Rick Scott

Florida Governor Rick Scott: Inhumane, Reprehensible, And A Sinner Against Common Decency!

Ronald 9 Comments

We have seen a lot of evidence at how lacking in compassion and common decency that Tea Party Republicans and many other Republicans are in this time of insanity in public affairs!

But a new low has been hit by Florida Governor Rick Scott, who makes it clear he is not concerned about public opinion polls and personal popularity!

Scott has ordered an immediate draconian cut in programs for the disabled in the Sunshine State, effective tomorrow morning, affecting thousands of unfortunate individuals who are victims of Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, and other developmental disorders!

This includes an immediate roll back in payments to group homes and social workers of 15 percent, and this cut to be supplemented by legislative cuts after June 30!

Scott used his emergency powers as Governor to order this immediate cut on the must vulnerable, most victimized group in society, who cannot take care of themselves, and whose safety and health are affected in a dangerous, inhumane manner!

The effect of these massive cuts will be to cause death and harm to people who have no one to protect them, if not for social workers and government, who they have relied on as a safety net to promote a semblance of a decent life!

About 30,000 Floridians are affected, with many of these developmentally disabled people needing assistance to eat, bathe, take medication, and take care of themselves in every other way!

What could be more inhumane, despicable, disgraceful, and reprehensible than to cut off services to the most vulnerable and disabled among us?

Has the state of Florida and the Republican Party and the Tea Party Movement which backs Rick Scott become no better than sinners against common decency?

Is avoiding some extra taxation for those who can afford it more important than the health and safety of the disabled?

This is far worse than state workers having to pay for their pension and health benefits!

This is worse than teachers losing tenure or the danger of being fired based on a state wide test!

This is worse than ANYTHING that could be done by any government against the elderly, the poor, the young, or any other group there is in society!

These are the most disabled among us, who have no ability to help themselves, and now are to be thrown out in the garbage as refuse, without any sense of dignity or humanity!

How could anyone, whether religious or not, see such an action as anything other than a sin against God of any religion, or just common morality and ethics?

How can Rick Scott sleep at night, after having escaped prosecution and prison for his financial dealings with Medicare scams, and now be willing to harm the most severely disabled among us, which he could easily fund from his own ill begotten wealth?

Should not the decent people of Florida, including “good Christians”, stand up in outrage against Rick Scott, march on Tallahassee, and DEMAND the return of humanity and compassion toward the disabled?

This is not a question of politics; it is a question of common decency and humanity and compassion for those among us less fortunate, and remembering that “there but for the grace of God go I!”

If one believes, as most do, that there is a God, then one must believe that “what goes around, comes around!”

One has to hope that there is divine retribution against Rick Scott for the massive crime against humanity that he is perpetrating!

This is what happens when good people allow themselves to be ignorant, uninvolved in public affairs focus, or give in to the sin of greed and selfishness!

Immediate mass action is needed to reverse, in any way possible, this disgraceful action by the most reprehensible excuse for a human being who sits in the Governorship of Florida, and undermines further the horrible reputation of the state of Florida!

Florida Senator Marco Rubio: What Florida Has Wrought!

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Is it possible to believe that the fourth largest state in America could elect both Rick Scott as Governor, and Marco Rubio as Senator, and not be seen as a pariah by any sane person?

Scott is showing himself to be a nightmare beyond belief, the fulfillment of the worst tendencies of the Tea Party Movement, and refusing to communicate with the news media or anyone who does not accept his lunatic actions and beliefs!

On the other hand, Marco Rubio is far from uncommunicative with the news media!

If anything, he is a publicity hound, anxious to be questioned and interviewed, and is, despite his protestations, demonstrating his ambitions, before he even hits the age of 40 next month, to run for national office!

Of course, he says he is not running for President in 2012, but if the Republicans demanded he run, he would be sure not to turn them down, but he is on everyone’s short list for Vice President, because of his good looks, charisma, great speaking ability, being Hispanic (Cuban) in a country becoming more Hispanic every day, and being from a large electoral vote state!

Meanwhile, he is making clear that he will not vote to extend the debt limit, or to allow another extension beyond April 8 in the final settlement on the present fiscal year budget if no agreement on budget cuts is reached by next Friday. He is ready to let America face a shutdown of the federal government, which would be a financial disaster, hurting millions of Americans, whether it takes place on April 8 or later. He is reckless with our future, and has no concern about those even of his ethnic nationality who would be victims of his flirtation with the Tea Party Movement!

At the same time, he wants America to go full scale into a third war against Muslim nations, by having an invasion by combat troops to throw Moammar Gaddafi out of power in Libya, a movement that even Republican Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, a carryover from the Bush Administration, firmly rejects as a strategy for the Obama Administration.

Marco Rubio will be, unfortunately, a major player in the history of American politics and domestic and foreign policy over the long haul of the American future, as the Sunshine State has gone so far to the Right, and is unlikely to move back to the sane center of American politics anytime soon!

Florida Governor Rick Scott And Budget Cuts For The Disabled: A Sacrilege!

Ronald 1 Comment

Florida Governor Rick Scott becomes more venal and unconscionable by the day!

Now he is promoting a major budget cut for the disabled, who suffer from Autism, Downs Syndrome, and other mental disabilities, including the individuals who live in group homes, because they are not as fortunate to have a loving family as my own younger son, Paul, has in his dad, and eventually, in his brother David!

What could be more obscene than this, and also in the plan to put all people on Medicaid into profit making HMOs, which means they will not get adequate medical care, which insures shorter and less pleasant lives for those who already struggle every day to attempt to enjoy life!

And, in the midst of these disgraceful actions, Scott has the nerve and the gall to participate in a Special Olympics race, and smile while saying how that organization is so important in helping the disabled in society!

Does this man have any sense of decency, a conscience, any element of morality in his body? Obviously not!

Police Officers, Fire Fighters, And The “Divorce” From The Republican Party

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The Republican Party is involved in a nasty “divorce” proceeding from two groups that have been for a long time proud to be Republicans–police officers and firefighters, with the unions for both occupations regularly endorsing GOP candidates for President, Governor, Senator and other political offices. This “marriage” has been a good deal for the Republican Party, but no longer, thanks to GOP Governors across the country!

Other than the military, what other occupations are more respected as there to protect all of us in America than the police officers and firefighters, who like soldiers at war, sacrifice themselves daily and face dangers most of us have never experienced!

John Kasich, Governor of Ohio, who recently ridiculed a police officer for having the gall to stop him and give him a ticket for reckless driving, has now signed legislation taking away collective bargaining from these loyal unions. A referendum to repeal this legislation is proceeding, and police and fire unions across the nation are actively working to overcome the despicable actions of the Ohio Republican Party, and also to work work against all the other GOP governors who are mistreating those who are there for us every day, loyal to their communities!

Even Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was smart enough to leave police and fire unions out of his legislation to to take away collective bargaining rights from teachers, nurses, and other public servants, because of his awareness of their endorsement of his candidacy last year. But many police and fire fighters marched and demonstrated at the state capitol in Madison to show their support for those public workers under attack, and made clear their opposition to such actions by the Republicans in the Wisconsin state legislature.

Chris Christie in New Jersey, Paul LePage in Maine, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and now Rick Scott in Florida have also declared war on police and fire fighters, and so this will become a major factor in the Presidential Election of 2012 and in Congressional races and state races next year.

As Rachel Maddow of MSNBC said tonight, this issue could insure that Barack Obama is elected to a second term as President, and that the Democrats could make major gains in the states and in Congress, as a result of the stupid, inane actions by Republican politicians, who will now pay a heavy price politically!

But remember, also, that the Republican Party has ALWAYS been anti labor since the era after Theodore Roosevelt one hundred years ago, and sponsored the anti labor union law, the Taft Hartley Act of 1947, which led to a half century of GOP minority status in Congress until 1994!

The Republican Party is a leopard that has never, and never will, change its spots! Once a enemy of working people, ALWAYS an enemy of working people!

When will working people finally understand and stop voting Republican?

Florida Governor Rick Scott: Obscene And Corrupt To The Core!

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Florida Governor Rick Scott cares not at all what anyone thinks of him, and will not stop his attempt to destroy any sense of decency in state government!

Rick Scott is obscene to the core, as he is now promoting the destruction of education and health care in the name of privatization!

He cares not a whit about disabled people, about poor people, about state workers, about children, about honest and accountable government!

Media inquiries about the details of his blind trust while he is Governor have gone unanswered, as he feels he has no need to explain ANYTHING about his financial affairs, despite his involvement in Medicare scams in the 1990s, paying a record fine and avoiding prison time, as a result!

Not only is he obnoxious, obscene, and arrogant, but his past record of corruption in business is now starting to show up by his executive order mandating that all state employees be required to have drug tests on a random basis every three months, and also his demand that welfare recipients be so tested quarterly, and that they pay the cost out of their welfare payments!

This whole idea of mandatory drug testing is an invasion of privacy, and an extremely expensive proposition, and since he has already demanded that welfare recipients pay for their testing, it may be he will expect state employees to do the same, although at the moment that is unclear.

But the corruption shows up with the news from the Palm Beach Post that Scott’s wife has control over his blind trust, and that she has a link to a drug testing firm, with the indication that it is that company which would do the drug testing!

So Scott, through his wife, could benefit from kickbacks and profits from the drug testing!

Is that NOT a conflict of interest, and pure corruption? But does Scott care to react to or defend such revelations? This man seems invulnerable to any critics and just goes about his business of doing whatever the hell he wants, and tells his critics to go somewhere!

Is Florida’s Governor becoming a fascist dictator, who skirts the law and is immune to criticism? Is our state legislature going to lie down and act dead, simply because he, like their majority, is a Republican?

When are we going to see the end of this nightmare against the people’s interests, and the end of the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the extremely wealthy?

When are Floridians going to rise up and say, NO MORE to this arrogant, abusive man who thinks he is above the law? WHEN, OH WHEN?

And when are we going to see a similar outrage to throw out Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Chris Christie in New Jersey, and the newest outrage, Paul LePage in Maine?

When will the American people take away power from the BULLY GOVERNORS, and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?

Tremendous Swing In Public Support Against Rick Scott, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Snyder!

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Here we are only two and a half months into the terms of Republican Governors Rick Scott of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, and Rick Snyder of Michigan.

All have declared war on labor unions, public workers, education and health care, and have conducted themselves in a dictatorial manner, not giving a damn about public opinion!

But now there is evidence that, if the elections were held now in these states, after people realize what these demagogues represent, all four would LOSE!

The good news, but belatedly, is that Rick Scott in Florida, who just barely won the race for Governor over Alex Sink by one percentage point, 50,000 votes, the smallest margin in Florida history, after spending $73 million of his own fortune to buy the job, now has had a EIGHTEEN point swing in public support, so that Sink would now win by SEVENTEEN points!

This poll result is a clarion call for a RECALL vote bill to pass, and if the Governor vetoes it, he should be IMPEACHED by his own party, as it is obvious that the people of Florida are totally disgusted with the “hoodlum and thug” attitudes of this Medicare scam felon “bully”, who should be removed from office by one constitutional method or another, as he is going to take Florida down with him into another scandal or disaster similar to his illegal activities as a medical industry executive a decade ago! This man belongs in prison, not in the Governorship of the 4th largest state!

And similar action needs to be taken against Scott Walker, John Kasich, and Rick Snyder!

The Assault On Education By Republican Governors And Legislatures: Florida A Prime Example!

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An unbelievable assault on education iand the teaching profession is underway in many states controlled by Republican Governors and legislatures.

It is well known that New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin are among the leaders on this assault, but we must now add to the list the Sunshine State, Florida!

Easily the most backward of the states mentioned when it comes to financing and educational results, the Republican legislature and Governor Rick Scott, who was unknown a year ago other than for Medicare fraud, have declared war on education funding and on the teaching profession at all levels!

The legislature has decided to blame the educators for the fact of poor test results in the public schools, and their aim ultimately is to destroy the public schools and promote privatizing of education, including spending inadequate taxpayer money on charter schools, which have so far failed to produce any better results with children.

The reality is that the only way to improve education is the promotion of family responsibility in the education of their offspring. The old saying is that “you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink!” Ultimately, no matter how good a teacher, if the students do not do their homework and take school seriously, the test results on standardized tests cannot magically be good!

But instead, what the Florida legislature and Governor Scott are doing is to cut over $3 billion in funding, while lowering taxes on property owners and corporations, and to hold the teachers totally responsible for good results on testing without any funding to back it up!

Public school teachers are seeing tenure destroyed, losing all the security that teachers had, which helped to make up for the poor salaries. They are being required to take a pay cut to pay for their retirement and health care, and seeing sick leave taken away from them unless they use it, so they cannot get payouts when retired if they avoid using sick leave. The DROP system, in effect since 1998, whereby they and all state employees could save their first five years of retirement money while continuing to work, therefore gaining a lump sum when they finally retire, is being ended for new applicants by June 30, 2011. Everyone will be on one year contracts with no guarantees of keeping their jobs.

Administrators will be able to use nepotism; favoritism; pettiness and personal vendetta; cronyism; age discrimination; racial discrimination; eliminating more expensive employees for younger, less expensive ones; and the ability to dismiss any teacher without just cause! If parents complain about a teacher, the easiest thing is to dismiss them, making teacher retention political, a total disgrace in the profession of education!

And the same treatment is also being dished out to college professors at the state universities and community colleges, showing total lack of respect for scholars and teachers with Masters degrees and Ph. Ds, who already do not make the salaries of lawyers, doctors, and other professionals, but educate all of them, put in years of effort to accomplish their advanced degrees, and now are being treated like “interchangeable parts”, who are to be treated as if they are just ordinary civil servants despite them having the most educational accomplishments of all state employees!

Professors with tenure will now be dismissed without just cause because they have a mouth and speak up on political issues or challenge administrators and their policies! If enough students complain that a professor is too tough on grading standards, that could make him or her a liability in the minds of college administrators, many who went into adminini8stration because they cannot teach anywhere as effectively as many professors! Academic freedom is under attack, and it is certain that many top notch professors at the state universities will leave because of the tremendous decline in work conditions!

Why would any young person wish to sacrifice years of study to become a public school teacher, or even more, a college professor, when there is little respect and dignity paid to him or her for dedicating his or her life to educating our younger generation?

People forget that the truth is those who CAN teach, and those who CAN’T administer teachers! No one has ever been able to show that administrators are anywhere as brainy and intelligent as the people they supervise! Remember the Peter Principle, that says people rise to the level of their INCOMPETENCY!

And now, even more outrageous, is that the Florida Retirement System participants, all of them, including not only teachers and professors, but also police officers, fire fighters, librarians, social workers, nurses, prison guards, and everyone else is to discover that the state legislature is about to declare that once one retires from the Florida Retirement System, they are NEVER to be welcomed back as part time employees in retirement, despite their years of knowledge, experience, expertise, and talents! This is totally insane, and is discrimination against the elderly who wish to work, and will be told they are not welcome back in any capacity!

Regarding teaching, it will create a shortage of substitute teachers at the public school level, and a tremendous shortcoming of adjunct professors at the college and university level, since the only adjuncts available in the long run will be those who are young and new at teaching on the college level, and who are unable to find full time teaching positions! The colleges NEED adjuncts to keep costs down, and if they must hire more full time instructors, it will cost far more than hiring part time professors who are retired and wish to work in their profession beyond their full time jobs!

The Florida legislature, more than two thirds Republican, and our outlaw felon Governor Rick Scott are involved in what can be considered criminal activity against the people of Florida, and the damage they have wrought and will continue to do will put Florida truly into the status of a third world nation!

Florida Recall Of Miami Dade Mayor A Warning To Governor Rick Scott!

Ronald 3 Comments

The shocking, overwhelming vote for recall of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez should be a warning sign to Governor Rick Scott and others in the state legislature, as well as in Wisconsin and other states, where the elected office holders are acting more like dictators, than servants of the people!

One cannot recall any election or recall where 88 percent of the people voted in unison, an unbelievable landslide of astronomical proportions!

Governor Rick Scott has angered many people with his reckless behavior and disregard for anyone but the Tea Party Movement crowd, that elected him on an agenda of making Florida a “third world nation” in public services!

Already one of the worst states in social services, particularly education and health care, Scott has cut taxes on corporations and property owners while calling for the cutting of education and health care by billions of dollars, and has made it clear that if you don’t agree with him, don’t bother him as he has no interest in listening, and will not answer to the media either!

This man is trying to privatize the state on a massive basis, and he is declaring war on teachers and other public servants, similar to Scott Walker in Wisconsin.

The damage that is being done will make Florida a less desirable place for people to live in and migrate to, and meanwhile, his demand for all public servants to undergo quarterly drug testing will invade privacy rights, and cost large scale financial investments the state cannot afford. One wonders if he has connections with those who would make profits from such testing, and would receive kickbacks, considering his felonious conduct in Medicare scams in the 1990s, for which he only paid major fines, rather than ending up in federal prison, where he should have been today, instead of being Governor of Florida!

If a public worker is shown by performance or behavior to have a problem with drugs or alcohol, then it is proper to test him and hold him or her accountable. But to require all workers to have such a test on a regular basis is bound to be declared unconstitutional, and is an invasion of privacy!

It is amazing how Scott wants to privatize everything, to make government smaller, except when it comes to interference in the private lives of people! Unless there is a problem demonstrating itself at work, it is no one’s business what one does in his or her private time away from work!

Recall of the Governor is essential if Florida is to survive intact for the long term future! Otherwise, the Sunshine State is facing “stormy weather”, which brings to mind, what is the likelihood of Governor Scott reacting appropriately to provide aid were Florida to face a new threat of hurricanes as it dealt with quite well under Governor Jeb Bush in 2004-2005, when the state was hit by eight hurricanes.

The thought that Scott would leave it to private groups, rather than government, in such an emergency, is enough to make one fear any such eventuality. Hopefully, Florida will not be tested by such an emergency!

Disappointments With Barack Obama: Guns, Labor, And Bradley Manning

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President Obama is overwhelmed with one problem after another, and with no break in stress and tension, as the world and the nation seem to be going from one problem to another.

Already, we have seen four major issues arise in 2011, which are bound to be among the top ten news stories of the year: the guns issue, after the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in January; the uprisings in the Middle East, particularly Egypt and now Libya, leading to American involvement with NATO, the UN, and the Arab League, and Obama’s decision to intervene militarily against Moammar Gaddafi; the Wisconsin battle over organized labor, which has spread to other states as well; and the disastrous Japanese earthquake, ensuing tsunami, and the nuclear power plants emergency that followed those natural events.

So the ability of Barack Obama to do and say everything that one might feel he should, is, of course, unrealistic, but still there are three key issues that need to be addressed at some point soon by our President.

The first is to take strong leadership on the issue of the need for some greater regulation of guns, as since the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, and the killing of six others and wounding of thirteen, we have seen the murder by gun of close to 3,000 people. If this is not a national crisis, and with the additional murders of young black youths that we see in Chicago and elsewhere, then what is? It is hard to fight the gun lobby and the National Rifle Association, but the President MUST not sit on the sidelines as gun violence escalates, and the growing danger of political assassination of himself, or some other office holder grows by leaps and bounds as the economy continues to create a crisis atmosphere in regards to jobs and housing.

Secondly, Obama had said during his Presidential campaign in 2008 that he would march with labor if there was ever a threat against the rights of workers, but he has hardly spoken up, and certainly has not gone to Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, or Florida to speak up on the issue and to confront the “Bully” GOP Governors, including most infamously, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Snyder, Mitch Daniels, or Rick Scott, who are destroying the rights of public employees, making them the scapegoat, as these governors favor the rich and the powerful, and set out to destroy collective bargaining. Obama will have to campaign on labor support in 2012, but he has been slow to react publicly with adequate words and actions!

Finally, there is the issue of Private Bradley Manning, who is accused of releasing and disseminating Wikileaks information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who is being held in inhumane conditions in the military brig at Quantico Naval Base in Virginia, stripped naked, not allowed to sleep normally, kept in solitary confinement, being mentally destroyed, all on the basis of accusations, but not yet coming to trial.

President Obama made a reference to Manning when asked at a news conference, that he had been assured that what was being done with Manning was totally appropriate, but that is clearly the furthest from the truth. It is clear that his mistreatment is an outrage that the President needs to stop immediately, and it is a tremendous disappointment that he seems up to this point to be totally insensitive to what is happening to Manning.

Urgent action on all three matters is needed, and hopefully, the first will be to relieve Manning of his inhumane treatment NOW!

Mr. President, we believe in you, but you need to take immediate action on all three of the above matters!

Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage And Labor History

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Maine’s new Republican Governor, Paul LePage, may not be noticed nationally very much, but he is now drawing attention as another GOP state executive who is a disgrace in so many ways, and anyone who voted for him should be ashamed at what they have wrought by putting him into the Governorship!

Riding a wave or bitterness and resentment by the Tea Party Movement, LePage was elected Governor, much like Rick Scott in Florida, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and Chris Christie in New Jersey.

All of the above, and LePage, have declared war on organized labor and working people in general, and have shown how they do not understand the history of this nation, and the long, hard fought battles of the labor movement over the past 150 years to better the conditions of workers, with millions of workers in all fields who never were members of labor unions, but benefiting from the labor struggles and rising to the middle class from poverty because of the sacrifices of others!

Now the wealthy corporate world has declared war on working people, both in unions and outside, setting out to add to their wealth and power while impoverishing every day working people, and they have had willing allies on Capitol Hill from House and Senate Republicans, as well as from Republican Governors, and have succeeded in destroying a century and a half of progress in a very short time!

If what has been happening just since this year began does not cause average, every day working people to rise in protest and to demand an end to the further aggrandizement of power by the wealthy and corporations, then we have truly and, likely, permanently, lost our concept of democracy, and have become a plutocracy, and that plants the seeds for eventual disintegration of our society and potential threat of civil war in the future, on a scale far greater than the event of 150 years ago, which will be commemorated on its opening day tragedy at Fort Sumter on April 12, and over the next four years to follow!

Paul LePage has proved himself totally insensitive to labor history, and he and the other GOP Governors need to be given lessons in the greatness of labor struggle to create better lives for the masses, to educate them in the history they apparently never studied or ignored in their earlier lives!

For LePage to order the withdrawal of a labor mural at the offices of the Maine Labor Department, depicting the triumphs and struggles of labor over the history of the state and nation, is an absolute outrage that needs a prompt response calling for a reversal of his ignorant, insensitive executive order, and a move to demand a recall election for the removal of this incompetent, stupid man who gives not a damn about the average Maine resident!

And for this outrage by LePage to occur on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911, causing the death of 146 men and women, and leading to the fight for greater labor reform in New York City and elsewhere, is indeed a sacrilege!