Message to Teabaggers

From Ray Pensador at Dkos:

...You will never find a hate-filled racist Progressive. You will never find an anti-intellectualism Progressive. You will never find a Progressive who does not have a clear understanding of the importance of the concept of separation between Church and State. Look as hard as you want, and you will never find a Progressive that does not accept the scientific proof that human industrial activity has a negative impact on climate change.

There are no neo-Nazi Progressives. A Progressive would never cheer upon hearing someone mention the high count of state-sponsored executions of prisoners by a State. You would never find a Progressive that, blinded by a deep-seated hate and racism, would believe that the duly elected president of the United States is not a citizen.

And, yes, even though there are Progressives that hold religious beliefs, you will never find an in-your-face bible-thumping Progressive wanting to incite the beginning of Armageddon in Israel in order to precipitate the Second Coming.

You will never find Progressives that believe that the best way to deal with a state that's literally burning is by praying for rain.

You see, Progressives believe that many of those battles were fought after the Middle Ages, and that the age of reason and enlightenment, and the renaissance, won the day.

So, to my dear teabagger readers, think carefully about these things. Are you really that proud that only within your ranks can you find racists, and extreme religious fundamentalists, and sadists who cheer at the thought of an uninsured man being left to die if he gets seriously ill and can't afford to pay for healthcare?

And, please, don't misunderstand me. I know that not all of you teabaggers are like that. But it is a fact that only within your ranks can you find such despicable characters. Think about that. And thanks for reading.

Even the dumest teabagger should understand this

Between the years 1980 and 2005 80% of all new income generated in this country went to the richest 1%. Let me put that in terms that even you fatass teabaggers, sorry, can understand. Say 100 Americans get together and order a 100 slice pizza, the pizza arrives, they open the box, and the first guy takes 80 slices. And if someone suggests "Why don't you just take 79 slices?" THAT'S SOCIALISM!


...Bill Maher

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

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

"Good thing you aren't a teacher."

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

And then added, "Our new governor."

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

"At least you're not a firefighter."

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

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

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

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

No wonder my heart is giving out...

Congratulations to Obama on Libya

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

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

Libya is the anti-Iraq.

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

My heart sank when I saw the document.

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

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

Now we know why.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to the New Florida.

HELP win back Wisconsin!

http://calloutthevote.com/



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

OOPS! Redstate Backpedals After Blaming Muslims for Oslo Attack

Erick Erickson is an ass. (Which was the exact title of a post I wrote two years ago.) Right now he's bragging that GOP Senators, Congresspeople, and staff are calling him asking his advice on what to do with the debt ceiling. (Assuming that's true, I've got some advice...how about working for your damn constituents and not letting right-wing nutballs set your policy agenda.)

But dumbass had to do some serious backpedaling with an idiotic explanation of why he IMMEDIATELY jumped to the conclusion that it was obviously a Muslim conducting the terror attack while the terror was was ongoing without any evidence whatsoever. But, as Erick, son of Erick, had to admit:

Turns out, the now captured shooter, who I think we can probably say is connected to the bombing, lists himself as a conservative Christian on a Facebook page.

OOPS! Turns out this "Islamic" terrorist would have been a disciple of Cheryl Sullenger if he was in the states.

But instead of admitting to talking out of his ass, he goes on the defensive:

First, those of us on the right who point out the now fairly common ties between terrorists and Islam do so largely because the secular left has become willfully naive....
With Christians, it is rather rare to see a self-described Christian engage in heinous terrorist acts.

He does this, mind you, AFTER talking about Eric Rudolph and Timothy McVeigh. But those, he says aren't real Christians. But the shooter at Ft Hood, THAT was a real Muslim, I guess.

Right-wing religious terrorists exist... the Klan considers itself a very Christian organization, whereas we all see it as a right-wing terrorist organization. They join all of those hateful white supremacist groups and militias whose members suddenly have found acceptance within the Tea Party ranks.

The abortion terrorists, our own American Taliban, are not just "self-described" Christians, but downright militant fanatics who don't think anything of gunning down abortion providers, blowing up clinics with IEDs, or just harassing and threatening anyone associated with the clinics.

Then Erick Erick goes Batshit Beckian crazy:

Secular leftists and Islamists are both of this world. Christians may be traveling through, but we are most definitely not of the world. In fact, Christ commands us to throw off our ties to this world. But the things of this world love this world and hate the things of God. That’s why secular leftism can embrace both activist homosexuals and activist muslims when the latter would, when true to their faith, be happy to kill the former.

Getting a glimpse of the warped brain of a right-wing zealot...they admit to hating this world which is why they are so intent on doing things to destroy it. (No wonder we have a hard time "negotiating" with that mindset.)

So in a nutshell... Christians are excused when they kill because they aren't really Christians, Muslims who kill are real Muslims, and somehow "activist" gays are to blame for this tragedy as well.

The left has intellectuals like Maddow, but we just don't have anyone on our side that is filled with this sort of vile. Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and the rest of their ilk have so much hate for others and find fault with everyone who is different than they are. They need to be treated, but in today's GOP, they are called the movement's "leaders". These are the people they call up for guidance.

People like Erick Erickson.

Mitt Romney: "Rick Scott is a great man, a great leader!"

On the national level, defeating Romney is all about pointing to how he made his fortune: by bankrupting profitable businesses, literally destroying thousands of jobs, and outsourcing the rest overseas. Then there's his miserable record as governor, which had one of the worst job creation records in the country. Not to mention his flip-flops on every issue... and that little bit of hypocricy called Romneycare.

But state by state is how the GOP fights, and that's what we need to do. So here is how it will go down in the Sunshine state...

First of all, let me be clear. Romney will be the nominee. Period. Spare me any talk about the new GOP or the tea party or any of that crap. I am terrible at picking the Democratic nominees (I was sure it would be Clinton in ‘08 just as I was sure it wouldn’t be in ’92), but when it comes to the GOP, my track record is 100% because I know the truth: the establishment always wins. It was Dole’s turn in ’96, although there were stronger players. No doubt it was W for ’00, although like Bob Dole, McCain put up a good fight and unquestionably supported the establishment choice…. thus putting himself in the que for the 2008 election. The pattern continues, and it’s Romney’s turn. The GOP establishment will not allow Bachmann or Palin to be the nominee and there is nothing, NOTHING, the useful idiots can do to stop that.

So we focus on Romney.

A visual of the plan looks something like this.

If there is one thing Floridians hate, its their devious, criminal, teabag governor.
He is now at 29% approval, the worst of any modern governor in any poll with the exception of Rod Blagojevich… and you know, he wasn’t that far behind with 18%.

Scott is so far in the dumps that he is trying to remake his image with pre-written Letters to the Editor and unsolicited, nonstop robocalls to every Floridian saying we got it wrong and he is actually awesome. (Everyone loves robocalls--Genius!)

Last November, Scott sank Sink by tying her to Obama. Repeatedly. Countless ads showing Sink saying nice things about Obama. Obama was nowhere on the ballot, but he was everywhere. This election cycle, we need to return the favor…

Rick Scott is a great man, a great leader…
-Mitt Romney

Rick Scott was strongly endorsed by Mitt Romney last year. They shared the stage in Florida’s conservative capital—the stepford-wives creepy “the Villages”.

At the Villages, Mitt Romney touted Rick Scott’s business experience… even though he knew about his documented criminal past.

He didn’t have to do this. He didn't have to endorse him. He could have stood on principle, if he had any. No other presidential hopeful bothered to stand with Rick Scott.

In fact, many conservative pundits and GOP politicians denounced Rick Scott. The VERY same day that Mitt Romney stood on stage with Rick Scott, Fox News darling Dick Morris gave an interview with WDBO where he had this to say:

"I think Rick Scott is a criminal who belongs in jail not in the governor's office."

Morris went on to say that he'd vote for the Democrat Alex Sink.

"She's a terrible candidate... her opponent is a criminal," he said.

But after the election, you'd think Mitt would have had the good sense to shut up. But it was Mitt who supported Scott sending the massive job-creating, 2.4 billion rail project to another state:

I read the governor's decision. He was concerned that the rail project would be a longterm sinkhole...--Mitt Romney

Right… which explains why Scott rejected a fully-funded project but supports spending $77 million of state money on an actual sinkhole. And didn't you go after try to spend hundreds of millions on rail in MA, Mitt?

Romney was also supportive of Rick Scott’s job-killing budget. I'm no youtube guru, but this writes itself: quotes from Romney praising Rick Scott to the moon... pictures of them arm-in-arm... Rick Scott calling funds for needy people, seniors, veterans, and disabled kids “frivolous and wasteful spending”. For added measure, show the salaries of his staff that he greatly increased and his new digs that he could afford after doubling his office budget to $638 million.

1 minute video... priceless.

Finally, in a state full of geriatrics, Romney and Scott are tied together by mutual admiration of a man who is toxic in this state. The guy who supports ending Medicare as we know it... Paul Ryan:

He is setting the right tone for finally getting spending and entitlements under control. Anyone who has read my book knows that we are on the same page.
--Mitt Romney

And Paul Ryan LOVES him some Rick Scott.

Mitt is going to try everything to distance himself from Scott... LET US NOT LET HIM.

Fortunately, Rick Scott won't let him either. Last month, Rick Scott decided to piss on Romney by doing the worst thing possible to him: endorsing him for president.

Romney—Scott, Scott—Romney.

Rick Scott has already proved that his endorsements are cursed. The Democratic party won VERY surprising victories in both the Tampa and Jacksonville mayor’s races this spring after Rick Scott came out for them.

Sitting governors in this state are absolutely a factor in national elections. The tea party minions came out in droves for the right-wing Rubio even thought the Florida GOP was solid (initially) behind Charlie Crist because of thier anti-Obama fervor. The popularity of Jeb was also a major factor for people supporting his brother's candidacy here in 2000. (Sorry about that, by the way.)


Thanks to Gov. Voldemort, he has managed to energize a Democratic-base completely demoralized for years. I am also seeing an awakening in the state's long suffering and inept Democratic party. They have their work cut out for them... the state offices are strongly GOP, the rethuglicans have a ton more money, and they just made voting for Democrats A LOT more difficult. But if the Florida Dems can hang Rick Scott around Romney's neck, then it's game over for Mittens.

GOP goes to the mat... for tax subsidies for BIG OIL

Last December, President Obama caved in to the Republicans who demanded extra tax cuts for the wealthy in exchange for an extension on unemployment benefits. Now the GOP is balking at paying for these cuts by refusing to raise the debt ceiling.

You should also be offended that we are talking about cutting Medicaid and Social Security, which we paid into, but the GOP refuses to even consider closing tax loopholes on corporate-jet owners or getting rid of taxpayer subsidies on big oil companies.

By the way, the corporate jet loophole would only mean depreciating the stupid jets at 5 years instead of 7. Yeah, that will really cost a lot of jobs somehow.

Then there's that stupid hedge fund loophole that only benefits a few on Wall Street but costs us hundreds of billions...nah, better to cut off Grandma's water bill.

That is what they are going to the mat for folks. This is the GOP's line in the sand... NO sacrifice for any rich-folk and taxpayer money being GIVEN to those who need it least.

That is the line in the sand. Please consider that fact next November.

Fox News: Casey Verdict Makes Sense

For those of you who know me on the site, I do a series called "my stupid state" chronicling the sheer madness that lives here. We have a lot of trouble with voting, we like to elect criminals, and after today, we can add "let child killers go free" to the list.

There were piles of evidence that she was involved in the death... the search engine, the duct tape, the laundry bag, the other items from her house found at the scene. Her ridiculous excuse that she drowned... (Why the hell would you duct tape her mouth!?!?) Her nonstop lying to the police. The contempt she showed her daughter before her disappearance and the sickening celebratory behavior after Caylee was killed.

No other "news" organization is justifying or condemning the verdict... but reporting the facts. But Fox decided to put this on the FRONT PAGE of their website:

Why Casey Anthony's Verdict Makes Sense by Dr. Keith Ablow


"Dr. Keith Ablow" focused entirely on her behavior after the killing. He said it "makes good sense" because certain people party after a trauma... especially someone like Casey who was "raped as a child" (although he admits this is something Casey just accused her father of). He tries to explain behavior in this ridiculous article that he admits may never have happened. It truly is indicative of a Fox News Story.

I was furious, but then I remembered that name. Where have I heard Dr. Keith Ablow before?

OH YEAH, this guy! Glenn Beck's minion:


Fox News Contributor Dr. Keith Ablow Attacks Barack & Michelle Obama’s Patriotism

October 2010

Fox News favorite psychiatrist, Dr. Keith Ablow, who is a Republican and who was last seen on Fox’s Megyn Kelly show where he deplored the creeping nanny state that monitors the body mass of American school children. He also provides validation for Glenn Beck as shown by his response to Beck’s contention that Obama has a problem with race. Ablow, being his objective medical self, said that “The president needs to look at himself and say, ‘Do I have prejudice that I wasn’t even aware of, perhaps, towards white people?” So surprise, surprise, this morning we have a Fox News “opinion” column which says that America is “in denial” about Obama because they just can’t deal with Obama’s questionable loyalty to America. Ablow burnishes his “creds” by invoking his experience as a doctor in order to do a “virtual” psychological evaluation on the feelings of Americans towards their president. How’s that for some nice, slick agitprop?

This there was this. Jon Stewart had fun with this one:

Fox News Pundit Responds To J. Crew Pink Nail Polish Controversy By Ignoring Facts, Spewing Misinformation

April 2011

The most offensive opinion piece published on a nationally recognized journalism outlet appeared on Fox News' website.

Dr. Keith Ablow, a television psychiatrist and Glenn Beck associate, penned the story. (He also recently co-authored a book called The 7, a combination of Beck memoir and Ablow's self-help techniques.)

...

He then sinks into a deep non sequitur:

"And while that may seem like no big deal, it will be a very big deal if it turns out that neither gender is very comfortable anymore nurturing children above all else..."

Dr. Ablow, what does raising children have to do with wearing nail polish? The logical fallacy of grouping these things together allows you to ignore the real issue, and instead highlight the conservative 's political call to "save the American family," whatever that means. It's like the Westboro Baptist Church rhetoric, just without the offensive words.

"...and neither gender is motivated to rank creating a family above having great sex forever..."

Again, what does pink nail polish have to do with having great sex all the time? As if you can't have both?

The close association on Dr. Ablow's part between gender identity and sexual activity is completely uninformed. For an average heterosexual American, unfamiliar with the plethora of alternatives in society, this error is a understandable. But Dr. Ablow is a psychiatrist. He is using this factual error to spread misinformation and, yes, hate.

It's nice to see Glenn Beck's people will continue to infect Fox News long after he has left.

Rick Sneaks Out of State to Meet Koch Brothers While State Burns

This is our governor:

Meanwhile, in Florida, days after declaring a state of emergency for his state’s own climate crisis, Gov. Rick Scott (R) disappeared over the weekend, failing to disclose his whereabouts in his public schedule and refusing to respond to numerous press inquiries. Yesterday, Scott finally admitted he left the state without informing his constituents to attend the the Koch summit. Florida press spent most of the past few days trying to track down the rogue governor while more than 300 wildfires continue to burn in the state:

​We finally have an answer as to where Gov. Rick Scott was this weekend, and it confirms our suspicion: at the billionaire Koch brothers’ secret conference outside Vail, Colorado.

St. Petersburg Times reporter Alex Leary got the information out of him, a day after the governor’s spokesman wouldn’t confirm or deny whether Scott was there.

“I told anybody who asked me,” the governor told the Times, apparently ignoring the fact that he spends most of his days playing hide-and-seek from the media.

For the first time since he took office, Scott’s public schedule was empty this past weekend, leading most to assume he was trying to conceal his attendance at the Koch event. Scott eventually admitted that he addressed attendees at the retreat, but was vague about what he said.

TWO Rick Scott Scandals on Same Day!

Because Scott is just bad enough that one scandal won't do...

Scandal #1:

For the first time in Florida history, a Governor's budget signing ceremony was deemed a "private" event. Even though the 70 billion dollar budget effects the lives of every single Floridian, and even though it was held outdoors in a public town square by a retirement community..

As usual, the most unpopular governor in the country wanted a friendly audience. So he addressed a teabag crowd at the "Villages", the ultra-conservative right-wing mecca of our state. He thought he was gauranteed a friendly audience.

He thought wrong.

Even in this conservative bastion, there were plenty of protestors. In his speech, he touted cuts to $615 million that he called "wasteful" and "frivolous" spending, which included programs for homeless veterans, public radio, cancer research, aid for disabled children, meals for needy seniors, and other "frivolous" spending.

Many of the seniors were upset with the $187.5 million cut in "wasteful" nursing home care, others were upset about that their children and grandchildren were getting kicked in the gut while the Teabag legislature revived slushfunds, bloated their highly-paid staffs, had million-dollar giveaways and payback for their cronies, and still somehow found 20 million dollars to FIGHT the Fair District amendments that passed with 63% of the vote.

Gov. Rick Scott was clearly startled, and the Sumter County Sheriff's Office was oredered to "keep Democrats out" and to literally look for "liberal-looking" seniors. By "liberal-looking", I guess they meant pins, buttons, and disingenious t-shirts that said something rabble-rousing like "I Like Teachers" or "We Care About Our Veterans". More than a dozen were removed.

This was not only immoral. It was illegal.

1. If this was a "private event"... TAXPAYER MONEY was used. The RNC didn't stage this. It was paid for completely by the taxpayers. They had no right. They should be sued.

2. Florida's budget signing has never been, nor should it be, a "private event". It effects all of us, and hurts most of us in this case. The least we can expect is for this cowardly governor to feebily attempt to justify it to our face.

3. This was outdoors in a public town square. Nuff said.

Here is a YouTube video of the Sumter County deputies pulling the trouble-making seniors away from the signing:




As sick as that was, that was just scandal numero uno that day.

Scandal #2:

The newspapers that covered the event showed the same pictures of Rick Scott being surrounded by screaming, uniformed children... many holding signs displaying their "affection" for Rick Scott.

Creepy pictures LIKE THIS ONE and THIS ONE.

I immediately knew something was off. Why would kids be crowding a Golem-looking freak like Rick Scott like he was Justin Beiber? Especially one who just fired their teachers??

This is the guy who tried to cut $3 BILLION in education, but still succeeded in the largest cut in our state history ($1.35 billion)

(And to add insult to injury, the SOB actually had the GALL to speak under a massive banner that read LESS WASTE - MORE FOR EDUCATION.)

Well, turns out the screaming kids weren't public school kids. Gov. Golem has NEVER visited a public school, and never will. Public schools, by the way, have policies against attending political events.

They were from two taxpayer-funded charter schools. (Scott wants charter schools to replace public schools.) But not just any charter schools. NO, the nearby Villages charter schools DID NOT ALLOW their children to attend Scott's "Spit on a Teacher, Kick a Disabled Kid" TEABAGGER Rally.

No, as usual,
something was up:

As it turns out, the kids were from the P.M. Wells and Four Corners charter schools in Osceola County. Both are run by Charter Schools USA, a large charter management firm whose CEO, Jonathan Hage, served on Gov. Scott’s education transition team when Scott took office in January. Scott is a big fan of charter schools and routinely pulls them in for photo opps, although it is uncertain whether as Governor he has ever visited a traditional public school. If he has, the media has not been made aware.

The kids were bused over 60 MILES back AND forth to attend this event.

Charter Schools USA had their "public relations consultant", Colleen Reynolds, defend the trip. (Our public school has to beg for essential funds, but charter schools run by Rick Scott buddies get enough taxpayer money to hire F&**ing public relations personnel!)

Mz. Reynolds said school funds were used, not taxpayer money, to bus the kids in...which is COMPLETE AND UTTER BS since the school funds ARE THE SAME AS TAXPAYER MONEY!! In fact, those two schools receive MILLIONS in taxpayer funding!

Mz. Reynolds also had the audacity to say it was a valuable field trip to teach kids about the democratic process.

So if my kid went to that school, he or she would learn that the democratic process means passing a budget that ruins the lives of the millions of citizens and then keeping out any possible dissenters by force.... not to mention being told to hold up pre-made propoganda signs bemoaning "earmarks" for the less fortunate.

Nice lesson, jerks.

Rick Scott Ensures MILLIONS of Democrats Won't Vote! Where's the Outrage?

Bottom line: Jim Crow has returned to Florida.

St. Petersburg Times:

Not surprisingly, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law on Thursday pernicious election changes designed to benefit Republicans and suppress voting by minorities, college students and low-wage workers.

Election supervisors, who run elections in Florida, have predicted chaos and confusion at the polls because of these changes, which the GOP has falsely said was an effort to stem voter "fraud".

Miami Herald:

The League of Women Voters says it will suspend voter-registration activity in Florida because the bill requires such groups to register with the state and face fines of up to $1,000 for mistakes.

I'm sure that was the goal. Third-party voter registration groups such as the League of Women Voters, unions and the NAACP must turn in voter-registration cards within 48 hours or face HUGE fines, which groups have said would be difficult when they register thousands of new voters at a time.

In addition, this law cuts early voting in half. WHY? The majority of Obama voters in 2008 voted the first week of early voting. This new law makes it harder for low-income working people who don't have flexible hours to vote. The law even bars early-voting THREE DAYS BEFORE ELECTION DAY... to ensure casual voters don't vote the weekend before Nov. 2!!!

How that stems fraud is anyone's guess.

This law goes to the heart of the Democratic base. It will force women, minorities, and college students from getting actual ballots. They will be forced to use shady Provisional ballots....according to Politifact, the MAJORITY OF THESE BALLOTS ARE NOT COUNTED!!!

• Women can no longer update their names at the polls if they changed their marital status. They've been able to do this for almost half a century with NO issues. They will be forced to go provisional.


• College students will no longer be able to update their new address. Their votes will also be provisional... and unlikely to count


• Minorities should be worried as well:
  

  There are many other new regulations, several depriving voters of their chance to work out problems at the polls. For instance, if voters are challenged for any reason, they would be required to cast a provisional ballot. And they could not receive legal help while in line, as before.

  
  
  As I said before in a previous post, vote caging operations are a go for the GOP for 2012.

Other nuggets of evil:

ALL volunteers who just want to register voters must now register with the Supervisor of Elections. (Keep in mind Gov. Voldemort didn't want a database for pill mill doctors because it would violate the drug dealer's privacy... yet has no trouble using a database to intimidate voter registrators.)

The news media and bloggers are now restricted from taking video or audio of voters at polling places.

Citizen-led initiatives... the only challenge we have to the teabag legislature.. are now requiring a ridculous 600.000 signatures that must be collected in just 20 months--not four years.

There's more, but you get the point. Gov. Scott said its all about preventing fraud. Except no one.. .not any of the elections supervisors, not the Secretary of State, can find any instance. The Tampa Tribune article mentioned only 31 cases ever investigated in the past several years. So spare me.

In addition, if this was REALLY about fraud, why go after early voters? The biggest chance of fraud is ABSENTEE BALLOTS.. but these were left alone. WHY? Guess where the GOP gets a lot of votes from?

Yeah.


Please, help me out here. CALL TO ACTION!

Rick Scott has already passed an archaic rule requiring nonviolent felons to wait five years after completing their sentences before applying to have their voting rights restored. Even though HE KNOWS this will purge THOUSANDS of innocent (and disproportionately black) voters from the rolls misidentified as felons like we did in 2000.

I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS TO GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT:
1. Contact the DOJ. Some of our election laws are subject to review because of the Voting Rights Act. This is a clear case of disenfranchisement. OBAMA! HOLDER! WAKE UP!

2. Contact the FLORIDA DEM PARTY. Tell THEM to wake the H&*LL up and start a citizen-led initiative that there can be NO changes to our election laws that restrict voting unless its put before the people!

This is so outrageous that even I am certain we can get 600,000 signatures in the time allotted. The govenor's office admitted they fielded a record number of calls... all of them opposed to this law. (Obviously, he cares not what the citizens want.)

3. Spread the message. Post what is happening here in Florida on your blog or post on someone else's. Talk to your neighbors, your friends, your family about what is going on. Please MAKE SOME NOISE... since the MSM has obviously decided to ignore this.

OH, and if they are in Florida, tell them to make sure they are registered to vote or to update their information at the Supervisor of Elections NOW!

Updated

DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED! We just won the mayorship in JAX--one of the most right-wing cities in the US! We elected Alan Grayson in a GOP district. We passed the fair district amendments with over 60% last year...during the red wave election. Dems in this state are finally waking up... Don't count us out just yet...

A Tale of One Session: No More Business Oversight, No More Growth Management, Massive Cuts to Education

When the state legislative session finally ended, I realized something. I don't know exactly what we have here in Florida, but it is definitely not a Democracy. Floridians were shocked by the wacky laws that passed which stripped our rights and protections... each one worse than the previous. The right-wing, conservative republicans who represent a VERY small minority of teabaggers call all the shots. The few Democrats in the legislature could do nothing, not even debate!

The super-majority Florida rethuglicans, in their cozy, custom-drawn districts, were busy marginalizing the judiciary, ignoring amendments they don't like in our Constitution, and stripping power away from the citizens. The uneducated morons even outlawed sex. (No, sadly, I am not kidding.) The people are outraged, but helpless. I thought that this is what it must feel like to be in a dictatorship.

But then I thought I was giving into hyperbole. Of course we don't have a dictatorship--that would be an improvement. We get none of the advantages. (More efficiency? Less corruption? Florida? riiight). Cripes, we don't even get the damn charismatic overlord. Just a sickly-looking buffoon.

With absolute power, our republican legislators showed everyone what they are REALLY about. The middle-class, unemployed, homeless, veterans, mentally ill, seniors and disabled children all got punched in the gut with massive cuts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Big corporations of course got a hefty tax break, which was stupid and pointless since the rethughlicans also left all the corporate tax loopholes in anyway. (Less than 2% of corporations bother to pay any taxes in Florida. So suck on that.) Tax breaks for things only the wealthy can enjoy, such as yachts and skyboxes, stayed put. So did the sweet, sweet government-run healthcare all republican lawmakers enjoy in Tallahassee. (At $2 a week for a few weeks "work", its the most generous in the nation.)

The bastards gutted education by over $1.1 billion. They cut almost all business oversight regulations: 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 have vanished. I suppose we are so desperate for jobs we are begging all the shady and even criminal enterprises who fled the state to come back and set up shop so they can hire again. (Yeah, much better than those tens of thousands of jobs we would have gotten for high-speed rail, I guess.) There is also no more growth managment in this state. Developers can now build with impunity and no longer worry about building schools or roads to handle their new sprawl.

There was also time to add amendments to ensure teabag conservative turnout for the national election. There are many pointless, partisan amendments such as one overturning abortion, one loosening the separation between church and state, and another overturning the new health care law in Florida. (What health-care crisis? Don't you know it only costs two bucks a week?)

Simultaneously, the sickening voter suppression law returns Jim Crow to Florida by blatantly suppressing minorities, college students,and women from voting. It passed on a party-line vote. They also criminalized 3rd party voter registration. The League of Women Voters announced they will leave the state if Gov. Rich Snott signs it into law. Teabag Lawmaker Mike Bennett sees nothing wrong with making people "fight" to vote or even walk 200 miles to vote. (Republicans, however, can still vote absentee.)


Again. This was just. one. session.

Even worse, the supporters of the few bad laws that did fail have vowed to bring them up again next session. Look for the return of court packing, another try at the AZ anti-brown people law, and the promised new try of turning our parks into golf courses.

I am up to already up to #26 in my series.

I'm sick and tired of complaining. I cannot handle 3 1/2 more years of this crap. Do me a favor:

1. Register to vote. Stop what you are doing. Do it now. Make sure everything is squared away before the next election.

2. Get involved. Talk to people. Write your paper and your legislators. Volunteer-anywhere (candidate, party, outside group, etc.) Contribute. Risk criminal prosecution and register peeps to vote anyway (screw 'em!).

3. Vote. In the name of all that is holy, VOTE. Don't stay home to "make a point". Real people suffer. Besides, the dems here and in DC would just interpret your apathy as the result of not compromising enough. (Our party really is that lame.)

If you have a moment, take a moment right now:

1. Contact the DOJ. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires states with a history of voting discrimination, such as Florida, to submit any changes to voting laws to the DOJ for review. Florida is blatantly suppressing voting rights. Our Senator has asked them for this... take a moment and ask them as well. (What the hell is it you do anyway, Holder?)

2. Fight for fair districts. The rethuglicans are actually using taxpayer money to fight this. Fair elections are our best chance to end their complete and utter domination.

3. Support citizen-led intiatives. Sign the petitions. Ask your friends to sign them. Vote for them. Citizen-led initiatives have been made difficult with shorter timelines and a supermajority. Yet they remain our only check and balance left in this state... and the people have finally awoken. Support amendments allowing recall of our elected officials. Support the amendment initiative that gaurantees funding of our independent courts. Support the amendment initiative to repeal the voter suppression law... if all else fails.

It sux right now, folks. But it is not hopeless. Not by any means. Democrats CAN win in this state... hell, Alan Grayson is as liberal as they come and won in a GOP-drawn district. The red wave election last year STILL somehow garnered a super-majority for fair districts. Movements like Awake the State have spread and put the teabaggers to shame. Fight as hard as you can... and enjoy the spectacle while it lasts.

Bill Maher Breaks It Down

As Stewie would say, "Spot on, spot on":

All right, New Rule, stop calling this place a mansion. It looks like a 5-unit apartment complex in Van Nuys. A mansion is where the Beverly Hillbillies live. This is more like the house they show on the local news when some Mexican's pit bull has eaten a baby.
New Rule, stop saying "we" got Osama. "We" didn't do anything. "We" were watching Celebrity Apprentice and eating Funyuns in our sweatpants. SEAL Team Six did the killing, with money we borrowed from Beijing that our grandchildren will have to pay back. So it was a joint Navy SEALs, People's Bank of China, grandchildren operation.

New Rule, the White House doesn't have to release the dead bin Laden photos, but don't pretend that we can't take it. We handled pictures of Britney Spears' vagina getting out of a car. Come on, television has desensitized us to violence, and porn has desensitized us to people getting shot in the eye.

New Rule, the Pentagon must apologize to Native Americans for giving such a universally reviled character as Osama bin Laden the code name "Geronimo"... and admit they should have gone with their second choice, The Donald.

New Rule, conspiracy theorists who are claiming that we didn't really kill bin Laden, must be reminded that they didn't think he did the crime in the first place! Come on, nutjobs, keep your bullshit straight! The towers were brought down in a controlled demolition by George W. Bush to distract attention from Hawaii where CIA operatives were planting phony birth records, so that a Kenyan named Obama could someday rise to power and pretend to take out the guy we pretended took out the towers! And I know that's true because I just got it in an e-mail from Trump.

And finally, New Rule. Now that it's become clear that the Republicans, the fiscally conservative, strong on defense party, are neither fiscally conservative nor strong on defense, they have to tell us what exactly it is they're good at.

Because it's not defense. 9/11 happened on your watch. And you retaliated by invading the wrong country. And you lost a 10-year game of hide-and-seek with Osama bin Laden. And you're responsible for running up most of the debt, which, more than anything, makes us weak. You're supposed to be the party with the killer instinct. But it was a Democrat who put a bomb in Gaddafi's bedroom and a bullet in bin Laden's eye like Moe Greene. Raising the question, how many Muslims does a black guy have to kill in one weekend before crackers climb down off his ass?

(wild audience applause)

Let's look at some facts. Now, for you Fox News viewers, feel free to turn down the sound until the flashing "FACTS" light at the bottom of your screen disappears.

When Bill Clinton left office in 2001, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that by the end of the decade, we would have paid off the entire debt, and have a $2 trillion dollar surplus. Instead, we have a $10.5 trillion dollar public debt, and the difference in those two numbers is mostly because the Republicans put tax cuts for the rich, free drugs for the elderly, and two wars on the layaway plan, and then bailed on the check. So, so much for fiscal responsibility.

But hey, at least they still had the defense thing, right? The public still believed Republicans were tougher when it came to hunting down dark-skinned foreigners with funny-sounding names. But Bush had seven years to get Osama. He didn't. He got Wesley Snipes. Only 6 months after 9/11, Bush said he didn't spend that much time on bin Laden, adding that he was no longer concerned about him, just as he wasn't before 9/11, when he blew off that mysterious, inscrutable memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the U.S." In under a year, Bush went from "Who gives a shit?" to "Wanted: Dead or Alive" and back to "Who gives a shit?" Why focus on the terrorist who reduced Wall Street to rubble, when you can help Wall Street reduce the whole country to rubble?

In 2008, the candidates were asked, if they knew for sure that bin Laden was in Pakistan, would you send our guys in without permission to get him? McCain said no, because Pakistan is a sovereign nation. Obama said yes, he'd just do it. And McCain called him naïve. Who's being naïve, Kay? And why can't you just admit that Barack Obama is one efficient steely-nerved multitasking black ninja gangsta President?

In one week, he produced his birth certificate, comforted disaster victims, swung by Florida to say hey to Gabby Giffords, did stand-up at the Correspondents Dinner, and then personally rappelled into bin Laden's lair and put a Chinese star through his throat without waking up any of his 13 wives! That's how it went down, I saw it on MSNBC.

Look, 30% of this country will always vote Republican. I'm just asking why. Yes, paranoia, greed, and racism are fun, but it's like when you see someone driving a Mercury. You think, did that person really wake up one day and think, "You know what car I really want to drive? A Mercury Mariner." No! You assume he knows someone who sells them, or he was molested by a KIA dealer as a child.

And I know this all sounds like harsh truth, but Republicans are supposed to be the party of harsh truths. Like, there's no such thing as a free lunch. And speaking of lunch, I think Obama just ate yours.

My Stupid State Reaches #25 with Dismantling of the 3rd Branch.

A Democracy is where the majority rules and the minority has rights. We have neither here in Florida now. A small, extremist minority is calling ALL of the shots, and the overwhelming majority of Floridians are being completely ignored. I don't know what we have in Florida, friends, but it is NOT Democracy.

My Stupid State hits its 25th post. All of this madness in four short months. Let's recap a bit...

My last post I pointed out a few disturbing factors that allow the GOP to completely dominate 2 of the 3 branches of government here in Florida. After the red wave election of 2010, republicans now enjoy a 2 to 1 majority in both houses of the legislature. This was coupled with the expunging of many reasonable moderates replaced with complete whackjobs. Add to this mix a man who can reasonably be called the most corrupt governor in US history, and you have the beginnings of my 4-year long horror movie.

In one legislative session, (PLZ GOD LET IT END!), the Fleabag politicians immediately attacked the disabled, seniors, veterans, homeless, the mentally ill, and the poor. Next came teachers, firefighters, and public servants. They went after them with a viciousness that would give Satan pause. Next week, they will cut 4 billion in education, health care, and environmental programs. They say they are all about sacrifice... which they are--for others. It never entered their radar to close the billion dollar tax loopholes for the powerful, or have lawmakers give up thier SWEET $2 a week govt healthcare!

It got worse with legalizing payoffs, gun-nut legislation, eviscerating worker's rights, destruction of our environmental laws, no less than 18 attacks on women's rights (including the forced rape bill), etc., etc.

Not that they didn't care about jobs... the Fleabag lawmakers who decried bloated government hired tons of cronies and paid them handsomely. For the rest of us, there was one fix-all for our high unemployment: DE-regulation. Apparently, we are so desperate for jobs that the assholes actually proposed bringing back shady businesses that had fled the state. Dishonest mechanics, telemarketers, moving companies, and timeshare scams can now LEGALLY rip you off with impunity, but that's okay because they are hiring! Thanks!! (Much better jobs than that Obamarail!)

It's truly a wingnut's wet dream here. And just like a dictator who has fallen out of favor, the Fleabag lawmakers are pulling all stops to cling to power. There are only two main obstacles: an awakened, angry electorate and the court system, our third branch of government. The Fleabag lawmakers have already taken care of the electorate with a fast-tracked, blatant voter suppression bill that I covered in my last diary. Rachael Maddow devoted her show to it last week. So there's that.

So that just leaves us with the state judiciary. So far, the courts have not been willing to play ball with the GOP. You see, before there were highly-advanced computer models that drew districts to gaurantee GOP victories, there were actually Democrats in office. Heck, we even had Dem goopers in the 80s and 90s. There are still Democratic appointees left in the court system throwing wrenches into power plays.

Then the Florida Supreme Court did the unforgivable last year. Not only did they NOT throw out two grass-roots citizen-led initiatives (amendments 5 & 6) that would end gerrymandered districts in our legislative and congressional elections, but they had the audacity to throw out the GOP legislature's ominous Amendment 7--which was an amendment the legislature tried to sneak in that would "clarify" 5 & 6 if they passed. And by clarify, I mean overturn. It was so misleading that Judge Shelfer said it took him three days to understand what was written; and he tossed it off the November ballot.

With nothing to confuse the voters, amendments 5 & 6 won handily. The GOP could NOT let this stand. Judges, like the electorate, had to know their place in the new order. So here is how the state legislature is working over Florida's judiciary:

1. SB 1504, sponsored by GOP Sen. David Simmons, will revoke the Florida Supreme Court’s power to remove any proposed constitutional amendment from ballot just because it is "misleading to voters".

Think about that for a second.


2. The Fleabags are attempting to disband the Judicial Nominating Commission, which currently chooses nominees for the Supreme Court and state courts. The commission was created to take politics out of the courts. Instead, the new plan has the executive branch, under Gov. Voldemort, be the SOLE authority to nominate state and Supreme Court justices. The public and the non-partisan Florida Bar would not longer have ANY input. (Take that, bitches!)

3. Currently the state Supreme Court has 7 justices. Four were appointed by Republicans and three by Democrats. Under House Speaker Cannon's plan, Gov. Voldemort will get to name three Supreme Court justices immediately. THEN the court would be divided into two-- with the three remaining Democratic judges moved to a newly created criminal division.

This will ensure that when the redistricting maps hit the state Supreme Court, they will be ALL right-wing appointments. Nice. They can't even justify this one. This scheme will cost $21 million dollars when we can least afford it, and Cannon's claim that this will ease the court's "heavy caseload" ignores the fact that the court's caseload is now the lowest in 10 years!

4. The state legislature is giving itself the authority to nix judicial rules and procedures put in place by the Supreme Court. No power grab there.

5. The bar for judges to win re-election will be 60 percent! There is currently NO elected office in Florida that requires that. (By the by, our teabag governor got under 50 percent.)

6. Punish the courts by cutting their funding. In the same breath the state legislature is saying they want to increase efficiency, their budget cuts the high court's staff more than 50 percent. That'll learn 'em! (Staff increased for the other two branches, by the by.)


Every bar association, independent legal scholar, major state paper and national papers, including USA Today, call this scheme for what it is: a powergrab and payback.

Thankfully, some of these issues, like changing the make-up of the court, will require voter approval as a constitutional amendment. We need to begin fighting back.

I don't know about you guys, but I am sick of all this. I will be up to 100 posts by the end of this year alone. Let's start taking our anger and turning it into action.


How?


First, I am calling on activists to start a citizen-led initiative to automatically fund the state judiciary with 1 percent of the state's budget. Currently, it is under .07%, and the legislature vindictively cuts it when they throw a tantrum. It is so bad that the judiciary had to beg for a $14 million infusion just to keep operating to the end of April! The courts cannot count on the legislature to do the right thing, and neither can we.

Second, speaking of citizen-led initiatives, some are trying to get a constitutional amendment to allow recall of public officials. Add your voice to this effort. Maybe the threat of a recall will give some of them a moment before trying to abuse power. It can't be worse than it is, so I say go for it.

Third, talk to people. You have the advantage of knowing what is going on. You know there is nothing "Christian" about what these Fleabaggers are trying to do. Don't be afraid to speak up. Most people get their information from commercials, which is to the GOP's advantage because they are bankrolled by massive corporations and powerfully wealthy folks. (To hear teabags talk, Trump, Koch bros., the oil companies, etc. are all outmatched by George Soros.) Let them know that the super rich and powerful don't need their help.

Fourth. Contact your legislator! Tell the Democrats to learn to fight in court, and tell the GOP that you know exactly what they are doing. It costs nothing, and some conservatives are actually getting nervous if thier scheme to stop fair districts fails. It can't hurt to speak your mind to them.

Fifth. Register people to vote. There are many more of us than them, and I for one will not be intimidated by the legislature's attempt to criminalize voting registration. F*&^ YOU! I'm ticked and next year I will volunteer.

Sixth. Donate. Whether its to a candidate or an organization fighting the Fleabaggers, they need help. Even a small amount adds up.

Sixth. VOTE. FOR GOD'S SAKES VOTE!!! Don't stay home to "make a point". The state Dems have no power as it is, and the weak-assed national Dems won't get the message anyway... they will think they need to compromise even more. But despite the complete control of this state by the right-wing nuttia, the high unemployment will NOT be blamed on the GOP. It will still be blamed on Obama or some other liberal boogeyman. (15 years of GOP rule, and Gov. Sick Rott still says the problem is "liberal" regulation?) All of us people not blessed with ignorance will watch more rights be taken away, more punishment, more suffering because of a mobilized, but very stupid, minority.

I know things seem dark now, but if my series has done anything I hope it will inspire my fellow citizens in the occupation to do just a little more than you planned to do. I hope those outside the state will contribute to our causes and candidates and not forget about us here come 2012. One day, we may get a legislature and governor we deserve.... state officials that do things FOR Floridians, not TO them.

Protest against Bill Young

Protest being organized against Representative C.W. Bill Young to send a message to tell him to cut taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil, not seniors Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Wednesday, March 4, at 4:30 in front of his office: 9210 113th Street, Seminole, FL 33772.

Florida GOP Legalizes Voter Suppression, Including a Return to Jim Crow

The GOP completely dominates Florida government. Through a sick combination of financial corruption, massive gerrymandering, a very lame state Dem party, and (until very recently) a low information voter epidemic.

They not only have a right-wing felon in the governor's mansion, but hold every statewide office sans one Senate seat.

They completely dominate the state legislature: an 80-39 seat advantage in the House and 28-12 advantage in the Senate. (Gerrymandering is so bad that NO ONE lost their seat in the 2006/2008 blue waves.)

The teabag legislation this session has ranged from funny to frightening. And they don't want anyone to stop their good times.

The ONLY thing that can stand in their way are two factors:

1. The independent court system
2. A very angry, recently awakened electorate.

This week, the GOP teabag lawmakers went after BOTH of them with guns blazing. Priority one is jobs holding on to power.

This was originally going to be a diary on both of those efforts, but I had to split them up or this would be one big hairy diary. Today you will see the Voter Suppression bill, which is poised to pass. Next I will look at their strategy for dismantling the courts.

VOTER SUPPRESSION:

I have been a poll watcher ever since the 2000 election. One thing I fought hard against were republican poll workers who tried to always give provisional ballots out when they weren't warranted. Why?

MOST PROVISIONAL BALLOTS ARE NOT COUNTED!!!!

According to the Advancement Project, in 2008, 51% of provisional ballots in Florida were not counted.

Naturally, the GOP is determined to give likely Dem voters provisional ballots. Lessee.. women, minorities, and college students.

Here is what the 100+ page Voter Suppression bill does to you:

• Women. Name change? No vote for you! Since the civil rights era, if you changed your marital status you could update your information at the polls and vote a regular ballot that is guaranteed to be counted. No more. Tens of thousands of newly married women voters in 2012 will be forced to use the shifty provisional ballots.



• College students. The largest population that requires address changes are college students. If they failed to notify the elections supervisor of their new address long before the election, they too will no longer get a regular ballot. Again, for 40 years you could update your address at the polls. For 40 years there has never been a problem with this.. .until now.



• Dark skin? Democrat? Gotta love this one:
  

  There are many other new regulations, several depriving voters of their chance to work out problems at the polls. For instance, if voters are challenged for any reason, they would be required to cast a provisional ballot. And they could not receive legal help while in line, as before.

  
  
  The Florida GOP is wasting no time with this one. They are already staging vote caging operations for 2012. Thanks!

Horrified? Thought you would be. But it gets even better:

• Voter-registration groups would have to register all their volunteers and paid staff with the state’s Division of Supervisors of Elections, which would then create a database. What's the purpose of the database? NO ONE KNOWS. But in a state where they don't want to make a pill-mill database because it violates the privacy of drug dealers have no trouble with a database that records information of people who just want to help others vote.
  
  
  
• Restrict the ability of news media and bloggers to take video or audio of voters at polling places. Nice. This is a little gift to those vote-cagers we talked about.



• Volunteers have to turn in registration forms within 48 hours, are face fines and possible criminal penalties. UP TO 1,000 bucks if you turn one in late!!!!!
  
  Why this? The legislature has tried unsuccessfully in the past to outlaw 3rd party registration groups... so they are trying to eliminate them indirectly. Case in point, the League of Women Voters in Florida said they may have to cease voter registration if this passes.
  



• Now non-partisan, elected, county supervisors of elections willl be put under the control of the politically appointed Secretary of State. The Secretary would have the ability to issue orders to these county officials or remove those who do not comply!



• Cut early voting in half (most early voting is done by Democrats)



• Cut time for citizen-led initiatives to gain the required 600.000 signatures from four years to just 20 months.
  
  As a side note, any meaningful reform has come from these citizen initiatives--like Fair Districts (which is under attack). This is just the first step in the eventual elimination of these intiatives.

The GOP was asked by a few in the media why they are so hell-bent on disenfranching voters. They claim it is all an effort to "stamp out fraud".

Interesting, since even our Sec of State had to admit he could find no cases of voter fraud. The former GOP chairman told the media to talk with the election supervisors about all the fraud... except none of them, NOT EVEN THE GOP ONES, claim there has been any.

What can we do?

Contact your legislator. Yes. If GOP it may fall on deaf ears but we've had success restoring funding to disabled kids, stopping the destruction of our parks, and halting the AZ anti-brown people law. They sense the backlash and some may want to pick their battles. If Dem, tell them to fight this in court after they vote against it or contact the DOJ.

In fact, you contact the DOJ. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and other forms of suppression are why the federal govenrnment got involved and review changes in our voting laws under the Voting Rights Act. I strongly feel these attacks warrant intervention.

Start a Citizen Led Initiative to REPEAL this awful soon-to-be-law. Floridians will support it and it will easily make the 60% threshold.

The governor has already made it so people who have paid their debt to society cannot vote for 5-7 years after release, with the sole intention of taking 1 million minorities out of the equation for upcoming elections. The ACLU, noting that this was the original law put in place for retaliaion of the 15th amendment, is taking up that cause after our attorney general said that this somehow didn't apply to the Voting Rights Act.

I can't stop the Voter Suppression bill from becoming law, but I'll be damned if I let this go quietly.

PS... picked up by Racheal Maddow:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE: The bill was signed into law by Gov. Voldemort

30 Mill Buys Off Rick Scott: FL ONLY Gulf State to Pull Out of BP Lawsuit!

Today, April 20th, 2011, is the deadline to join a federal lawsuit.

The republican governors of Alabama, Mississipi, and Louisiana not only joined the lawsuit but some even ran public service announcements actively encouraging their citizens to join the lawsuit. Florida prepped as well...under Charlie Crist. A "dream team" of Florida's best attorneys were assembled along with an oil spill recovery taskforce.

Then came the Florida-pocalypse with our criminal, idiot, teabag governor. He summarily dismissed the attorneys, dissolved the taskforce, and just announced that we have no need for a lawsuit.

He said he trusts BP.

Yes, Rick Scott actually had the balls to say that he "trusts BP to do the right thing". Their track record here certainly warrants that trust.

Needless to say, the Democrats in our state legislature are outraged. The right-wing majority is outraged as well...but not at Rick Scott. They are currently going after groups that try to register new voters. (They know who the real enemies of the state are.)

Gov. Monty Burns even took it a step further. He stood with a BP senior vice president to actually PRAISE him for a company grant of $30 million, which was bequethed to several coastal counties who lost a hell of a lot more than that in tourism and fishing. $30 million is even less than half of what Sick Rott spent to buy his office, and comes nowhere close to the billions in damage caused.

One of the dismissed lawyers, who spent eight months last year documenting the short- and long-term damage from the blowout for Florida, says Scott won't even look at the documentation.

"Imagine someone owed you a million dollars and gave you $30,000 and said 'trust me for the rest.' How would you feel?" [Tampa lawyer] Yerrid asked.

"BP has the best legal defense in the world and now Gov. Scott is going to trust them to do the right thing. They should have already done the right thing."

Keep in mind that Rick Scott is the same SOB who refused high-speed rail because he was afraid Florida taxpayers would somehow be "on the hook". This, despite Transportation Secretary LaHood indicating they could have worked out a binding agreement (if Scott ever bothered to ask), and this despite the fact that FDOT drafted the contracts so any overruns would have been taken care of by the contractors. But Scott was so "protective" of the taxpayers he didn't let facts interfere with his fantasy... and killed the fully-funded project to save us taxpayers from the phantom menace.

Yet apparently, Scott has no trouble at all risking Florida taxpayers on BP's word that they will pay up. Neither Scott nor his idiot AG has drafted anything with BP that protects Florida taxpayers from footing the bill for BP's disaster. We just have to be as trusting as Scott and hope and pray that BP will "do the right thing".

How lucky is BP? Seriously. The lawsuit deadline passes today just when we have a governor who happens to have a real soft-spot for fellow CEOs of disgraced corporations (that have to pay out billions for disasters caused by shady practices).

Well done BP, Transocean, and Halliburton. Well done sirs.

FL Supreme Court: Scott Lawyer LIED On THE Critical Fact for High-Speed Rail Decision!

Just yesterday, Scott's general counsel came clean and wrote a letter to the FL State Supreme Court admitting he misled them. Not that he minded, since its too late to change the ruling...

WPTV:

Scott's lawyer admits he misled Fla. Supreme Court in high-speed rail argument

Gov. Rick Scott’s legal counsel Thursday told the Florida Supreme Court that he made an inaccurate representation on the amount of money already spent on the state’s high-speed rail project — a key detail that may have helped cinch the governor’s victory in a constitutional tug-of-war...

...it looks like the ruling may have hinged on a misstatement by a top Scott official.

While Bill Nelson and other Democrats were fighting to actually bring jobs to Florida, Rick Scott used taxpayer money to fight tooth and nail against a fully-funded federal project that would have brought tens of thousands of jobs to our suffering state. Jobs that are now going somewhere else.

His lacky lawyer, Charles Trippe, argued in court that that $110 million of the $130 million authorized by the FL Legislature had already been spent.

In fact, it was only $31 million, not $110 million. Meaning we had 99 million dollars left--quite a difference.

I guess Trippe has the same trouble with rounding numbers as Sen. Jon Kyl does. (Are you SURE you want to cut 3 billion in our education, governor??)

The Justices responded positively to that claim:

"So the issue (as) to whether his actions affect the $130 million, you would argue - and of course we have very limited to no factual record here - but that is de minimis right now?" [Justice] Pariente asked.

Trippe agreed, suggesting lawmakers were arguing over a trifling amount of cash.

"It is not only de minimis, but the statute itself provides for a carryover of it by the end of the year if the money hasn't been spent. So he is not in violation of this appropriation," Trippe told the court.

This "misstatement" was absolutely critical to the case. The two state senators who brought the case against Rick Scott, one Democrat and one Republican, were justifiably outraged:

"We were approaching the end of the fiscal year. And if he spent $110 million out of the $131 million, how do you allege he's not implementing the law? He spent a vast majority of the money," Altman said. "But if it's only $30 million, and there are only four months left in the fiscal year, it's a stronger case."...

"There was a big misrepresentation of the facts. Would this be a legitimate reason to reopen this case and reassert that the governor misused his authority? Certainly, clearly it shows either his office didn't know what was going on or they misrepresented the facts," Altman said. "What is the bigger and more important question is the misuse of executive authority and not faithfully implementing the law. That applies not only to rail, but many other things."

WHO could have guessed that dishonesty would be a hallmark of our governor's office??

Our governor, who can't even admit his own signature, just can't stop the lying.

He is now, incredibly, trying to take credit for helping stop the federal govenrment shutdown by saying it happened because he said "Thanks, but NO THANKS" to the HSR project.

Even though that money is just going to other states...

Even though it was an entirely different budget...

And even though he never said he wanted the money to go back to Washington...Sick Rott forgot his own reasons for saying he didn't want rail, which included asking LaHood to use that money for other pet projects such dredging ports and widening the interstate...

At least his slimy lawyer came clean, even if it was after the fact. But that's more than I can say for his boss.