In this footage from depositions that then-CEO tea Rick Scott gave when Columbia/HCA was under investigation for Medicare/Medicaid fraud in 1995, Scott makes Bill Clinton — who famously told investigators into his sex life that his answer depended on what your definition of “is” is — look like an over-sharer. Although Columbia went on to receive the nation’s biggest fine ($1.7 billion) for its guilt, and Scott was forced to resign to avoid criminal prosecution, investigators got farcically little cooperation from the man who now wants to run Florida “like a business.”
Jeb! implores the almighty to protect U.S. Trade Mark Registration No. 2,826,942
If anyone thought there were issues too petty for a former governor to unleash his lawyers over, Jeb Bush’s most recent actions should put such ideas to rest.
Even Florida’s most jaded political observers — including the Republican ones — are shaking their heads now.
Not only does Bush want Florida Senate District 8 candidate Deborah Gianoulis (D) to stop using her nickname in campaign materials, she is not to use the exclamation point, the colors red and white, or the letters “e” and “b.”
We’re all pretty sick of the relentless drumbeat of the MSM over the mid-term meme that the Dems are going to take a shellacking in November, right? How much of the doom and gloom is driven by poll numbers? Oh, I’d say about 90 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus four points.
But what if the polls were wrong? What if, because of the way telephone polls are conducted, they were inherently biased toward more conservative results?
According to Pew Research, there’s a pile of stinking bias behind almost all of the telephone polls, and it’s even higher and stinkier behind the automated polls. The reason is simple — people who only have cell phones tend to be more liberal while people who have land lines tend to be more conservative. Pollsters conduct polls using land lines, and automated polls are strictly land lines; very few polls reach a significant percentage of cell phone users.
Pew conducts its polls using both land lines and cell phones, and has identified bias in other polls it says could be worse than in 2008, when it was first detected:
In the words of John Lennon: Number Nine. Number Nine. Number Nine...
With polls showing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist at about 30 percent in his race for U.S. Senate against Tea Party Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek, the newly independent candidate is already swimming upstream.
I just got my sample ballot, and not only is Crist not listed third, he’s at number nine, ahead only of one other guy and the space to write someone in.
Blame it, along with many of his other campaign woes, on Charlie’s decision to go no party affiliation (NPA) rather than face Rubio in a Republican primary.
The last time ten names were listed for one office on a Florida ballot was in 2000. And you know how that turned out.
“The names of the candidates of the party that received the highest number of votes for Governor in the last election in which a Governor was elected shall be placed first under the heading for each office on the general election ballot, together with an appropriate abbreviation of party name; the names of the candidates of the party that received the second highest vote for Governor shall be second under the heading for each office, together with an appropriate abbreviation of the party name.”
It’s hard to watch this video from the Alex Sink campaign and not care if she or Rick Scott is elected governor of Florida. One of the many things that bother me about Scott is how much he doesn’t get the concept of answering to the people — and if he is elected, he will be working for us, not a private corporate board. When Jeb Bush was governor, we were used to arrogance in Tallahassee but it was a different type. Rick Scott truly thinks he can tell us only what he wants to, and the rest is none of our business. It ain’t that way.
Number of “flags” issued by the Federal Election Commission to the Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate from Florida campaign for taking contributions in excess of federal limits. Since the notices were issued, starting last year, 24 have gone out, with half going to three candidates: Rubio; Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Id.), who also got four; and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), with three. The other 13 notices have gone to candidates who only got one each.
From left, the very tall Meek, the shorter Crist, and the really short Rubio
Rumors are flying in Florida after this week’s debate among the three candidates for the U.S. Senate. One scenario, put forth by the Wall St. Journal, says Democrats might be pressuring U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) to drop out of the race, leaving only Gov. Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio to duke it out.
Should Meek give his concession speech now, or wait until after the election?
With Meek’s poll numbers showing no bump after the debate, and with groups like the Florida Sierra Club offering dual endorsements of both him and Crist, Meek really has two choices: quit and lose now, or stay in and lose later.
The candidate himself, though, seems still in fighting mode. After the Sierra Club’s odd move, Meek upped the oddness quotient by refusing the endorsement. He also made it clear he’s tired of people forgetting that Charlie Crist is neither a Democrat nor a true environmentalist.
Joe, please explain how this endorsement stuff works, is it to be completely one sided. Sarah spent all morning working on a Face book post for Joe, she won’t use it, not now…Put yourself in her shoe’s Joe for one day.
— Todd Palin, in a righteously indignant (and grammatically disastrous) email to Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller. Palin came to his wife’s defense after Miller refused to say whether Sarah was qualified to be president, and after Sarah endorsed Miller over yet another Palin enemy, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R).
A new ad from U.S. Senate candidate Gov. Charlie Crist (Fla.-NPA) spotlights the questionable spending practices of self-proclaimed fiscal conservative Tea Party Republican opponent Marco Rubio. The ad focuses on Rubio’s credit card problems, which should be leading Florida news but, since the talking points aren’t matching up to Rubio’s golden boy image, seem so far to be non-issues.
Jeanette C. Dousdebes-Rubio
We’d like some answers about Rubio’s spending habits, and in particular, to find out if the reason he fought so hard to keep his full credit card records from becoming public is because of all the travel they show for his legislative aide, healthcare lobbyist Amber Stoner. Stoner, as has been noted, had a habit while Rubio served in the Florida House of either accompanying him or arriving in the same cities and resorts as he did within a day. We’d also like to see if Rubio’s wife, former cheerleader Jeanette C. Dousdebes-Rubio, joined the pair on those trips.
Pundits say that Trump’s $5,000 midterm bribe was an overreach,
And they agree that if lies were a crime, he’d be impeached.
Despite all the dividend promises he’s made,
The fact is, not one has ever been paid,
So even before the midterms, he already owes us $8,000* each.
*$5000 stimulus checks via “DOGE dividend”; $2000 stimulus checks via a “tariff dividend”; $1000-plus checks via “savings” from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
“The man is afraid of the voice of the people and that the people understand and know what he’s doing. He’s trying to stifle the ability of journalists to let the people of America know what’s really going on with their government.”
— “Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘absolutely abhorrent,’” The Wrap reports.
“Not one of them is trained in technical skills. Not one research PhD, as opposed to China, where half the cabinet is science and technology PhDs. We’re led by grifters and fools.”
— Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, on X, on President Trump’s 35-person cabinet.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far… The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
— Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), breaking with President Trump in a direct-to-camera video.
“Donald Trump made over a thousand stock sales and purchases worth between $79m and $270m in July,” The Guardian reports. “His two largest sales were of Amazon and Microsoft stock, selling between $5m and $25m each on 20 July. That same day, he also sold up to $5m worth of Oracle and Costco stock, $500,000 to $1m in Nvidia, and bought up to $5m worth of shares in Intuit and Salesforce, among dozens of other transactions.”
“The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study,” the Associated Press reports.
A new Fox News Poll finds 71% of voters think the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the Iran War, including 95% of Democrats, 83% of independents, and 43% of Republicans. Sixty percent say U.S. military action against Iran was the wrong decision, while just 37% say it was right.
“The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog,” CNN reports.
Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.
