Thanks Rick Scott...

Be it lightbulbs, healthcare, or trains... the GOP wants to keep us from progress until we are a third-world country. Rick Scott did his part by turning down federally-funded high-speed rail from Tampa to Orlando and lied about it as always.

Keep this mind when you go to the polls in November:

Today, GOP Hero George Zimmerman Signs Autographs at Orlando Gun Store

Crossposted to DKos

If you are in Orlando right now, you still have time to meet the tea party hero/cold-blooded murderer George Zimmerman at "The Arms Room" on 19048 East Colonial Drive, Orlando FL. (Proudly advertised on their FB page).

Yesterday and today he's been signing pictures of himself with his dog, trying to cash in on his "celebrity" status. I guess this is his attempt at trying to get his "old life back".

Tea Party people were there to shake his hand and get autographs. (There wasn't the line that the owner expected, however).

I'm sure you're wondering how shooting an unarmed kid at close range makes you a "celebrity". But he is so much more than a cold-blooded murderer. This is the man who AFTER killing Trayvon Martin, knowing the world was watching him, was arrested for shoving his gun in the face of his father-in-law and wife in September, and then just two months later shoved a gun in the face of his new girlfriend for which he was charged with felony aggravated assault.

I've never gotten the police to come out to my house once. This guy manages to do it several times in one year. And c'mon, violent assault against your own family AND killing a young, innocent minority? (Not to mention a child molester.) How could he NOT be a hero to these people?

Mike Piwowarski organized the show, and is furious that the Majestic cancelled his gun show when they learned Zimmerman would be there to sign autographs because they thought it would be tasteless. It almost looked like the wingnuts wouldn't get a venue to meet their hero, but then the Arms Room Store came through.

Piwowarski was relieved but said he would still sue the Majestic for $300,000 in lost guns sales. (And who put a gun to your head and made you feature Zimmmerman, Mike? No seriously, who? Was it Zimmerman?)

So if you want to meet the poster child for Stand Your Ground, domestic violence, and child killing, head over to the Arms Room by 5pm today! Maybe you can call them at 407-282-3803 , send them an email, or fill out their contact form, or leave a review... and thank them for doing their part in keeping the reputation of my state the way it is.

Sponsorship opportunities now available this election year

Select the Sponsorship button on the top bar or click here.

BREAKING: FL House Comes Through! We Can Now Eat Pop Tarts into Shapes!

Crossposted on Dkos
#98 of My Stupid State

First off, yes, that is a true headline.

While you dolts are bickering about nonissues like our state's license to kill, or losing Billions of dollars in Medicaid funding, our teabagger Florida House is busy tackling the real issues facing our state: like allowing children to eat poptarts into "L" shapes":

The House Education Committee on Thursday gave its support to the bill, (HB 7029, SB 1060), which would prevent children from being disciplined for playing with simulated weapons in school.

The bill offers special protection for “brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food.”

There you have it. Finally, some leadership. I guess those of you thinking our legislature wasn't looking out for us are feeling PRETTY stoopid right about now...

By the way, notice that the article had to put the qualifier in that the NRA was not "driving" this particular bill... because that is such a fucking rarity.

No, the author of that bill is an NRA shill named Dennis Baxley from Ocala. He is also the same guy who wrote "Stand Your Ground"--another poor solution to a problem we never had.

While this piece of crap zipped through committee, this $50 billion idea is having trouble:

...one of the most important issues facing this state is stalled — one that would invigorate our economy, create more than 100,000 jobs and help save lives....

The federal government has agreed to help fund the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage to more low-income Americans. The results would be profound. Estimates show that about a million Floridians who make poverty wages or just a bit above — $27,000 for a family of three — would qualify for coverage...

States that accept the money also expect to see jobs skyrocket when the health-care dollars come. The University of Florida predicted 120,000 new jobs for the Sunshine State. That's why groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce have advocated taking the money, as well.

So why don't we have the money?

Because House Speaker Will Weatherford and a handful of his GOP peers would rather demagogue the politics of "Obamacare" than help the state's economy or its residents.

It's particularly ironic, considering these same politicians get generous taxpayer-subsidized health-care plans ... and considering Weatherford's own family received Medicaid assistance when he was a child.

JOBS? HEALTHCARE? MONEY?

Who the fuck wants that?

Real Floridians want their reps to make sure we tackle the real issues...

We want them defending our freedoms, be it keeping UN troops from taking Florida land, protecting us from those who would assault our right to "brandish" pastry in a theatening manner, or from the imaginary hordes involved with in-person voting fraud.

I just wish they'd hurry up and make a bill protecting us from alien abductions, becuase unlike the other things I just mentioned, there's at least one report in Florida of that ever actually happening.

Thank you, Florida. I think... You know what.. I can't do this.

I usually go into a sarcastic snark about the sheer stupidity, but its gotten so bad that the special brand of stupid in Tallahassee is LITERALLY killing Floridians. Six a day to be exact. Our friends, family, and neighbors dying needlessly in a futile attempt to... what exactly? To thumb your nose at a black guy in Washington? How's that going?

When they do get around to enacting laws, its stupid crap like this--or worse, something that hurts people. The teabaggers who run Tally are particularly fond of pissing off minorities, especially Hispanics--that is if they aren't trying to literally kill them.

Honestly, I'm sick to my stomach. (Maybe that's why I'm sick.) I made a fraking list that's almost at 100 documenting the stupid, and I still miss things every day because if I wrote about everything I heard about or what people send me I'd have to quit my damn job and just do that fulltime.

If you know me, you know I have my own health issues, but I don't have it as bad as many people I meet. I met a wonderful woman yesterday who broke down in the clinic because she couldn't get healthcare for her family. This state has made it difficult to be a navigator and refused to set up its own exchange. I promised to help if I could: (By the way, if ANYONE here is a navigator or knows the system, let me know so we can help her.)

I have nothing to gain by living here. I'm tired of neighbors like this, and my own idiot, child-like representative, the corrupt, creepy kid who runs the House,and the legion of assholes we somehow think are worth paying to screw us.

You teabags apparently are intent on turning this tropical paradise into Somalia, but with abortion restrictions. You know what? Fucking have at it. South Florida should annex itself, and every normal sane person should leve Central and North and migrate elsewhere.

This ain't normal.

I'll be on hiatus for a few weeks. In the meantime, Maxwell recommends calling the Florida House. I hope you will:

Will Weatherford (aka creepy kid) office at 850-717-5038
His facebook is https://www.facebook.com/willweatherfordfl
The legisaltive Switchboard at 850-717-5650

Please contact them. The only thing worse than the corruption and stupidity of our leaders is the apathy of the people here to confront them. Until that changes, nothing will.

Ultimate List of Bumper Sticker Slogans Against Rick Scott

If you have any other ideas, post them in comments section.

WINNERS:

1. Rick Scott: Proving why criminals shouldn't run governments

2. Rick Scott: Florida's New Jim Crow

3. Denies Healthcare To Millions, Pays $30 a Month for His Own!

4. Rick Scott: Believes Regulations are for Women's Bodies, Not Corporations

5. Vote Rick Scott. Closest You Will Get to Screwing Your Teacher.

6. How Can We Deny Ex-Felons The Vote If We Allow a Criminal To Be Governor?

7. Dogs Aren't Disposable Rick! But You Are!

8. Rick Scott Needs To Inspect Florida Prisons... From The Inside

9. Rick Scott: Being Qualified Is So Overrated

10. My Governor Can Outslime Your Governor!

11. Vote Rick Scott. I Hate Florida.

12. Stand Your Ground Against Rick Scott.

13. Our Governor Cuts Millions for Disabled Kids, Gives to Corporate Backers

14. Rick Scott: Cut 1.3 Billion in Education to Waste on Corporate Welfare

Superfly awesome!

Runners-up:

• Rick Scott Hates Medicare. Except When He's Ripping It Off.
• Rick Scott /Scott Tissue..Both asswipes
• Rick Scott should be making license plates, not issuing them
• Rick Scott: Stealing from Seniors for Decades
• Spent $73 million to keep you in poverty
• Rick Scott: You weren't voting anyway

Feel free to steal any of these either for your blog, signs for rallies, tweets, or make products with them--bumper stickers, buttons, tees, etc.

The winners were made into actual products on zazzle: http://www.zazzle.com/seminolestore

Royalties will go towards defeating Rick Scott in November. If you want a specific product option not available, put in comments or contact us.

Let's be Scott-free this November.

State of the State While in a Deluded State

Rick Scott had his “State of the State” address this week, but it reveals far more about his state of mind than it does about the state of the state. Not surprisingly, the address contains one falsehood after another, and makes a vain effort to humanize Scott which is no more successful than it would be if you attempted to humanize the Terminator. It will also help me increase my list of reasons to dis-elect him, probably to 185 by the end of the day.

Let’s cull out the fact claims – and there aren’t many. 

I could talk about how our unemployment rate is now down to 6.3 percent

He can talkall he wants about it, but Scott ignores the facts: Much of that is due either to 1) a nationwide trend downward; 2) frustrated people leaving the workforce. But no, Scott would rather try to impress uncritical voters with a number than tell the truth.

How our crime rate is at a 42-year low

This is true by itself, but Scott deserves no credit for it. FDLE stats show that the crime rate in Florida has been steadily declining since the early 1990s. Why? I’m sure it has a lot to do with quality policing in some ways, but let’s face it, it also has a lot to do with our growing population. Not even criminals can keep up with it.

How we have invested record funding in protecting our environment

We have? Florida is now ranked the second most polluted state in the country, and Scott has devoted a mere pittance to things like springs restoration. If he inflated the budget for it this year, then it’s only because it’s one of those things he had a conversion on (like education spending)  after realizing that he wasn’t going to get votes by being a jackass.

Update: Politifact rated this one False.
 
While our tourism industry is breaking records

Of course it is. This is Florida, and travel is increasing as the economy worldwide slowly rebounds. Is Scott going to take credit for our beaches now?

Or how we have added more than 460,000 new private-sector jobs since the end of 2010

Once again, this is just normal economic recovery and has nothing to do with Scott. Here and later he’ll also forget that he promised 1.7 million jobs, not 700,000.

After this, Scott spends some time trying to make himself look human by relating stories about how he grew up poor. It really doesn’t work, because the Rick Scott who slept on the floor of his house in a sleeping bag disappeared into the haze of the wealthy one-percenter long ago, the one who doesn’t care what he does to people now in the same position he used to be. He got his; the heck with the rest of you. Wealthy barons like Scott use these stories to try to imply: “If you work hard like I did, you’ll get yours too. So you don’t need to ask for any help from me or the government.”

But the hard reality is that even if everyone had the exact same ability and opportunity, there’s no way it would be economically workable for everyone to be someone like Scott. To use an example from my list, which will represent the whole of industry, Kmart will always need a lot of cashiers. But they’ll never need more than a handful of corporate executives. Not everyone can become one of their executives, so inevitably, even if every worker at Kmart has a 200 IQ and earns a Masters’ degree in business, and is “diligent and hard working” as Scott puts it, most will still end up being cashiers. The tale Scott tells which implies that everyone can follow his lead if they just shut up and work hard (as he supposedly did) is nothing but a one-percenter fable used to keep the masses quiet.

Like Washington, Florida’s economy was driven into the ground by spending what some embraced as “free money.” Of course, there is no such thing.

Of course not. It comes from taxes, which barons like Scott do their best to avoid – by, for example, moving to Florida. The other day someone told me that if Crist were elected, Florida would end up with state income tax. Well, it’s probably about time we had one.

Florida’s big spending racked up big debt. Florida was in a hole. Unemployment was above 11 percent More than one million people were unemployed and our debt ballooned to more than $28 billion.

“Ballooned”? Not exactly. It was $24.3 billion in FY 2008. A rise of just under 4 billion is not a “balloon”. It’s maybe a puff.

Now if you think Scott was funny before, just wait. As we know, he likes to blame Crist for the worldwide recession of 2007 on. Here’s his response.

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.

Together, we have cut almost 3,000 regulations on small businesses.

There’s that large number again, but I’d still like to see a list of those regulations, and proof that getting rid of each and every one of them was the right thing to do. Scott will never do that. You can be sure he didn’t read all 3000 of those and carefully consider the impact of each. No, all he wants to do is impress with a big number.

Together, we have now paid down $3.6 billion in state debt 

As the story above shows, this is nothing special. The state debt runs in cycles.

And paid back another $3.5 billion borrowed from the federal government  for unemployment assistance.

Really? And all of this while the unemployed in this state suffer through Scott’s non-working DEO website, and are told they can only have a few weeks of assistance to get them through the worst job market since the Great Depression?

The simple truth is that our state…just like our small businesses and our families….has to live within its means.  

We can’t spend more than we take in.

The problem here is that Scott made enormous, hurtful cuts to a budget that was alreadybalanced. The extra money was stashed away. We didn’t spend more than we took in. He took away what we took in and stashed it, oblivious to the suffering it caused. Now we’re paying the price, with things like more the 40 dead children because DCF was understaffed. For Rick Scott, living within your means, means it doesn’t matter who gets shafted. He can decorate it with words like “the hard thing” and “courage” all he wants, but it took him no effort or courage to slash budgets, to defund things like DCF, rape crisis centers, children with disabilities, and the salaries of state workers who made under 30K. He was never hurt by any of this. Scott doesn’t have any courage to speak of.

Together, we have cut taxes 24 times already. And my hope is that we are about to cut them again... by another $500 million this year.

Of course, up until now, those tax cuts have been overwhelmingly for businesses. It is only in the last year of his term – when he is up for re-election – that Scott thinks to restore a pittance to the everyday person, by way of a cut to tag fees. If it’s “our money” as he says, why did he take so long getting it back to us?

That’s why we are again proposing to invest record amounts in our K-12  education system. With your support, this budget will invest a total of $18.8 billion in education – the highest in Florida history. This record investment builds on our previous budgets, which invested an additional $1 billion in K-12 education for two years in a row.

What he misses, of course, is that this was following enormous, billion-sized cuts his first year in office – which he is only partly restoring, while we still lag far behind in per-student spending.

Of course, ensuring students get a quality education means they must have excellent teachers. That’s why, last year, with your support, we gave every fulltime public classroom teacher the opportunity to get a pay raise.

The raise in question comes after a 3% cut to teacher pay, under the premise of shoring up the pension fund. However, the money did not go back into the pension fund, but back into the state budget, and the pension fund did not need shoring up.

This investment is sure to pay off: Florida teachers are ranked among the most effective in the nation.

Scott is relying on a report that isn’t exactly known to be reliable. But of course, it will serve for his purposes.

 Because of their hard work, our fourth and eighth graders have had the largest achievement gains in the nation. Our fourth graders are now second in the world for reading.

This one at least has a semblance of truth. But it still requires Scott to stretch the truth, as usual. Florida isn’t “second in the world,” it was second in a sampling study involving worldwide participants.

 And, Florida high schools are 4 out of the top 10 in the country.

This one is half true. Like the prior claim, it requires a large number of caveats.

My commitment to every family dreaming to send their children to college is simple: We will hold the line on tuition.  Parents saving for their children to get a four-year degree from a public university today need to save over $53,000. Fifty-three-thousand-dollars. We shouldn’t celebrate how accessible higher education is until we can make it more affordable. That’s why I am proud that all of Florida’s 4-year state colleges now offer bachelor’s degrees for only $10,000.

This last one ranked Mostly False.Beyond that, this “McDegree” program is still in its infancy, and has yet to produce any measurable results. Will we get what we pay for? It’s a little early for Scott to start bragging, I think.

When we set out to jump start our economy four years ago, we talked about creating 700,000 jobs in seven years.

No, we talked about creating 1.7 million jobs, after being told that economists predicted we’d add 1 million no matter who was governor.

It was an ambitious goal. Today, we are moving the bar even higher. If we continue to pay down debt – like we do in this budget by another $170 million. If we continue to cut taxes – by rolling back the 2009 tax hike on annual motor vehicle fees so Floridians keep more of the money they earn and, if we continue to cut taxes on small businesses - by cutting the tax on business leases and rolling back the business tax to now exempt 4 out of 5 Florida businesses from paying it. If we do all this, we can make Florida not just the land of 700,000 new jobs. We will make Florida the land of opportunity.

This is fantasy of the kind that exceeds anything written by Robert Jordan. How, exactly, does paying down a mere $170 million from a debt that exceeds $20 billion going to create jobs? How is returning a mere $25 to a taxpayer going to help them create a job? They may have a smidgen more buying power, but collectively, that still won’t add up to much. Cutting taxes on businesses hasn’t helped that much so far either, as I’ve already pointed out.

The last moment of high comedy is this one.

The second reason for talking about my story is that I hope it explains just a little about my passion for creating jobs and opportunities for all Florida citizens. I know that reporters get tired of me constantly talking about creating jobs when they are asking other questions.  I know that some people think I’m too singularly focused on growing Florida’s economy. Well…all I can tell you is that we are all products of our own experiences in life.  I’ve seen what happens to families who are struggling to find work. I’ve had Christmas without any presents. And, I don’t want any of our people to ever feel stuck in those situations.

Well, the bad news is, because of Scott, far too many in Florida do – and this is just Scott’s amazing excuse for not answering questions about other important issues that he doesn’t have a good answer for. Only a CEO with the mental gymnastics of a lizard could come up with a way to spin question avoidance into a positive.

That’s the state of the state. How surprising is it that the state is in the state it is in, when our current governor’s state is one of deluded fantasy-spinning to this degree? Falsehoods, half-truths and quarter-truths, rage all through this speech.

Let’s make sure Scott’s lies are exposed – and that he has a very bad Christmas this year.

Florida Not Only Rejected Medicaid Expansion--NOW Losing Funding For Failure to Comply

The state has decided to impose a limit of six emergency room visits per year to Medicaid patients. The feds say Florida can't do that, Florida says, sure we can. And now they're losing funding.

Seriously, Florida. WTF?

Rick Scott of the Jet Set

The recent story about how Rick Scott uses travel in his private jet to evade accountability as Governor raises a question. Back when he started as Governor, Rick Scott sold Florida’s state jets, with the promise that he would use his personal jet for state business. It’s the sort of move that was guaranteed to make his Tea Party base continue to regard him in messianic terms, and make shallower minds think that he was actually in some way a “people’s”  governor who didn’t engage in showy travel at taxpayer expense.

For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume that the Governor of Florida does actually need a jet for state travel. I think a good case can be made for that. It’s a large state, with many complex problems that may require quick attention. Maybe someone else might argue that some other mode of travel (like chartering planes) would be less expensive and more efficient. And they may be right. And of course, this is not the same thing as, “the Governor needs a state jet with a wet bar and gold plated faucets.” 

But for the sake of argument, I’ll make the assumption here that yes, our state Governor does need a state jet at hand, because it’s clear that Rick Scott really believes this to be true. Otherwise, he wouldn’t use his own jet for state business.

Now this raises a question, one that gives us an example of how Scott thinks – or rather, doesn’t think: What did he think Florida’s next governor was supposed to do about this?

No matter how much campaign cash he raises from his fat cat friends, Rick Scott can never be Governor for more than 8 years. Once he’s gone, his jet is gone too. The next Governor of Florida, whoever it may be, won’t have that jet to use. So what’s their alternative?

Do they buy a new jet? If so, then Rick Scott just sold the earlier state jet for no reason. In fact, he may have cost the state more, if the price of jets has gone up in the intervening years.

Do they come up with a different way to travel? Again, maybe someone could show that some other way of travelling is cheaper and more efficient. But maybe it isn’t. And if there is a cheaper and better way, it’s obvious that Scott isn’t using it. He still uses his jet.

In the end, some say, Scott has set it up so that the next Governor will look like someone who wastes taxpayer money on a state jet. But I don’t know if he has the capacity to think that far ahead. I think instead that he is addicted to showy gestures which hide a notable lack of serious accomplishment. Scott gives the illusion of accomplishment even as he does nothing of any value.

I think that whoever wants to be Governor after Scott should put him on the spot and ask him to donate his personal jet to the state of Florida. Crist or Rich (or even Wyllie, for that matter) should make a public point of this even now, and suggest that Scott donate his plane once he’s out of office.

Scott is far too greedy to give up his personal possessions so easily. It took a load of arm twisting to get him to give up his interest in Solantic even after it became obvious it would be a conflict of interest. 

That’s why I think this would be a good thing for his election opponents to do. It will once again reveal the corrupt nature of Scott’s character, and expose greed and selfishness as his only heartfelt motivations.

Awake the State Rally March 4!!

There's a big one in Tally, but there are local ones across the state. Find yours.

Bumper Sticker Ideas?

Ismay is going to have a final post on this. In the meantime, vote for your favorite anti-Rick Scott/Pam Bondi slogan...or suggest your own...click here

Working on putting them in a zazzle store:

ACTION: Florida Legislature Watering Down Medical Marijuana Initiative

The following is a repost from lunachickie

While Floridians have gotten medical marijuana on the November ballot, the current legislature appears to be trying to do an end run around it's usefulness. Bills have been introduced in both the Florida Senate and the House, which essentially limit "medical grade marijuana" to a substance that contains no more than 0.5 percent or less of any THC and at least 15 percent cannabidiol.

A substance: A. The letter A is really important here. In the world of marijuana, there's a grade called Charlotte's Web. Charlotte's Web is to typical marijuana--whether it's the truly medicinal type you get from a clinic or a doctor or the kind that comes from Joe Blow from Kokomo and his basement grow-room--as 3.2 beer is to Coors Light. That's about the only grade of "marijuana" you can get to smoke which meets this criteria:

0.5 percent or less of any THC and at least 15 percent cannabidiol (CBD).

Obviously, you can get this dose in a pill form. But it's practically worthless overall, if that dose in that form isn't going to help medicate what ails you. Let me let a professional explain it better:

Patients across the state are thrilled Legislators are beginning to realize the awesomeness of medical use of cannabis. What they fail to realize is just as the children with seizures get miraculous benefits from a high CBD/low THC strain of cannabis, that is one strain and one ailment. The rest of the patients gain just as miraculous benefits for their ailments with other strains. The rest of the patients need the rest of the medicine.

The current legislature has taken this restriction up in the form of two bills, FL SB 1030, and FL HB 843. You and me and anyone else who wants to see medical marijuana statutes be worth the paper they're printed on in the state of Florida need to get on the phone ASAP and call your Florida Senator and Representative--and email them while you're at it--and tell them to defeat this nonsense and support SB 962 – Medical Use of Cannabis. That is the responsible piece of legislation and is meant to legalize all the medicine for all the patients, as the writer says.

We NEED your voice, it is critical that this sneaky subterfuge not be allowed to stand.

Contact your FL Rep here.

Contact your FL Senator here.

Let me note now, so no one gets confused--the quoted paragraph from the "professional", and the link, came from a news site over in the next county from me. The gist of the actual story is about our pols "ethical dilemma" (and how they're seeking spiritual guidance) on legalizing A Drug. The paragraph above is part of a comment in response to that article. And the comment itself is amazingly full of excellent medical information, along with the information which alerted me to this situation. The author posted at 11:01 pm on 2/25, I urge you to read her post! (I can't link it separately).

What irritates me so completely is that this "news story" makes no mention of this anywhere. And I haven't seen this anywhere else, but I looked up the legislation and there it was--it appears exactly as the comment describes it.

FL Chain Charging Customers ACA "Fee"; yet STILL Not Providing Workers Healthcare!

Crossposted DKos

Several locations of Gator's Dockside, a restaurant chain here in Central Florida, have posted notices on the doors, every table, and even in the bathrooms that they are charging customers an extra "fee" for the Affordable Healthcare Act. They claimed they are doing this so they can afford to comply with the ACA and provide healthcare for their employees.

I heard about this story a few days ago, but didn't write about it because it just didn't seem like a big scandal to me. 1% of a fifty dollar meal is fifty cents. If that's what it costs to bring healthcare to all your employees, by all means, take my two freaking quarters.

I decided to give the owners the benefit of the doubt that they were doing this for the employees and not as a political ploy. I did think it odd they would put a seperate line item on the bill just for ACA. Afterall, they don't do this for Social Security, Medicaid, or any assortment of expenses they had--so why single out ACA except to make customers mad? But again, I gave them the benefit of the doubt because they were providing their employees healthcare.

Then I learned that independent franchisees (outside of the restaurants in GOP strangleholds, like the infamous and creepy "The Villages") weren't participating. They essentially told the media it was unnecessary and stupid.

Then I learned this:

Though the restaurant blames the new surcharge on Obamacare, the employer mandate, which will require Gator’s Dockside to provide coverage to 70 percent of its full-time employees, actually won’t go into effect until 2015.

OK. So it IS unnecessary and stupid. So they are charging customers for something they aren't even paying.

It's starting to look like a political stunt. (The Heritage Foundation and other right-wing sites ate it up). Several customers took to their facebook page to complain.

But I said to myself, hey, at least Gator's Dockside is taking care of their employees.

THEN I learned this!

Only the restaurant's managers are receiving healthcare currently, according to CNN Money.

What. The. @#*&?!??!!?

So you are not only charging your customers for something that doesn't exist, you aren't even providing your workers the healthcare you said you would!

Giving the GOP owners the benefit of the doubt. My mistake.

Rick Scott Tries to Enrich Donor for School Bid With Taxpayer Funds

The superintendent of Hillsborough County schools, MaryEllen Elia, reached out to MacDill officials to address their concerns regarding education for children living on the base. Elia offered to convert a local school into a K-8 school, and offered to run a charter school for MacDill if that was the route they wished to pursue.

Her calls were ignored.

The superintendent had a plan for the children, but Rick Scott had a better plan to enrich his friend and campaign donor:

Jonathan Hage sat on Gov. Rick Scott's education transition team. He and his company, Charter Schools USA, have given more than $100,000 to Scott's Let's Get To Work fund and the state Republican Party.

Now it appears it was Scott — or someone very close to him — who suggested Charter Schools USA run a school at MacDill Air Force Base.

Meeting minutes obtained by the Hillsborough County School District, which opposes the school, describe the origin of a plan that is at the heart of a battle before the Florida Board of Education. See more

Rick Scott Supports AZ Anti-Gay Bill But Too Cowardly to Admit It

What does it look like when you support something that you know will hurt your re-election?

This bit of awkwardness:

In an interview with host Chuck Todd on Wednesday Scott was repeatedly asked whether he thought Brewer should sign the bill. Other Republicans have said she shouldn't. Each time he was asked, Scott refused to answer saying he hadn't seen the legislation.

"Chuck, I've not seen that bill," Scott said in response to a question from MSNBC's Chuck Todd on the bill.

Holy Cow.

You are a tea party governor so of course you know you are going to be asked if you support it.

The full text of the bill is one page. You don't even need to read the whole thing (definitions and legal-eaze make up most of it).

Chuck tried one more time.

"Do you think religious -- do you think a bill like that, religious beliefs, should be used as a basis of denying services to a gay couple?"

"I haven't seen the bill, but I can tell you I'm trying to recruit companies every day to our state," Scott said.

If Chuck really wanted to see Rick dance he could have read him the key paragraph about discrimination and asked if he agreed with it.

Of COURSE Rick supports the bill. But he's not going to say it. In fact, if it was presented to him this year I would bet he would veto it because it would be the death-knell of his campaign. But I guarantee you that if Rick's voter suppression succeeds and he squeaks by another victory... you will definitely see this bill become law in Florida.

Maine GOP Rep Apologizes for Saying Men Should Get to Rape Women... Because Abortion

The GOP's growing chart may need an update. Perhaps a new bar at the bottom redefining rape as "pursuit of sexual freedom"?

It took 18 years, but Lawrence Lockman finally apologized yesterday for comments he made as press-secretary of a pro-life group on the issue of violence against women:

"If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman?” Lockman said. “At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.”

Talk about being unfit for office.

Note to Lockman and others: if you have taken to defending rape as your argument against abortion, maybe its time to reconsider your position.

Lockman has been Gov. LePage's most staunch ally. He is the quintessential teabagger. He refused to pay his taxes, uses hate speech, and is a proud bigot. He has a decades-long history of saying stupid and very offensive comments, which would have been useful if compiled before his recent election in 2012.

I have never heard of a Democrat having to apologize for making rape comments... the GOP can't seem to help themselves. The Democrats need to spotlight these comments front and center because it shows the world what kind of people they really are.

Gov. LePage and Rep. Lockman, two peas in a pod

WOW! It's up to 177 Reasons Now!

I normally would update after every 5 reasons, but I found a whole lot of them in my most recent check of my fave sources (this blog, plus rickscottsucks.us). Too good to keep!

Florida's Tea Party Government Forcing Firefighters to Fight Wildfires Alone

Crossposted on DKos
#95 of My Stupid State

A story that isn't getting much attention. A few days ago a representative from the Florida State Fire Service Association literally begged the Florida Legislature: "Please stop sending us to wildfires alone!"

Naturally, Rick Scott thinks this is dandy. The expensive private attorneys hired to defend stupid decisions by the State (and they do very well the past few years) said the National Standards for Firefighters somehow don't apply to those firefighters who fight forest fires--because that makes sense.

Scott's Chief Labor Negotiator, Mike Mattimore, made some ludicrous statement along the lines that we would have to double up all high-risk jobs, like child protective investigators: "We can't go doubling them all up".

They estimate it would cost 2.9 million to bring them in compliance with national standards. Even assuming that is the case, I would be more inclined to believe that Rick Scott is just being fiscally responsible if it wasn't for the fact that he was recently demanding that the legislature spend $100 million to subsidize tourism executives!

But the difference is that 100 million helps his corporate backers whereas this only saves lives of some blue collar rescue workers. So screw 'em.

Tommy Price, President of the Florida State Fire Service:

“It really is amazing that when presented with a major safety concern like this of sending a firefighter alone to a fire at any time, someone in the Governor’s Office or DMS could not address the issue at their level and now these state firefighters have to go to the Legislator and beg them for this change…"

Retired Wildland Firefighter Sayer explained how small fires can turn to an inferno in no time:

Let me put this out there: As a single resource on a 25 acre fire one night, the wind shifted as I was headed up the right flank of this fire. I wasn’t even half way up the flank, so now I’m on the rear of a 50 acre fire.

He also smacked down the argument that sending one more firefighter would strain resources:

[The fire] required another District, 6 more dozers, 2 engines and extra Supervisors and took over 12 extra hours to put out what ended up being an 800 acre fire. Oh no, let’s not “tie up” one more firefighter when we can commit dozens later. Feel free to show this to the powers that be.

Wildfires in this state are devastating and deadly. Firefighters shouldn't have to beg to get the basic standard.

The Commissioner of Agriculture oversees the Florida Forestry Department. His name is Adam Putnam--naturally an ally of the incompetent trifecta of Rick Scott and Pam Bondi.

Throw them all out this November.

Now It's 170 and Counting

My list of non-partisan reasons to boot Rick Scott is now up to 170. Items 163-167 are the new ones. Kudos again goes to the Seminole Democrat for inspiring a couple, and I also got a "threefer" out of Rick Scott's latest song and dance over flood insurance rates. Hypocrisy sure offers a lot of opportunities for Rick to make a fool of himself.