Tag: Rick Scott

Florida Residents Unite to “Awake the State”

Trish

AwakeStateSign at an “Awake the State” rally in Orlando

When the Florida legislature opened its 2011 session, there were a lot more people than usual in Tallahassee. The tea party sent in folks from all over, not just Florida, to support Gov. Rick Scott’s proposals to give away billions in revenue breaks to corporate interests and make it up by slashing paychecks and benefits to public service workers like teachers, rescue personnel, and law enforcement officers. But across Florida, counter-protests by these public servants and their supporters carried the day.

Ocoee Elementary School media specialist Isabel Chipungu electrified the Orlando crowd, declaring that teachers are being demonized.

“I love my job, but I’m angry,” she screamed from atop a picnic table in Senator Beth Johnson Park in downtown Orlando. “Teachers in this state are once again being made the scapegoat for all of the budget problems our politicians created. And we are again asked to pay the price. We have not had a raise in five years.”

While tea party zealots cultivate an air of chronic aggrievement and persecution, their leaders think nothing of taking back promises – and legal contracts – to union employees.

“People seem to have forgotten that the middle class is made up of hard-working individuals — firefighters, police officers, teachers, the people who pick up your garbage,” said Ron Glass, an Orlando firefighter who is secretary-treasurer of the International Association of Firefighters-Orlando, Local 1365.

Verbatim

Trish

This is like holding a gun to our heads and telling the federal government, “Don’t give us this money or we’ll blow our brains out.”

— Florida State Sen. David Simmons (R-Orange County), on the precipitous decision by Gov. Rick Scott to refuse $2.4 billion in federal assistance for a high-speed rail line in Central Florida. Local and national office holders from both parties worked for years to bring in the bullet train, but the tea party rejects infrastructure spending. Scott, who has appeared on FOX News four times since taking office last month, is widely acknowledged to be using every issue in Florida to position himself against Obama for a tea party run for president in 2012.

Aren’t All Black People Poor and Uneducated? Florida’s New Governor Thinks So

Trish

Scott

Florida’s new tea party governor, Rick Scott, didn’t make any friends when he met recently with 20 of Florida’s black state legislators.

The luncheon was billed as a get-to-know-you welcome to Tallahassee from Scott, who has barely been in town a month. But the political novice wasted no time in offending his guests.

In discussing his own humble origins, Scott implied that all black lawmakers grew up poor.

“I grew up probably in the same situation as you guys,” Scott said to the group of 20 Democrats. “I started school in public housing. My dad had a sixth-grade education.”

Rep. Betty Reed, D-Tampa, said she was offended by the remark…Afterward, she said, “He assumed that everyone [in the room] was poor and that can only be because you’re black.”

Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, said Scott’s choice of words was unfortunate even if he was trying to “empathize” with the black caucus.

“Some of us might be from the projects, but we come from all spectrums of life,” Gibbons said.

Rick Scott on refusing to call the health care reform act by its proper name instead of “Obamacare”: ‘You know, when I’m on Fox, they never call it that.’

Scott of all people should know there are rich African Americans. He chose as his lieutenant governor former state Rep. Jennifer Carroll despite her ongoing problems in reporting her net worth. When she was not trying to win minority small business contracts, she said was worth about $23 million. When she was applying for the set-asides, she said it was only $2 million and explained she got her zeros and decimal places wrong. Either way, it’s doubtful the Florida legislature’s first black Republican woman can empathize with those in public housing.

Nor any longer can Scott, who didn’t spend $75 million of his own money to buy the governorship without the expectation of a hefty return on his investment.

[…]

Behold! Florida’s CEO!

Buck Banks

If Florida Governor Rick Scott stays his course,
The Sunshine State’s just going to get worse.
Those who sold him the election
Are now, upon reflection,
Experiencing an acute case of seller’s remorse.

Despite Florida Republicans’ queasiness,
Over Scott’s budget hatchet-job messiness,
It’s good for the corporation
To cut jobs, services and education —
That’s how you run government like a business!

Think It’s Bad in Your State? Visit Florida.

Trish
Wenches
Pretending you're a pirate (or a wench) is a trend that's really not working for Florida baby boomers

When you live in Florida, sometimes there’s just too much wacky to take in at one sitting. You have to just skim the surface because trying to go deeper would probably sink you.

Such is the case today, when a reading of the morning news brings so many little harbingers of doom. Read on for three examples.

  • Look out innocent sea life! You’re what we call, “collateral damage.”

    Boaters straying into restricted areas at Port Canaveral can soon expect to get a warning blast from the U.S. Coast Guard. The port is a test site for a new warning system to keep vessels out of security zones.

    Officials would first try to radio an encroaching boat and give other signals to stop. If that doesn’t work, 12-gauge shotgun ammunition can be fired into the path of a boat. The plastic and aluminum projectile ignites after about 100 yards to create a burst of light and a loud sound.

But wait, there’s more.

[…]

N.Y. Jets Coach Apologizes After Tripping Florida Lt. Gov. Elect’s Miami Dolphins Son

Trish

tripping
NFL/CBS photo

Playing by the rules isn’t what Jennifer Carroll is known for. Florida’s Lieutenant Governor Elect is still trying to answer questions about her income, which shifted dramatically between the time she filled out her tax returns and the time she applied for minority and small business set-asides.

Carroll and Scott could take a lesson from Coach Alosi about owning up to your mistakes so you don’t keep repeating them

She’s also explaining her way out of charges of fraudulently presenting falsified documents. Carroll claims she rented an office already occupied by a private detective agency before the landlord the papers show she rented from had bought the building (but within the time frame she would have needed to prove her business was located in the county in which she was applying for…yes, minority and small business set-asides).

And she’s never addressed how her speeding tickets disappeared without her paying the fines once she became a state legislator.

So it’s a little ironic that the Miami Dolphins player who was tripped by New York Jets Coach Sal Alosi on Sunday was Jennifer Carroll’s son, Nolan.

[…]