Author: Trish

Speak Spanish? Newt Says You Probably Live in the Ghetto

Trish

Jeez Newt, ese danos! Desmadiado!

Newt Gingrich stood before an adoring crowd of Republican women and said Spanish is the “language of living in a ghetto.”

Gingrich: “We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country…not the language of living in a ghetto”

“The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. … We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto,”

This will come as big news to all those Cubans down Buck’s way who live in waterfront mansions and could buy and sell Newt several times over without calling an accountant.

Peter Zamora, co-chair of the Washington-based Hispanic Education Coalition, which supports bilingual education, said, “The tone of his comments were very hateful. Spanish is spoken by many individuals who do not live in the ghetto.”

Looking for Answers in Ryan Skipper Mystery

Trish

All three of us at Pensito Review are drawn to the story of Ryan Skipper.

I was attracted by a headline, “Winter Haven Man Killed for Being Gay,” maybe because I have an inordinate number of gay friends. If it’s true the population at large is about 10 percent gay, my immediate circle is at least three or four times that. I feel like I could have known Ryan Skipper. I can see his face among my friends.

We have made a decision at Pensito Review to follow this story wherever it might lead

Buck spent childhood summers in Polk County, Florida, where the vicious crime recently occurred, and serves as our ambassador to an area neither Jon nor I know well.

Jon’s combined sense of justice and mind like a screenwriter/detective won’t take the official version of the killing at face value. And the fact he is himself gay might help him smell rats that would rustle past straight people unsniffed.

In my initial post on Ryan’s murder, I noted that the local newspaper report, in turn repeated by other news outlets, summed up a story with i’s that don’t dot and t’s that don’t cross. As postulated: Ryan was out cruising for a pickup late one night and made a move on two straight guys. They rebuffed his advances by stabbing him 20 times, dumping his body on the side of a road, and stealing his car but later torching it and abandoning it on a dock one town over. Another angle was of a criminal alliance by the three, involving check forging and drugs.

One of those six degrees moments came for me as I read all this. Years ago, a friend of mine was married to a guy who went on to play the squirrelly preacher in the movie, “The Laramie Project,” Michael Emerson. Because Mike was in it, I saw the movie more than once, and the story of the murder of a Wyoming man, Matthew Shepard, allegedly for propositioning straight men, is a bit ingrained. When I read about Ryan, it was deja vu all over again.

After my post, people who knew and loved Ryan came forward to refute the for-publication version, adding many more questions to a growing list compiled by the three of us at PR.

We have made a decision at Pensito Review to follow this story wherever it might lead. So far, little has been written about the suspects, currently jailed without bail, and awaiting the start of a first degree murder trial whose outcome could be death. Please check back if, like us, you want to know what really happened. And why.

Usual Suspect Strikes Again in Florida Tax Scheme

Trish

Florida taxpayers have paid a consultant $40,000 so far to tell them to cut wasteful tax spending. This could only be brought to us by that great brain trust, Republican state legislators.

Donna Arduin, former advisor to Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, is at it again

To date, the consultant has produced 35 pages of deliverables for her fee — that’s $1,143 per page. Fifteen of those pages were an early draft of a report that was finalized at 16 pages, plus three pages of projections under various tax scenarios.

And not just any consultant, either.

Donna Arduin, former advisor to Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, is at it again, according to investigative reporter Shirish Date (pronounced DAH-tay).

Arduin…is a partner in a consulting firm with Arthur Laffer – as in the Laffer Curve, the justification of President Reagan’s massive tax cuts in 1981 – and Stephen Moore, former head of the anti-tax Club for Growth.

Florida is paying the firm of Arduin, Laffer and Moore Econometrics $10,000 a month under a six-month contract with the state House for Arduin’s service, which so far has included delivery of a 16-page treatise that argues that taxes on wealth are bad for the economy while taxes on consumption are good…

[House Speaker Marco] Rubio spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin said Arduin also has given oral advice to Rubio and other House leaders on numerous occasions…

Arduin did not return phone calls for this article.

Rubio, on Arduin’s advice, has proposed that Florida do away with property taxes and instead up the state sales tax. And up it. And up it.

The plan is so bad that the St. Petersburg Times said, “Better ideas have been drawn up on cocktail napkins as bartenders served a final round.”

Others are more specific.

“It’s the same old discredited nonsense of supply-side economics,” said Brice Nissen, a Florida International University professor and head of the Center for Labor Research and Studies there. “It would be a massive giveaway to the most wealthy.”

Ed Montanaro, formerly the state’s chief economist and now a professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin, said most government economists prefer to spread tax sources across income, wealth and transactions to keep the revenue stream as stable as possible…

“This is an ideological shift, not a pragmatic one,” Montanaro said of Arduin and Rubio’s new proposal. “Those boring little details that ideologues don’t often have patience for are the difference between effective, efficient government and chaotic government.”

Date is also an author, and his latest book is JEB: America’s Next Bush.

Florida Power Company to Build Huge Coal Plant in the Everglades

Trish

It’s not just because I finally watched “An Inconvenient Truth” this weekend that I find the news that Florida Power & Light is planning to build one of the country’s largest coal-fired generating plants in the Everglades so infuriating.

The plant would emit 16 million tons of climate- changing carbon dioxide, making it the largest single source of global warming pollution in the state.

It’s also the unmitigated gall of a company that sucks every last dime of profit from its customers while feeding at the public trough. Floridians will be a long time forgetting how FPL used hurricane damage as an excuse to raise rates and then asked the state legislature for money to fix its equipment and lines. And got both.

But this latest news takes the cake.

Florida Power & Light’s rush to build one of the largest coal plants in the nation sets back the state’s efforts toward a clean energy future and dramatically increases global warming pollution…

The proposed coal plant would be a 5,000-acre industrial facility constructed in the heart of the Everglades, in the city of Moore Haven in Glades County, and would emit harmful pollutants 24 hours a day for more than 50 years.

The pollutants include: sulfur dioxide, that would acidify lakes, rivers, and the Everglades; nitrogen oxide, which is a precursor to smog and exacerbates respiratory diseases like asthma; soot that has been scientifically linked to lung cancer and cardiac arrest; and mercury, which is a potent neurotoxin that has already contaminated every major water body in Florida, leading to fish consumption advisories by the Department of Health. Lastly, the plant would emit 16 million tons of climate-changing carbon dioxide, making it the largest single source of global warming pollution in the state.

FPL does not talk about the emissions from the plant and its effect on our health and environment but rather on the low cost of coal as compared to other fuels.

It also talks, on its web site, about what a great friend to the environment it is.

We strive for more efficient operations and improved performance with less impact on the environment.

…Our commitment to reduce emissions has yielded important dividends for air quality.

…We look for ways to improve our operations to minimize impacts on wildlife near our facilities.

If, like me, you can’t let this plan stand, contact FPL and tell them what a bunch of money-grubbing hypocrites they are. As you might expect, they make it hard to give them feedback by requiring names and addresses in an online form but make something up. And give them an earful.

We’re Letting Abramoff Out of Jail Early

Trish

Jon provided some background on the highest-ranking former Bushite convicted so far in the Abramoff scandals.

But while Jack is implicating others for doing the crime, it looks like he himself won’t be doing much more time.

I don’t know about you but I must have missed the meeting. Had I been there, I would have voted to throw away the key.

Federal prosecutors took the first steps toward reducing the prison sentence of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, currently scheduled for release in 2011 for a Florida fraud conviction.

Documents filed in federal court say Abramoff has provided “substantial assistance” in a separate Washington corruption scandal investigation and continues to work with investigators from his prison cell in Cumberland, Md.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul F. Schwartz did not recommend how much Abramoff’s sentence should be cut.

We’re guessing a whole bunch.

Abramoff, in case you forgot, was sentenced to six years for his role in defrauding the owner of the SunCruz Casinos gambling boats and other investors of $20 million, which was leveraged into a staggering $60 million in financing.

Unlike Jack, the fleet’s former owner could not provide incriminating evidence against Abramoff or his partners in crime because of an unfortunate hail of bullets delivered by a mob hit man.

“Federal prosecutors,” as we all know, means the ones who are designated “the United States” anytime it’s “The United States versus, say, Jack Abramoff or Some Other Lowlife Criminal.” So that’s you and me, folks. We evidently decided to let federal inmate No. 27593-112 out of jail early.

I don’t know about you but I must have missed the meeting where we agreed to do that. Had I been there, I would have voted to throw away the key.

Oops, Rudy’s Wife Did It Again

Trish

Oh no, she di-ent say that: Turns out Rudy Giuliani’s third wife is mathematically challenged. She — like her current husband — is currently on her third, not second, marriage.

Rudy’s third wife commenting on their six marriages: “It makes you appreciate marriage a little bit more”

She kind of forgot the five years she was married to some guy in the ’70s. These things happen, but the good news for Republicans is that the Giulianis really respect the sanctity of marriage.

“Rudy and I both have been married three times,” Judith, 52, told the New York Post.

“I’d honestly like to say we got it right the first time around,” she told the paper. “But that was not to be … and so what that has done for us is, I think, it makes you appreciate marriage a little bit more.”

She and Rudy are appreciating the heck out of marriage, with six total between them. And counting…

Brainless Florida Republicans Attempt to Brainstorm Tax Cuts

Trish

Florida’s Republican-controlled state legislature is wrestling with property tax reform, and hardly a day in session passes without some new and even more ridiculous proposal to solve the problem.

So many proposals have been tossed about to increase taxes that a t-shirt from a Disneyworld hotel gift shop will cost about $19.95 and the tax will be $124

The St. Petersburg Times nailed the current state of lunacy in an editorial.

Republicans in the Florida House have achieved something truly extraordinary. They have managed to rewrite their terribly flawed tax relief proposal and make it worse, a feat previously thought to be impossible. It is time for adult supervision from the governor and the Senate to steer this debate back into reality.

Forcing drastic cuts in government spending through property tax rollbacks, abolishing property taxes on homesteads and replacing some of the money by raising the state sales tax by 2.5 cents would be short-sighted and irresponsible…Better ideas have been drawn up on cocktail napkins as bartenders served a final round.

I won’t bore non-Floridians with the details but suffice it to say that property values (and therefore, assessments) have skyrocketed over the past few years. Homeowners are getting it on two ends — increased property taxes and out of sight insurance premiums.

But the cure could be worse than the disease. Republicans, who adore “not taking anything off the table,” offered up the idea of just eliminating all property taxes. Hold on, Florida’s 67 counties said, what will we do for money? Cut back, the brave legislators replied. Yes, and then what, the counties rejoined.

So a new plan was hatched — raise the state sales tax! After all, it’s you tourists who will pay most of it, they said, plus all those freeloading renters. So many proposals have been tossed about to increase sales and bed tax rates, and to tax things that were previously exempt that a t-shirt from a Disneyworld hotel gift shop will cost about $19.95 and the tax will be $124. Should do wonders for tourism.

Mystery of Tainted Pet Food Might be Solved

Trish

The world’s bread basket imports wheat from China? Who knew?

As surprising as that fact is, it’s even more amazing that the rat poison they use on the wheat in China could be so potent that it kills animals when it gets into processed pet food.

Ever since the government under the neocons abdicated its regulatory role, food has been unsafe for both man and beast.

With the death count at 241 and counting, there’s finally been a break in the Menu Foods case. A press conference will be held this afternoon, and it’s likely a chemical called aminopterin, which is illegal in this country, will be revealed as the source of the pet poisonings.

If, like me, you’ve been wondering with every can of dog and cat food you open if this is the one that will kill your beloved pet, here’s help. ABC deserves a public service award for posting all the brands of all the pet food in the recall, along with specific batch numbers. They also list the symptoms of you should watch for in your pet:

    Uncharacteristic lethargy
    Severe loss of appetite
    Vomiting
    Profound changes in eating and drinking
    Increased urination

While this chemical might not be the problem, and there might be more tainted food than currently identified, it’s a start.

Once they get the bad food off the shelves and the dying stops, can someone please look into how this happened? Ever since the government under the neocons abdicated its regulatory role, food has been unsafe for both man and beast.

Where’s Rudy?

Trish

Almost everyone has been touched in some way by breast cancer; I have a friend fighting that battle now. So we all feel for Elizabeth and John Edwards today as they struggle with the news that her cancer is not in remission.

The list of current and former presidential candidates and their spouses sending prayers and good wishes at press time to the Edwards was notably missing someone.

Well…maybe not “all” of us. The list of current and former presidential candidates and their spouses sending prayers and good wishes at press time to the Edwards was notably missing someone.

Edwards’ 2004 democratic ticket-mate Sen. John Kerry, D-MA., himself a prostate cancer survivor, issued a statement of support…

2008 presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said, “Elizabeth Edwards is a wonderful and strong woman,” she said. “I admire her optimism and I’m encouraged by her resolve…

Other presidential candidates’ campaigns issued statements of support, including Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Gov. Bill Richardson., D-N.M., Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the wife of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Ak., and GOP ’08 contenders Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Ma., and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.

I guess Rudy was having a really busy day today and multitasking is such a drag. On the other hand, maybe the man who didn’t attend his son’s graduation or his daughter’s school plays, and informed his second wife in a press conference that he was ready for wife number three just simply has his head up his ass.

If you would like to send your good thoughts to Elizabeth Edwards, you can do so here.