Roadblocking the Stimulus

It is one thing to disagree with the policies of a president, but to intentionally prevent efforts from helping the state of Florida is destructive and unpatriotic. Sadly, it is no surprise at all that this would be Gov. Scott's response the Obama's jobs plan.

The president wants to create jobs? Well not in my state, says Mr. 700,000

From TBO:
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Gov. Rick Scott and top Florida Republicans are sending early signals they could reject the billions in federal aid that could flow to the state under President Barack Obama's jobs proposal.

Florida has a 10.7 percent unemployment rate that is higher than the national average. But Scott and GOP legislative leaders said the plan outlined by President Obama was too similar to the nearly $800 billion stimulus package that was approved by Congress back in 2009.
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The article also quotes Speaker Dean Cannon saying Obama still "doesn't get it." I personally feel like the president finally "gets it" and realizes jobs are the issue he must place above health care, continuing unnecessary wars, coddling Wall Street and making clear to America he will negotiate every good idea away upfront.

But the actions of Scott and Cannon speak to something more nefarious. Informed people can disagree about policy, but standing in the way of your opponent's success, when that success would mean the restoration of America's economy, is another thing altogether.

Rick Scott has already said he doesn't want people in Florida earning a living from high speed rail. Now he is making sure nobody new gets employed in a job that is paid for with federal, out-of-state revenues.

Apparently, Republicans do not believe the problem is that too many people are out of work. It is that too many are employed. It should be no surprise since the this governor, who wants us to believe jobs are his first and only priority, responded to the state budget by vetoing numerous job-creating products.

Partisanship aside, I understand Rick Scott wants more jobs created in the public sector than private sector, and I respect all of his efforts to stimulate job creation there, but it has become apparent he will never allow the government to directly create, or in many cases even assist, in job creation.

Also important. Barack Obama was elected to the presidency. Whether you personally voted for him or not, it is not the role of Florida's governor to stand in the way of a federal effort to create jobs. Is this an experiment that could go awry? I guess it is possible, but the American people will judge Obama on the results soon enough. His ideas deserve the chance to succeed or fail on their own without the meddling of an ill-willed state executive .

This will hurt Scott in the long-run, as he is clearly stopping the creation of jobs more often than he is promoting it, and when third-parties measure his progress toward this 700,000 jobs in seven years goal, they will include the many minuses Scott was responsible for every time he turned away money could provide a middle-class family with a paycheck.

Until then, Rick Scott may doom the rest of us who live in Florida to watch jobs created in other states and hear a governor fiddle as the Sunshine State burns.

Coincidence?

Funny the order with which these transition emails become public.

For example, the emails released Friday evening, a notorious time for politicians to release news they want lost in the shuffle, shows that Jeb Bush, the patron saint of Florida Republicans, was upset with how Gov. Rick Scott did business from the get-go.

Via HuffPo:
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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was disappointed that Gov. Rick Scott fired the mother of an Army soldier who had just been killed in Afghanistan as well as others who worked in the governor's office, newly released emails show...

Bush followed her comment with another email in which he notes that other people, including Carolyn "Freda" King were let go. King, who first went to work for the governor's office when Bush was there, worked in the external affairs office of the governor. King's son, Army Pfc. Brandon King, was killed in Afghanistan in July 2010.

"All three are African American, non-political and good workers," Bush wrote to Wiles.
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Yes, the people trying to find these lost emails are working very hard to get them released as soon as possible. It is just coincidence that emails of a staunch conservative chiding this idiot governor and suggesting his transition team is a bunch of racists didn't get released until everybody was pro-occupied with their weekend plans.

But we know the email scourers are releasing this stuff as soon as they get it. For example, Bush had also emailed Scott before encouraging the new governor to "veto stupid bills" and to slash spending, and also letting the fellow Republican know he held "a desire for you to succeed."

That email was released early last week, guaranteeing it would get a lot of play in major papers across the state. It had the sort of contents that made you wonder why Rick Scott's people weren't blasting all this email out. Nothing in the email was politically hurtful to the governor. In fact, it had a popular former governor advising Scott to embark on some of the most controversial actions he has taken since being sworn in.

But predictably, the more embarrassing emails are the ones that seem the hardest to find, and which get released after most reporters are halfway to Disney World with their kids.

I am sure that is just a coincidence.

Sunrail Gets Rick Scott's Go-Ahead

Credit where it is due.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

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The decision sets the stage for SunRail to begin operations as early as May 2014, running between DeBary in Volusia County, downtown Orlando and the south edge of Orange County. Within another couple of years it supposed to go to DeLand in Volusia and Poinciana in Osceola County.

The approval ends the region’s 30-year quest to devise a transportation alternative to cars and buses. Previous attempts ranging from magnetically levitated trains to light rail options have failed

While Scott closely held his decision, he did leave hints that he would give the go-ahead, most prominently by setting aside more than $269 million for SunRail in the state budget that takes effect today.
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Maybe it was the PR disaster of killing light rail. Maybe the people Rick Scott has surrounded himself with have over time convinced him of the genuine need for working rail in Florida. And maybe, just maybe, six months of office-holding has finally injected some public responsibility for a governor whose background before was all private sector.

But this was the right decision. I didn't think he would do this. The decision to support SunRail marks a moment when Gov. Scott could have chosen to set us back a decade on rail, or allowed the project a fair shot at success regardless of his own personal doubts.

Rick Scott made the right move today. I applaud his choice.

Astroturf At Its Worst

This is a sad, sad attempt. It really is. Rick Scott is sending out form letters to supporters to send to newspapers.

For what it is worth, the editorial sections at every newspaper I have worked at toss such letters out when they realize they are form letters. Of course, that would only work if letters were coming en masse. Seeing Scott's popularity numbers right now, maybe he figured that wouldn't be a problem.

Wondering how to counter this? My basic instinct is don't bother. But if people want to write their own letters, emphasis on their own, I am sure it would be easy to collect a litany of complaints much more coherent than this crappy form letter.

Run a Democrat for Governor!

This seems so extraordinarily obvious, but in deciding who should be the next Democratic nominee for governor of Florida, can we stick to speculating about Democrats? Adam Smith, top politics guy at the St. Pete Times, wrote up a piece about the lineup of people who want to challenge Rick Scott in 2012. Now, I realize he probably didn't write the headline, but titling the piece "Crist for Governor? As a Democrat?" just irks me.

It is no secret I don't hold Charlie Crist in the highest regard. That said, if he actually switches parties and begins helping to organize Democrats in the state, he may be able to earn my respect. But to date, he has not done so, nor hinted he might do so.

I hope the "Democratic leaders" who talked up Crist at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner realize they helped make a registered independent into the most talked about Democrat in Florida, and I hope they some day regret doing so. As I have pointed out before, Charlie Crist had a shot last year to throw in with the Democrats, but instead held a nationally-televised press conference where he said he would rather run as an independent.

He spent the entire campaign cycle last year refusing to say who he would caucus with if elected to the United States Senate. He reportedly told John Morgan he would caucus with Dems, but told Bob Dole he would caucus with Republicans. He spent an enormous amount of effort last year saying both parties were bad, and that he as Senator would save us from partisan politics altogether. Never mind he was happy to engage in partisan politics until the tea party turned his party upside down.

But I do not mean to re-engage in Crist-hating. My problem is that Florida Democrats, looking toward an election more than three years away, need to be cultivating talent within their own ranks, not recruiting defectors from the other side. Who could we run instead of a the effective leader of the Republican Party until a year ago?

Alex Sink came within a hair of winning the election for governor last year, and surely would have if not for a Republican wave that hit Florida especially hard.

Dan Gelber, while having a disappointing showing in the AG race, but is already putting together a strong public relations effort rebuking Scott and has the endurance, I believe, for a long campaign (plus he has produced the lovely stump line "Floridians are retracing their steps to figure out how they woke up with a tiger in their bathroom and Lex Luther as governor.")

Word is Rod Smith wants to run, though he probably won't is Sink, who picked him as running mate last year, gives this another go.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown are all strong leaders who have won high-population constituencies, and all happen to have been preceded by Republicans. Any one of them has demonstrated an ability to win over swing voters and develop a regional brand, and it should not be difficult to expand those brands statewide.

I am sure that countless other Democratic prospects will arise in the next two years as well, so long as the party looks to cultivate its own talent. The Florida Democratic Party has been in shambles for most of the last decade, but is faced with tremendous opportunity to build right now. This opportunity should not be squandered the way so many have been before.

Let's Hope We Budgeted a Sign Scraper

In the ridiculous waste of tax dollars pot, we can now put Gov. Rick Scott's plan to plaster his own name on every "Welcome to Florida" sign which the state has at our borders. How can a fiscal conservative defend this expense?

Vie WDBO:
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"I think they look nice," said Scott.
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As long as they don't also plaster his evil grin on every painted orange graphic, he might be right.

As a whopping $8,800, this is hardly a camel-breaking straw, I recognize. But at a time when the governor is threatening to veto so much infrastructure spending with the capable to make better colleges, not to mention his ridiculous rejection of high-speed rail funding, this is just foolish vanity.

And no, the signs do not have a former governor's name on them now.

Let's just hope we have the budget to take his name off these signs in 2014, or sooner.

100 Days of Madness

It has been 100 days now since the Dark Lord Voldemort took over the governor's mansion, and since he arrival, we have seen nothing but the smugness, arrogance and generally evil stance that almost enough of us predicted before his election.

Today, unions in the state came out to give him failing marks on everything. No surprise. Only the state constitution stops him from going the full Scott Walker and trying to ruin the employment of every government officials on his quest to get Florida to work. It seems the entire polling public in Florida has also caught on the his wicked ways.

I wish I could say I was surprised at what a bad job he has been doing. I also wish I was surprised how long it has taken the general public to catch on. But this is pretty status quo for Florida. Democrats hurt when the crazies in Tallahassee take over, but never enough to do anything about it. Then again, maybe that is starting to change.

That is why today I want to offer an unusual bit of celebration on this 100th day of madness in Florida. The reason? Not because I think Rick Scott is now or ever will do anything that results in positives for the state of Florida. I don't believe that will ever happen. But there just may be method to Scott's madness. Not method to his own ends, mind you, but a method which may finally result in an awakening of state progressives.

For too long, this has been a state that was 50-50 when it came to votes on national politics but which has reliably and inexplicably sent just one party to Tallahassee with enough power to truly govern. It is no wonder Rick Scott thinks he has a mandate to gut public good and ignore the law with executive whim. Even if he came in by an historically-slim margin, the man is surrounded by GOP compatriots.

But even in a Capital where Republicans can't lose, there is resistance to Scott. Lawmakers don't like his budget. Law Enforcement officials don't like his plans for the prisons. And nobody seems to like his tendency to act more as a king than a single person within a single branch of government.

Yet, this man is the face of the Republican party. Heck, he has become a national figure even as he has met only resistance among those he must work with in Tallahassee. Politically speaking, this man is a godsend for progressives. He represents the worst of the no-government branch of the GOP. He makes Ayn Rand look a bleeding heart Huey Long seem like a model for good government practices.

There will likely be a primary challenge of Scott in four years, but it won't work. The man feeds red meat to the base, and until their heart explodes because of it, they will keep him around. But general election voters likely will have far less taste for what he is serving. And without a Republican tide inching him across the finish line in four years, it will be a hard fight.

In the short term, though, the man is going to weigh down every Republican running in two years who has to face a legitimate Democratic challenger. Even if they fight Scott at every turn, GOP lawmakers will be branded with his policies. That means we need to contest the GOP in as many places as possible. Even districts which will be handdrawn by this legislature and which look unwinnable could turn blue in 2012 if Obama performs well again and the voters maintain a distaste for Rick Scott's politics.

So today, I revel in the madness, only because the madness may hold the promise of a better tomorrow

Is Rhee the Answer? Or Did Someone Fill the Bubble In Later

When Gov. Rick Scott began his transition to Tallahassee, everyone wondered what sort of government experts this private sector leader would seek out for guidance. I doubt any of his choices got as much attention as Michelle Rhee, the controversial education reformer who had made significant waves in Washington, D.C., and become a bit of a darling for conservatives in the education arena.

Since Scott just pushed Education Commissioner Eric Smith out of Tally, this connection is especially important to consider.

But anyone who thinks Rhee needs to play a leadership role in Florida's education system better pay close attention to what is happening in D.C right now where an erasure scandal threatens to undermine every bit of success there. Read the entire USA Today article. You will understand why "holding teachers accountable" makes for much better bumper sticker debate than public policy. And you will understand why Rick Scott cannot turn to Rhee right now if anything positive is to happen with Florida's school system.

From USA Today:
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In 2007-08, six classrooms out of the eight taking tests at Noyes were flagged by McGraw-Hill because of high wrong-to-right erasure rates. The pattern was repeated in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, when 80% of Noyes classrooms were flagged by McGraw-Hill.

On the 2009 reading test, for example, seventh-graders in one Noyes classroom averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on answer sheets; the average for seventh-graders in all D.C. schools on that test was less than 1. The odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance, according to statisticians consulted by USA TODAY.

"This is an abnormal pattern," says Thomas Haladyna, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who has studied testing for 20 years.
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Basically, there is strong evidence indicating someone at the "most improved" schools in D.C. benefiting because somebody was scrubbing bad answers off tests and replacing them with correct ones. This shows why standardized testing is not only a bad single measure for grading scales, but an extremely corruptible one as well. One must truly wonder why a newspaper investigation is what has prompted more investigation.

After Rhee initially bristled at the investigation, calling it work by the "enemies of school reform," she has gotten behind a criminal investigation.

I would be surprised if we learned Rhee had any direct involvement in the erasures, but make no mistake, without "reforms" which valued test scores above all else and which punished teachers for the performance of students on said tests, there would be no incentive for cheating on these tests. This is a direct result of the right's idea of reform.

If Scott decides right now to put Rhee, or a Rhee surrogate, in charge of Florida's statewide education system, and to follow further in D.C.'s footsteps, it will mean only further national embarrassment for a much-maligned school system and an administration which is already becoming a national joke.

Voldemort's State of the State

Sure, Rick Scott oversaw historic fraud as the head of HCA, but we need to judge him now by the integrity he brings with him to the office of Governor. The State of the State address offered a glimpse into how he will govern. Any guesses how that turned out?

Well in the spirit of judging the man not on campaign tactics or his suspicious past, let's pick apart what he says about how Florida should move forward in the future. Below are excerpts of Scott's prepared text. Let's see if I've been too hard on him through comparisons to a fictional lord of darkness and evil magic.

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"Thousands of our fellow Floridians have assembled here in our Capital – some to criticize our budget priorities, and far more to thank us for our willingness to make hard choices."
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Well, Scott's presence in office incited the Awake the State rallies, but also drew Tea party activists to celebrate his arrival. While no impartial body can offer good tallies on who was in Tally for each side, I can't call shenanigans on this, but I do think it is a little laughable to suggest pro-Scott forces so vastly outnumber anti-Scott forces when this election was decided by such a close margin.

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"All the cans that have been kicked down the road are now piled up in front of us. Floridians have been encouraged to believe that government could take care of us. But government always takes more than it gives back."
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Ha! Not under Republic administrations it doesn't. Jeb Bush worked tirelessly to slash the intangibles tax into nothingness, thereby destroying a reliable revenue source which only impacted the very wealthy, i.e. those who could afford it. The liberal Gov. Charlie Crist spend his time finding ways to kill property taxes and expand the already unfair homestead exemption. The result of all of these measures, coupled with the decline in actual value of property throughout Florida, is that people are paying far less in taxes than they were 12 years ago.

And that is why the cans have been kicked down the road. Our Legislature has to produce a balanced budget every year, so with every cut, they put off or passed off the funding of important programs, and left us with very little fat to cut today.

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"Some thought that businesses could tolerate a strangling web of regulations, and that government could grow without starving the private sector or destroying jobs. The result of that experiment is in: Government grew way beyond its ability to pay for its promises, and the jobs disappeared."
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Again, the Florida Legislature has done little to increase regulations in the past decade. And certainly government has not grown. We see layoffs year after year at the state and local level. This sounds once again like a man more interested in national politics than in what is actually happening in his own jurisdiction.

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"On my first day in office, I ordered a review of every regulation in the pipeline and every contract exceeding $1 million.
These steps sent two clear signals. First, that Florida will not allow unreasonable regulations to stand in the way of job creation. And second, that we intend to watch state spending like a hawk. On my watch we will never allow another wasteful project like the “Taj Mahal” Courthouse to slip under the radar."
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Ok, I'll give him this one. Better auditing is a good idea. And the Court of Appeal courthouse in Tallahassee, the "Taj Mahal" Scott references, is indeed a smite on the state which has been ridiculed from the left and the right. It also is a sign of the type of chronyism which has run rampant in the capital, and why an outsider like Scott found traction with voters this year. I do think Scott will be more steadfast is stopping this type of embarrassing pork from getting in the budget this year, even more so than most veto-happy freshman Governors.

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"We also sold the state airplanes as I had promised to do. And we created the most fiscally conservative state budget in the country."
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No mention of the fact this was probably illegal.

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"Our “jobs” budget is targeted to create private sector jobs, increase accountability and reduce the size of government.
Every day since elected Governor, I’ve gone job hunting for the people of Florida. In my business career I was never shy about picking up the phone and making a cold call to try to make something good happen. As Governor, I’ve been making those calls every day to recruit job creators, and I will continue making those calls until every Floridian has the opportunity to get back to work. As we meet tonight, unemployment in Florida stands at 12 percent."
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And this gets me to my main peeve with Scott. Notice how he says "private sector jobs" as if government workers are not a part of the economy. So far, Scott has done nothing but promise to fire people. In Republican-land, that may be considered job creation. But it will not help chip at that 12 percent unemployment rate. It just won't. Scott has literally turned away billions in government funding which would create government and private-sector jobs, but continues to push the myth that if you fire government workers, private-sector positions will magically appear. I don't know if this makes him as stupid as the voters who support him, or some type of evil genius convincing us this poison will cure what ails us.

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"Joining us tonight are four business leaders: one who decided to move a business to Florida, and three who decided to expand their business here. I’d like to recognize them now."
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Now this was just patently dishonest. It is wonderful that Chromalloy is coming to Florida, and that the other manufacturers are coming here. But the Scott administration has little been in power for a matter of weeks. None of this job creation has anything at all to do with his election or leadership. He is just claiming credit for anything that happens from the moment he stepped foot in the Governor's Mansion. I guess politics is starting to rub off on him faster than expected.

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"Last month, I delivered to you a budget that puts that plan into action and cuts taxes by $2 billion. These tax cuts put money back in the hands of families and business owners who will grow private sector jobs."
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That budget will take money out of the hands of Florida families whose breadwinner hold a vital government job which is getting eliminated. And it cuts the amount of money those families take home by forcing workers to cut their pay in order to pay for pensions with less personal financial security.

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"An important priority in our “jobs” budget is to consolidate government’s economic development efforts into a single, highly focused agency. Working with our public-private partner, we will have the resources to be effective, and the flexibility to adapt to particularly promising opportunities. This agency will be headquartered two doors down from my office, and its work will never be far from my mind."
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I have my doubts about combining organizations devoted to protecting the environment and curbing sprawl, but I guess we'll see how that works.

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"I know the members of this body have thoughtful, constructive modifications to our “jobs” budget. But we must not lose our focus or blunt our momentum. Business people in Florida and around the world are watching what we do in the weeks ahead. They can locate anywhere. They will be deciding whether to invest in Florida, based, in part, on our ability to work together to remove the obstacles to business success. I am convinced that putting this plan into action will put our state on the road to prosperity."
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More Scott arrogance at work. Lawmakers will adjust the budget because that is their job. Yes, there need to be economic incentives included and there must be efforts directed toward job creation. But to saw changing the budget would waste time is a failure to understand or respect the legislative process, and is probably begging for trouble.

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"We also need to focus on our incredible opportunity to improve our K-through-12 education system. We now have real innovators offering a 21st century approach to education. And many of those new approaches offer better outcomes without increasing costs. With so many Floridians out of work, and the exhaustion of one-time federal handouts, Florida educators will face challenges in managing limited resources. But our commitment to positive change must not waiver."
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So why are you refusing to consult with educators about this issue? And why grumble at things like Race to the Top while you are slashing permanent funding? Those one-time handouts are about the only thing keeping Florida education going while you plot to restore unconstitutional vouchers.

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"Great educators are priceless. Every one of us has a teacher in our past who made a lifelong difference in our lives. Educators, like other professionals, should be rewarded based on the effectiveness of their work, not the length of their professional life. That’s why Florida needs to pay the best educators more and end the practice of guaranteeing educators a job for life regardless of their performance."
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Welcome back, SB6. I though we killed you.

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"With these principles in mind, Florida can become the most innovative and effective place in the country to educate the workforce of the future."
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Yes, with all the innovation that already-failed ideas can provide.

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"We will also modernize our state government. Florida is currently the only state where taxpayers pay for the entire pension of state workers. We need to secure the state’s pension system and be fair to the taxpayers of Florida. We will bring Florida’s retirement system in line with other states by having government workers contribute towards their own retirement, just like everyone else. Providing a modern, health care safety net for our low-income and disabled citizens is an important state function, but the costs of this program have been spiraling out of control. Yet there are ways to save money and provide better care by adopting market principles and giving patients more choice."
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Translation: Screw ObamaCare. We will run hospitals the same way I ran HCA.

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"The costs of unemployment insurance cannot be allowed to deter job creation. By working with the legislature, we will bring those costs down. And finally, we need lawsuit reform. Every Floridian should have access to the courts for redress of harm. At the same time, we can’t allow frivolous suits and unreasonable awards to give our state a reputation that frightens away new jobs."
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So we need to keep the poor poor, and make sure they have no way of getting money from wealthy people who do literally physical harm to them. Republicans don't want to stop rich people from making money. That would be un-American. But stopping poor people from getting money owed to them, that makes perfect sense. Tort reform was the banner for Republican-policy-making in Washington for most of the Jeb Bush administration, but lawsuit caps did nothing to abate the rising costs of health care. I can only imagine what further steps Rick Scott wants to take in curbing the rights of people who are sick and get hurt by the people tasked with caring for them.

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"We are a state that has regularly done the impossible. We build magic kingdoms. We launch ships that fly to the moon. Florida can be the place where the American Dream continues to be a reality."
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This inspiring note was a good way to end his speech.

That said, I remain thoroughly unimpressed with Scott's assessment of what needs to be done, and am continuously appalled at the total disregard of facts in reaching the conclusions he has reached. I fear we are seeing the beginning of a very predictable course of events that happens when the CEO of a corrupt health care chain becomes governor. I hate to keep bringing it up, but then, how many times does Scott bring it up in this speech alone, as if his disgraceful career is the perfect resume to become a Florida politician.

Ok. I guess that isn't such a crazy conclusion.

Do We Save Or Deny the Everglades

For those wondering why so little has appeared on this blog the last week, I got to spend most of last week in the Everglades chaperoning a class camping trip with my son. It was a great experience all around, but I wanted to share some political observations, and mirror those with the sad political reality we live in here in the Sunshine State.

Climate change is so very real. Any fool official who believes otherwise should spend a few days sleeping in the Everglades themselves. Perhaps it is easy to believe there are no problems with our water supply as long as the water still turns off in the Governor's mansion, but it was abundantly clear as we slogged through the slough of the Big Cypress National Preserve. The ranger who led us through our slog told us water levels had dropped about a foot in a week from the last time she was in the same part of the marsh. That's an astonishing rate.

Indeed, this is the driest year for the Everglades in the past 80 years. It is throwing the wildlife off terribly, with apple snails laying their eggs so far above the water marks the babies are unlikely to hatch (think about that pro-lifers). More water ought to be released by water districts into the Glades to help keep them wet, but that is only a short-term answer. Really, there needs to be a greater urgency placed on restoration projects to divert more natural waterflow back into the Glades. Since the marshes today are only between 10 and 20 percent the size they were a century ago, that really shouldn't be such a sacrifice for developed Florida to make.

Sadly, Florida has not been electing leaders of late who even believe mankind has had any effect on the environment. Gov. Rick Scott made it very clear early in the election cycle that he does not believe in climate change. Sen. Marco Rubio believes the same way. In fact, none of the Republicans elected to the US Senate last year believe in climate change.

It has become an ideological position to say "I don't believe in global warming." Politicians spout it as if proving they figured out Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy weren't real (spoiler alert!). It feeds into the stance that liberals are all liars who only secretly want to fund the multi-million industry that is promoting the global warming hoax. Not that the multi-billion industry that is destroying the environment has any reason to cook the numbers, but hey, they are good people, and the rangers leading school groups through the Everglades are obviously part of some left-wing conspiracy.

It astounds me how much traction denying global warming has found among people with no financial stake in denying global warming. But the term is admittedly bad branding. While not inaccurate (the earth has consistently risen in its global temperature year after year), it focuses attention on one narrow part of the problem and gives the deniers too great an opportunity to cling to their disbelief every time it gets cold enough to put on a coat.

But to deny mankind has had any effect on the environment? That is just dangerous, foolish and uneducated. I do not believe Rubio, Scott and their ilk are near as stupid as they would have me believe, so that leaves simply that they are sacrificing the well-being of Florida to satisfy big donors and score cheap political points with the knuckle-dragging crowd who try to disprove evolution by acting in ways so moronic it makes one wonder how the survival of the fittest could grant them immunity from harm.

Let me repeat, this is the driest season the Everglades has seen in 80 years. The water levels continue to drop year after year. There is no dispute - none - that this is a result of anything besides mankind's effect on the environment. And those who believe the environment is worth saving are ever to have any success at all in the political arena, something in messaging needs to change.

I do not know why every politician looking to nullify the Republican Party's successes isn't filming spots in the Everglades right now. I don't know why we don't see political advertisements quoting NASA astronauts explaining that water levels worldwide are going down at the same levels we see in Florida, and that they can see the change as the ride in the shuttles Republicans so badly want to keep in orbit. I don't know why campaign spots do not park rangers as frequently as they do law enforcement officers and television celebrities.

But for those living in Florida, the evidence of climate change is visible in every inch of the Everglades. And to let politicians who do not believe in it win the political discourse of today is evidence that we are all doomed.

Dockery Spits In Scott's Eye

And this is why I continue to admire Paula Dockery.

Via the Times:
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"Politics should have no place in the future of Florida's transportation, as evidenced by this letter of bipartisan support," said the letter, signed by 26 members of the Republican-controlled Florida Senate.

"This project would create real jobs, cleaner and smarter transportation and true economic development for Floridians," said the letter written to LaHood.

The letter was partly authored by one of Scott's first Senate backers, Republican Paula Dockery of Lakeland, who argued that the newly created Florida Rail Enterprise could act independently of Scott because the state's share of the rail money — $300 million — was already approved last year by a previous governor, Charlie Crist.
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A huge bulk of Florida lawmakers, real ones who know and care about how government works, is rightfully rebuking Scott's insane rejection of high-speed rail money. The bad thing is this money is now likely to land in the hands of a corporation with little oversight.

But I guess reducing government and corporate responsibility is another of Gov. Voldemort's main missions.

P.S. Paula, I still think you are cool, but are you regretting this whole Scott bandwagon thing yet?

Rick Scott, Killing Jobs

When someone calls any office that reports to the Florida governor right now, they will more than likely end up on hold, hearing new Gov. Rick Scott spout his campaign pledge to create 700,000 new jobs in seven years. But since arriving in Tallahassee, the government-hating government leader has done nothing but kill jobs and pay.

His most recent action today is the total rejection of high-speed rail, despite the fact the state government would have to pay nothing to get the rail and that there will be no return for taxpayers because of the rejection. I hoped having folks like Paula Dockery on his team would make a difference with this administration, but that was apparently mis-placed hope. The remarkable act of stupidity is being applauded by so-called conservatives, but the rest of the country is pretty much laughing at us right now.

Via Time's Adam Sorenson:
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"It's one thing to look a gift horse in the mouth. It's quite another thing to slaughter a gift horse and send its disemboweled corpse back to Washington.

Florida Governor Rick Scott just killed the Obama administration's marquee high-speed rail project, giving up a whopping $2.4 billion in federal funds for a Tampa-Orlando bullet train. This was the nation's most shovel-ready high-speed project, and the state wasn't required to spend a dime to build it; running through the heart of the politically sensitive I-4 corridor, it had bipartisan support in South Florida, where it was seen as a precursor to a long-awaited Orlando-Miami line."
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What do we lose? Of course, we miss out a popular and clean mode of public transportation. We miss being on the cutting edge of this debate, and we miss improving connectivity between our most important commerce centers in Central Florida.

But most pertinent to Scott's duplicitous logic, we lose JOBS.

We miss out on the short-term construction jobs from laying down track clear across the state of Florida.

We miss out on permanent service jobs manning the trains and maintaining the infrastructure.

We miss out on the secondary jobs which would be created for private-sector contractors providing needed equipment and material to support the presence of rail.

We miss out on high-tech jobs which would center along the track and explore new ways to improve the efficiency of the trains or to do a host of other things directly connected with the presence of rail.

That is a short list of the direct jobs which Scott could have taken credit for if he did nothing more than accept a free check for $2.4 billion.

Of course, Scott's job creation promise has a pesky qualifier. He wants seven years to create jobs. That means, of course, that when he runs for re-election, he won't have to prove he got anywhere close to that 700,000 number he has quoted ad nauseam. But he will try and claim every single job ever created, including those private sector jobs which came about without his assistance or in spite of his reckless and foolish interference.

What we cannot let happen is for the most jobs he has just flat-out prohibited be forgotten. This man just killed thousands of jobs, and he did it for not other reason than to keep a bunch of idiotic, short-sighted, uninformed and just plain stupid Tea Party voters happy, despite the fact many of them very well could have made money doing something as mindless as carrying bars of steel down the road so that more evolved co-workers would install them into rail track.

Update: Now, Obama wants to just send the rail money elsewhere and New York is yelling dibs.

The Frustrating Existence of Rick Scott

I spent a lot of time on this blog in advance of the election saying Rick Scott shouldn't be governor because he was a lousy crook. I stand by that, but since taking election, it has become clear that Scott has a much bigger problem. He simply cannot come to grips with the fact that the election didn't make him king of Florida.

Or more appropriately, CEO of Florida.

As detailed in the linked Herald article, Scott has spent his first few weeks in office trying to reach far beyond the legal confines of the governor's mansion. He believes other elected members of the Cabinet should cede spending authorization to his office, that he should have veto power over regulations introduced by agencies within Florida and that he alone should get the final call on major incentive expenditures.

There are many reasons, of course, why government doesn't work this way. What Scott tacitly suggests through his governing style is that all checks and balances be eliminated in Tallahassee so that he can more swiftly and purposefully enact an agenda. That probably sounds good to any governor, but in practice could lead to abuse and careless waste, as opposed to the considered and careful waste government produces today.

The notion that government should run more like a business is a tried and true message on the campaign trail, but is impossible to enact in real life for a number of practical and political reasons. The most obvious example in Florida is that the balance must be budgeted every year, whereas private companies interested in doing something bold will dip into debt to make a big move. Interestingly, eliminating debt is also something those pro-business conservatives also say government should do better. Of course, any leader who put the entire state budget at risk in a make-it-or-break-it venture would likely be punished at the polls regardless of outcome, hence the political problems of running like a business.

The other big issue, though, is corruption. A governor given free reign over the state budget can to easily take an undue share of tax dollars and direct it to certain private interests who lack scruples about stealing from taxpayers.

In other words, how Rick Scott ran HCA.

Or at least how the Feds said he ran HCA. Which brings up the funniest part of this, because if we are to believe Rick Scott's sworn testimony in various court encounters, he actually delegated a lot of decision-making when he actually was a CEO. This was a man who didn't always recall signing paperwork, and simply wasn't paying enough attention to his own employees as they committed fraud. At least, that was his story before.

Now that we get to see his style in the governor's mansion, he seems to have changed completely from the man described in depositions. This is a CEO who does not wish anyone, even other statewide leaders elected by more voters in the same election, to weigh in on spending decisions for the state. Time will only tell what he thinks of the Legislature once they start tinkering with his proposed budget.

So is Scott the type of leader described in depositions, who delegates often and oversees very little himself, or the type we have seen come into Tallahassee, huffing and puffing and reaching for more power? I guess we will have to see.

Let's Get to Work

The sky hasn't fallen. Florida hasn't been swallowed by the Earth. Planet-raping oil companies have not been given an OK to put a rig off the shores of Miami Beach.

But Rick Scott is now the governor of the state of Florida, and for the next four years progressives, and really anyone interested in responsible and sensible government, must be vigilant in watching what happens in Tallahassee.

The excruciating and close election is over, and it is only proper that Scott be judged now on his job performance. Even those of us pessimistic about how he will handle himself must wait and see how this man deals with policymaking, politicking and crisis management.

And so we wait. And we will see. In a state with the most open government in the nation, we will watch everything closely.

It's a new day in Florida. Let's Get to Work.

Drill, Ricky, Drill

It astounds me how quickly Republicans forget about the most incredible of disasters when political expediency demands it. Gov. Voldemort has decided the first major policy announcement he makes on the environment is to stand up for big oil just a matter of months after the worst environmental disaster in American history.

Rick Scott's statement on oil drilling is not only wrong, but rings of amnesia. The Gov.-elect's statement via Naked Politics:

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"The Obama Administration's offshore drilling ban is yet another example of government regulation impeding economic growth. Florida is committed to pursuing energy independence, which is essential to national security. With sound policies in place, we could expand domestic drilling and eliminate our reliance on foreign oil. Furthermore, I am disappointed that the White House has chosen to unilaterally impose a policy that threatens job creation and economic growth in Florida without consulting our office."

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/12/rick-scott-oil-drilling-is-great-obama-aint.html#ixzz19w6V7V8W

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Wonder where this man would have stood on drilling within 10 miles from the coast.

Of course, like so many of Rick Scott's public statements, this goes way beyond his jurisdiction as a state official can only affect what happens in state waters. But this does send a disturbing picture of what Scott thinks should be driving the conversation on oil. That was why it was so important to pass a drilling ban before this man took office, but alas, that was not to be.

But just as when he announced plans to mesh the Department of Community Affairs, Environmental Protection and Transportation into some sort of growth-steroid dispensing agency, this outlook shows that Scott is willing to take nothing into account in policy-making besides the ambitions of rich men who wish to get richer.

Getting back to oil for a second, one cannot underestimate the enormous amount of financial damage which the BP oil spill did to the state of Florida. In oil-stricken areas like Desdin, the environmental and economic damage has been huge. BP has paid out more than a half-billion to local businesses, but as the linked article in the Desdin Log notes, that is just a drop in the tar-sickened waters there. But even in regions that were never realistically at risk of being hit by oil, the damage was huge. International visits to Florida are down. Our reputation as a destination to vacation or retire has been deteriorated significantly.

But Scott says stopping drilling is "impeding economic growth"?!

The other thing Scott completely ignores is that Florida has never reaped any job benefits from oil drilling. Because of our long-standing (and very wise!) ban on near-shore drilling, combined with heavy bipartisan lobbying against deepwater drilling in our neighborhood, we have never become financially dependent upon drilling the way Louisiana or Mississippi have. It's worth noting again that Jeb Bush, a Republican's Republican if there ever was one, fought hard against offshore drilling in Florida at precisely the time BP was installing the Deepwater Horizon rig. So Rick Scott is defending financial interests with no stake in the future of Florida, and standing for not a single Florida job.

That's not even getting into a babyish complaint that President Obama didn't consult with a transition team when the sitting governor supports the White House 100 percent on a drilling ban.

It also largely ignores the severe environmental ramifications. I know Rick Scott doesn't believe in global warming, or even in saving the Everglades, but he really needs to take a deeper look at the issues than consulting with some CEOs who got rich off a single industry and then basing his entire position statements on the desires of those industries. If he did, he would realize offshore drilling has cost the state more than it has ever done for the state, and that Florida will be better off financially if Big Oil is restricted more, not less.

Unfortunately, I believe we are seeing right now an opening salvo from a governor determined to be the worst environmental disaster to ever move into the Panhandle, and six years after Ivan, that's a lofty goal.

Does Any State Stick Out to You?

This is one heck of a graphic from the Washington Post.

This data prompted the folks at Daily Kos today to call on the White House to consider a foreclosure moratorium. I would like to know if the Governor could institute a statewide moratorium. If any reader knows if that is legal or not, do tell. Clearly, the problem is much worse here than anywhere else in the United States. Consider we are the fourth most populous state, with 18.8 million living here, and you realize just how severe the problem is in the Sunshine State compared to elsewhere.

So how about a bold, lasting executive order from Charlie Crist during his last week? Or maybe a first order of business from Rick Scott to get on our good side?

As Transparent as Corporate America

Government in the Sunshine. The concept is at the core of Florida government perhaps more than any other single philosophy, and something which has historically made us the pride of the nation among open records advocates. Not only are our government records among the most accessible in the nation, but out meetings are in the open. And outstanding groups like the First Amendment Foundation found our elected officials to make sure we live up to all we intend to be.

That is why a recent article on Rick Scott in Time demonstrates exactly how hard a time the new governor is going to have when it comes time to move into the governor's mansion. He is a man who has never felt any need to tell you what he is doing, much less explain himself. Let's for a moment take his pressman Brian Burgess' word when he tells us Scott has a "very analytical mind," "sucks up information" and has "incredible problem-solving skills." We really have to, because Scott thus far has been unwilling to share much of a glimpse of his management style.

Truly, this is why the press this year has focused so much on things like Scott pleading the fifth 75 times during depositions, or with him refusing to discuss a pending legal case because it is a private matter. His political opponents point out those instances as signs he is not an ethical businessman. Perhaps, but the greater concern to those of us who watch politicians for a living are most concerned that Scott doesn't feel the public, or even in many cases those who work with him, need to know how he manages his affairs or runs a business.

This is especially depressing as Scott's "success" running a business is what he touts as the top part of his resume. (I put quotes around success because getting ousted from your job for a record fine isn't necessarily the best definition)

This approach is also impractical, which I expect Scott will learn in the very near future. That is because when the business you run is the state of Florida, everyone living here is a stakeholder, and the law not only discourages the keeping of secrets, it forbids it.

We do not need a WikiLeaks to gain access to the governor's communications. His emails, memos and phone records are all public record. All we need to do is make a public records request. And you don't need a Capital press badge to do that. Anybody, even if they don't live in Florida, need only place a phone call and officials are compelled to provide this information in a rapid and timely fashion.

Now, anybody who has made a significant number of requests knows the government can be less-than-forthcoming. They have even been known to fight requests until a judge settles the dispute. But if Scott decides to do that too often, he is going to find himself wasting a lot of taxpayer dollars on losing litigation, something which won't help his fiscal conservative street cred very much. Calling record request lawsuits frivolous may work once or twice, but will soon become a stale excuse.

The last governor to hail from the corporate world was Jeb Bush, though he probably was far better schooled on the workings of public life as the son of a president and brother of a then-governor. Even that didn't complete prepare Jeb, who in 2002 was famously caught on tape asking guards to "throw their asses out" when some lawmakers conducted a sit-in and his office. Jeb said he wanted the press thrown out, not the lawmakers, but that really doesn't matter. He learned quickly that working in public office sometimes meant your office was public.

Over the years, we have also seen the communication lines between the governor and others become increasingly accessible. The press can easily get anything sent on gubernatorial email accounts, and if Scott tried to send anything related to state business on a private account, they can get that too. If the press make a request and it isn't met, a judge can force the governor to turn over his personal computer to have it scoured for private emails related to public business.

Most people who live in public life understand this. It is why when Charlie Crist would go have a roundtable with business leaders, he would typically invite the press to sit in. I have personally attended some of those.

That isn't to say there will never be any private meetings. I recall a time in Leesburg when the governor had a private meeting with community college presidents. Some of the press had a hissy-fit about it, but the law allowed him to the group to close the meeting.

Those sorts of get-togethers, though, are more rare than the ones where a governor is expected to make his remarks in public. And even when such meetings are held, there is no expectation that those in attendance will keep their mouth shut about what transpires, and unlike a corporate CEO with the ability to fire leakers, the governor will be able to do nothing to dissuade people privy to information on public business from making that information public.

For a million reasons, Florida is called the Sunshine State, but for those of us who believe in transparency, the greatest reason we keep that moniker has little to do with the weather. And if Rick Scott can't get somewhere near the same page on that account, he is going to find himself under a storm cloud real quick.

Will Scott Run Florida Health Like HCA?

Perhaps it isn't surprising that Rick Scott would hold so much animosity toward the Department of Health, what with all that meddling and fining the government did based on the way he managed his private hospital chain. Based on that, I guess it is no surprise that his most scathing assessments of current state leaders has been of Ana Viamonte Ros.

She seems to be the first head to roll with this transition, although Scott certainly has no obligation to keep any department secretaries. But I want to know how a man with a record Medicare fraud fine is going to install anyone into that position without it looking like an injection of chronyism?

This is where we will begin regretting the election of a new governor who really ought to be pounding license plates for the State of Florida, not occupying the governor's mansion.

The question now is not what he will do to screw up health care in Florida, but whether the citizens of this fine state can take any of his so-called reforms seriously. Good luck with that.

Vouchers, the Republican's Public Option

As people in the last year tried to label the public option as a socialist plot, it struck me that the system the plan was most comparable too was not British health care, Canadian health care or Nazi health care, but Jeb Bush's plan for educational vouchers. Now that Rick Scott is planning to double-down on the education policy, I think it might be worth asking why the GOP is fine with using tax dollars for private education, but considers doing the same to fund health care for sick people is some type of Bolshevik plot.

First, a short primer on Bush vouchers. The A-plus plan never went all-in on vouchers, but said that children at consistently underperforming schools should be eligible to take government vouchers and attend private schools. As the link above notes, this ran into some church-state issues, though frankly, I think there were much bigger problems with the plan.

Now, the public option. As imagined by Obama and company, the government would require everyone to get insurance, the same way all children are mandated to go to school. If there was no insurance available through work or other reasonable means, then a citizen could enroll in a public insurance program. There was never anything imagined in the legislation about health providers working for the government, as they do in the UK, so the money for health care would be directed to private doctors and other providers.

(I realize these are very simplified explanations of both A-plus vouchers and the public option. Please don't throw minutia at me. I am talking about the basic political philosophies here.)

Now, does anyone see the similarities? For those who are underserved by the current status quo, the government will step in and empower a citizen with the funding to go seek a private alternative to solve their problems. The biggest difference I see is that Bush's education plan actually sought to take money away from schools to pay for vouchers, and nobody important in Washington has to backbone to push a system which takes anything away from private insurance companies.

I can tell you reasons why I think the public option is a reasonable policy in lieu of universal healthcare (guaranteeing all citizens have coverage without letting the insurance giants screw us over) and reasons why I don't think much of vouchers (the inequity of using tax dollars to send some children to private school where other children pay and the problems with not holding private schools to the same standards even though they begin receiving public funds).

But at a time when the right is calling insurance mandates "unconstitutional" and the public option "socialism," I wonder why requiring all children to go to school is not viewed as some kind of tyranny, and why setting up a program that diverts tax money into the hands of private sector education providers isn't viewed as some sort of bailout.

According to Mother Jones, Rick Scott is upping the ante and suggesting vouchers be available to a broader range of people. Call is universal education care.

The publication says he plans to give $5,500 vouchers for people to use for public, private, charter or virtual outlets, and even if parents can afford to send their kids to private school anyway, they can just use that money to buy a new printer at their house. I guess this is how Republicans deal with inequity issues.

There are so many reasons I see why this is bad policy from a liberal progressive perspective. But given the absolute derangement about the public option, I don't understand how the modern conservative can stand for this type of "reform" in education without being lambasted as some hind of Soviet operative breaking into their ranks. I mean, why not just have the government pay people for going to school? Why not force teachers at private institutions to get their checks signed by the state?

But I guess this is the socialist public option that Republicans can get behind.

In Defense of Sink

I find it curious that Chuck Todd would focus so much on Florida this year, but take serious exception to his naming Alex Sink the worst candidate of the 2010 election cycle.

Certainly, Sink made some missteps, most notably in trying to force Bud Chiles out of the primary. That contest could have raised her profile and aired all dirty laundry early rather than fighting off attacks from Rick Scott in October.

But in general, I think Sink ran an outstanding campaign. Her biggest problem was a GOP tide that seemed to sweep the nation, something which led to Democratic losses in every statewide contest and in every Congressional race which was at all competitive. Why should Sink take all the heat for that loss?

Todd's explanation, via the Palm Beach Post:
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"You lost to a guy who defrauded Medicare, in Florida! Okay? More people on Medicare in Florida than maybe any other state."
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But Todd's criticisms seem aimed exclusively at Scott's weaknesses as a candidate, not in the way in which Sink ran her campaign, or in her own qualifications for governor. Why wasn't Bill McCollum also included on the list today, then? He, after all, couldn't even convince party regulars to get him through the Republican primary against Scott.

The reason Rick Scott won is because of money. Plain and simple. Those senior voters Todd seems to allude to, many of whom retired her with amazing pensions and who have no need for Medicare, are more affected by television advertising. They don't sift through the blogs all day. They don't spend all their time personally researching candidate's backgrounds. They allow the war to be waged during commercial breaks during golf tourneys and soap operas.

Sink certainly devoted an enormous amount of advertising to exposing that record. I think few voters were left unaware come November that Rick Scott has pled the fifth 75 times.

The race was up and down all cycle. In early October, Scott was riding momentum from a primary win pretty strong. But in the following weeks, Sink pulled ahead. It wasn't until the GOP machine, focused on retaking the House of representatives, started to get into gear that a wave took the nation, and the state.

That seemed to swallow campaigns which otherwise had the upper-hand. Ron Klein was leading in most polls until the last few weeks. Joe Garcia once held a strong edge over David Rivera. Yet they both got trounced on Election Day.

Remember, Alex Sink's loss was the closest of any contested race in Florida that held any national significance. She fought off the impending GOP wave better than any other politician in Florida. It just wasn't enough. She was no Harry Reid, but she didn't run a poor campaign either.