by Fox News--which says a lot about them since his trademark is to write anything without verification or even proofreading. His track record of being wrong and his sheer incompetence has earned him the appropriate title of the dumbest man on the Internet.

And that was before today, when he showed that he is also a complete bastard:

#BringBackOurBalls ➙ Sorry Libs, The Schoolgirls Have Already Been Sold, Put on Canoes & Shipped to Chad

He went to mock Michelle Obama for tweeting the viral photo of her holding the same sign as the parents of the kidnapped children: #BringBackOurGirls. And then closed with this gem:

So good luck bringing “our girls” back. You’re too late.

Ha Ha... suck it Obama! Those 9 to 12 year old girls will be made into sex slaves! That'll show us "libs"! (and the quotes around "our girls"--nice touch.)

Hey asshole! We didn't start the tag, but we did promote it to bring worldwide awareness. Without it, it is unlikely the Nigerian government would be as cooperative as they've been lately.

And Obama is providing military support. After all, Obama, unlike his predecessor, has a pretty damn good track record of tracking down and killing terrorists.

But seriously, conservative celebrities can be some of the most vile people on the planet. The left does not have an equivalent of a Jim Hoft or Ann Coulter. We don't have radio talk show hosts who would ever tell Sandy Hook parents to go to hell.

I know the rightwing has to oppose everything the president does, but when you are gloating that those poor girls are enduring unspeakable horrors as somehow a "win" for your side, you know that your Obama Derangement Syndrome has reached a psychopathic level.

We May Be Stupid, But We Aren't Idiots. New, Fake "Progressive" Group in Florida...

Rick Scott's campaign manager said last November that he would attack Charlie Crist from the left. And ta-da...a "liberal" group calling itself "Progressive Choice Florida" has suddenly arrived on the scene: a group which refuses to list their donors, has no contact information, and uses an insulting shell website (http://www.progressivechoiceflorida.com/).

No real progressive group in Florida has ever heard of them, much less worked with them. However, they are VERY flush with cash. This mystery group in its brief existence has already conducted a statewide mail campaign, bought tons of ads, and put out robocalls in South Florida smearing Charlie Crist.

The group incorporated in Delaware recently, and has rather bizarre ideas of what "progressive" means. I heard about this group in a visit to a Seminole County meeting yesterday, where members told me the group was fighting a local penny infrastructure tax. Their mailers are nasty in attacking Crist, but they also run ads like this one:

Odd. Supporting school vouchers and Florida's disastrous charter schools are not known to be "progressive" causes.

The group said its leader is Jamie Fontaine. Even after repeated requests, she won't disclose the donors:

I will not at this time provide the names these supporters because their only motivation is to engage and have a meaningful impact.

Sure. Ya now, secrecy in campaign donations is very GOPish.

You know what else is GOPish? Deception. They were already busted for collecting donations from fake Democratic websites. So this is par for the course.

The group has tried to buy ads on numerous sites, like this one. But many weren't having any of it because besides refusing to say where all this money came from, the group uses deceptive practices like lying about being part of a national effort and not putting any citations or references in their mailers.

Ms. Fontaine apparently has been engaged in liberal causes in the past. My educated guess is that she was thrown some moolah to give the group some credibility and she convinced herself that she's actually helping Nan Rich, Crist's more liberal challenger.

Ads against Crist without citations saying he fails a "progressive litmus test" is probably not the best strategy if everyone wonders if you are really a GOP front group.

If your real goal is to help Nan Rich, you are failing miserably.

If your real goal is to help Rick Scott, same deal.

One FL Teabagger Stops Popular and Desperately Needed Financial Literacy in Our Schools

#118 of My Stupid State

One reason so many Americans are in trouble financially is the fact that Americans lack the most fundamental financial skills. It's never taught to us. The results speak to this ignorance. American students face mountains of debt and most older folks aren't anywhere close to being able to retire. There are few places in America worse off than Florida. Florida ranks number one in credit card delinquencies and has the most cities in trouble with credit card debt: Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville. We lead the nation in foreclosures and have higher-than-average amounts of auto and student loans.

One reason for our sorry shape is there are those who want to keep us ignorant of finance. This is especially true if your entire economic platform is dependent on convincing people that its in their best interests to give the wealthy even more of your money. (Suddenly, trickle-down economics might seem stupid.) So yes, teabagger, an ignorant populace is critical to your base--I get it. But I submit that in the long run it is ruining the very economy we all depend upon. There's only so much people can borrow to make ends meet and we are hitting that limit. That is why basic finance should be taught in all American high schools. They don't need to know complex formulas involving derivatives, spreads, and ratios.. just basic skills like how to balance a checkbook or how credit works.

Our GOP-led House was supposed to approve a required financial literacy course this session, but it was blocked by one member: Marlene O'Toole (R-33rd District)

O'Toole is the one our genius republicans put as chair of the Education committee. She couldn't very well say that she didn't want people to remain financially stupid, so she gave what she thought was a brilliant defense: she supported it but didn’t have time to hear about it on her own damn committee. So she voted against it.

Her name is fitting. She is a tool.

(NOTE to Florida Democratic Party, I know you've never done this before in her multiple runs for House, but do you think MAYBE this year, just this once, you could find one f**king Democrat to run against her? I know its GOP territory but cripes, even if we lose this is the only time we get coverage to hold some of these idiots accountable!)

I admit that a class isn't a silver bullet to fix our financial problems. Heck, the deck is already stacked against the middle class and our plutocracy makes it damn near impossible to raise a family and save any money. Our three-legged stool of Pension, 401k, and Social Security has been systematically dismantled to funnel even more money upwards: pension plans are virtually nonexistent without unions, Social Security is constantly under assault, and our 401ks are being drained by large fees on our returns--which the bastards don't eve have to disclose. (Some Dems are fighting this, but the other side is sticking with the billion-dollar Wall Street lobbyists).

Yet it's something we can do and needs to be done. I recall being a young, teenage airmen and getting sucked into putting my phone bills on a phone company credit card instead of just paying them off. I got a bottle of soda out of it so it seemed like a good deal to me. The monthly minimum got higher and higher until my monthly payment was as much as a regular phone bill--except it went to pay off the interest and didn't make a dent in the premium. Maybe somebody at school could have taken a few minutes out of obsessing about a standardized test and told me about credit cards.

BTW, I was the smart one. Florida payday scams and title loan companies preyed on my fellow airmen mercilessly. Although Florida limits the fee on a payday loan, it charges for short-loan terms and applies verification fees. In applying an annual rate, the 10% fee is equivalent to an interest rate in excess of 500%. (For crying out loud, don't use those people!) Title loans are also horrendous. They give a few lousy bucks at sky-high interest rates... and if you miss a payment, BAMMO, your car is taken. They are scum, and BTW, LOVE themselves some Rick Scott. ick Scott is a freaking hero to these criminals: Here's one title loan ad that waxes on about him. And why wouldn't they? Rick Scott completely gutted business oversight and consumer protections for all of us.

Under Rick Suck: Movers can now change their prices mid-move, mechanics don't have to give written estimates, dozens of professions (like mold inspectors) no longer need a license, and the protections in place against our longtime problem with shady timeshare companies and loan scams have vanished.

So thanks Rick and Marlene. Keep fighting to keep Florida stupid. We'll all suffer but at least it will help ensure your re-election efforts.

Greer's World

It's sure to be a high time for some Rick Scott supporters soon, and not because he's supposedly about to sign a medical marijuana bill.

I'm talking about the upcoming "kiss and tell" book by former FL Republican Party chair Jim Greer (titled The Chairman), in which he supposedly will have a lot of dirt to shovel about Charlie Crist, Marco Rubio, and some other big names. It's being released this summer, just in time for Greer to do a book tour on the way out of his correctional hidey-hole.

A few Scott fanatics are slavering over this release, although they probably shouldn't. For one thing, Greer may also have a few things to say about their hero. For another -- how should I put this tactfully? Greer's not exactly what you'd call a forthright citizen. He's not wearing blue right now because it matches his necktie collection. There's a reason our prisons have those special doors on them.

It's tempting to point out that Scott fanatics would especially love Greer: After all, if they voted for a felon, they certainly would have no qualms about believing one. 

But is there really any promise of some earth shaking scandal being unmasked about Charlie Crist, thereby upsetting the apple cart of his governor's campaign? Book sellers usually try to put something juicy in the copy, and there's a bit of juice here from Amazon Books:

"Greer trusted Crist to protect him from the onslaught of the Tea Party wing of the party, only to watch as Crist stabbed him in the back and helped send him to prison in order to try to save his own political career."

This is more than a little fouled up. First of all, Greer is a grown adult man. He shouldn't have had to hide behind Crist or anyone else to be "protected" from the Tea Party. Second, Greer committed a crime; the evidence shows that, and he pled guilty, his excuses for doing so notwithstanding. How in the world is it being "stabbed in the back" for Crist to have not backed this? Is Greer so morally obtuse that he expected Crist or anyone else to save him by, say, lying under oath? Or by letting him off the hook for his crimes?  Or is he now going to have the temerity to claim that everyone else was guilty, and he got framed?

No doubt Greer will have a lot to say that's bad about a lot of his former team mates. But if Scott fanatics take him at his word, they'd probably better check their moral compass at the door with him.