Category — Florida

Via skippy, Barbara Miner has an opinion piece at Common Dreams, The False Promises of “School Choice”, that covers the school voucher program in Madison, Wisconsin. That program is the prototype that Republicans have been trying to put in place in Florida for over a decade, with their latest attempt being Amendment 8, on the Florida ballot.

The Republicans have been beating the drum loudly about the need for “accountability” in education, and have put in place the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test [FCAT] that is supposed to address that issue for public schools, but private schools don’t have to participate. Private schools don’t have much in the way of oversight or standards, so it is difficult to know if they are teaching anything.

If it is important to know what is going on in public schools, why isn’t it just as important to know the same things about private schools if they are going to receive tax money? Don’t taxpayers have a right to know what their taxes are buying?

The Miami Herald reports on another plan to privatize government functions: Tax collectors fight state plan to outsource license-tag sales

[State highway safety chief Julie] Jones said that PRIDE, the nonprofit prison labor firm that now makes Florida license tags, charges the state 5 cents a tag to ship tags to tax collectors. Hiring a private vendor would eliminate that fee, she said.

The tag redesign is needed, Jones says, because Florida’s current tags with their raised letters are difficult to read by automated cameras at toll booths and red-light intersections. A state study said illegible tags on Florida’s Turnpike costs the state $4 million a year in lost revenue.

In her preliminary budget proposal, she is asking for $23.6 million more next year to re-issue 8.2 million license tags next fiscal year.

So the equipment used by the company that was contracted to collect tolls on the Florida Turnpike doesn’t have the right equipment it uses to charge people for using the road, and apparently the company that runs the ‘red light camera’ operation is just as bad, so the state needs to create a new license plate that their equipment can read with more accuracy [see one of the design suggestions above] and to privatize the issuance of the plates, rather than letting local government continue to provide the same service they have provided since Florida first introduced license plates.

I’m sorry Ms Jones, but I can assure you that the person who buys a Florida license plate pays the cost of shipping, since the state doubled the price of registration last year, so your complaint about 5¢/plate for shipping is really stupid, especially in view of the $23.6 million this plan is going to cost in the first year. This really sounds like something that can wait until the economy improves.

If you are going to redesign the plate, why not find someone who knows the difference between an orange and a peach to create it.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports that Republican Congresscritter Jefferson Beauregard Miller of Chumuckla [Santa Rosa 850] is being challenge this time by three people: Libertarian Calen Fretts of Valparaiso [Okaloosa 6336], Reform Party’s William Drummond of Chipley [Washington 3592], and Democrat James Bryan of Paxton [Walton 753]. The district was redrawn and now includes more rural areas. All three are running to the right of Miller, including the very Blue Dog Democrat James Bryan who has challenged him before.

Fretts was quick to point out that he was running because Miller voted for $5 trillion of the deficit. Fretts vowed to vote against all spending.

All but one of these guys are from North of I-10 and all live in small towns and villages. The information in the brackets is the county and population of their towns. Valparaiso is the only town on the coast.

Lots of names, but not much difference.

The Miami Herald reports that the state says everyone does it:

Florida Division of Elections spokesman Chris Cate told reporters last week that forms filed by the state Democratic Party, the Florida New Majority Education Fund and the National Council of La Raza involved “potential irregular voter registration activities” that “constituted a legally sufficient complaint of voter registration fraud.”

Representatives for all three deny fraud took place and say the state has yet to contact them about the allegations.

In the case against the Republican Party of Florida. the party was notified and was allowed to investigate and then file charges, and Supervisors of Elections around the state told the media that they found hundreds of faulty registrations.

In this case the Division of Elections announced that there were allegations against the three groups, but still hasn’t told them what the allegations are, or who made them.

No double standard here, nothing to see, go about your business, citizens.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports on the latest local official to be arrested:

MILTON — Edward Collinsworth, Santa Rosa County’s chief deputy tax collector, has been place on annual leave after being arrested Wednesday and charged with 10 counts of sexual assault on a victim younger than 12 years old.

Yes sir, nothing but G*d fearing Republicans in Santa Rosa County. I’m sure that no one could have imagined that he would do such a thing… 👿

Note: He is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If you are a voter in Okaloosa County, or any county that uses ‘mark-sense’ ballots [the one’s that look like the school tests where you have to fill in the oval], the number of amendments that are on the ballot means you will have two sheets to fill out. If you are an absentee voter and intend to mail your completed ballot back to the Supervisor of Elections, you need at least 65¢ worth of postage. Most people will need to put two First Class stamps on the envelop unless they take it to the post office.

The only place I found this fact was on the web site of the Supervisor of Elections. There is nothing on the return envelop other than the fact that you have to put a stamp on it. It would be nice if the County covered the return mailing cost, but that isn’t going to happen.

If you only put one stamp on it, the Post Office will return it to you with that stamp canceled and an insufficient postage message, so it will cost you a total of three stamps to reach the election office.

If this annoys you, blame the people responsible, the Republicans in the legislature who want to change the state constitution – constantly.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports on the local problem: Voter fraud investigation underway

“We found around 100 and the state attorney took all of them,” said Santa Rosa County Supervisor Ann Bodenstein.

Most of the tainted forms bore the names of residents already registered. Whoever turned them in was attempting to change a date of birth, an address or a signature, Bodenstein said.

One form bore the name of a woman “buried about six months ago,” she said.

“It was the biggest mess I’ve ever seen,” she said. “These were flagrant. Anybody who knows anything about voter applications at all would have caught these.”

Bodenstein’s office also found numerous instances where voter signatures appeared to be forged.
…

Though the Republican Party of Florida has taken much of the flak statewide for the flawed work of Strategic Allied Consulting, neither Bodenstein nor Paul Lux, her Okaloosa County counterpart, believe GOP officials, particularly locally, deserved the majority of the blame.

“I don’t think you can necessarily affix the blame to the RPOF. If you hire somebody to do a job, there are rules you give them to go by,” Lux said. “Strategic Allied either did not understand the scope or they didn’t train the people they signed up to be registrars. I’d place more blame on Strategic than I would on the RPOF.”

Bodenstein said there was evidence that some of the suspicious forms turned in to her office were registration applications collected by the state Democratic Party.

In case there were any doubts, yes, both Bodenstein and Lux, like all of the local politicians are Republicans, and no, there was no evidence of any registration fraud by the Dems presented. Actually, I would be surprised of any signs of life in the Democratic Party in either county given the 4 to 1 advantage the Republicans have in both counties.

The Miami Herald reports on Florida election fraud problem: GOP firm fired for flawed voter registration in Palm Beach County had issues in other counties, states.

The Republican Party of Florida hired the firm recommended by the National GOP, and the firm was submitting fraudulent registration forms. This had nothing to do with in-person fraud, this was institutional fraud by a Republican-employed company. The local supervisors of elections didn’t need all of the new laws to detect the fraud and report it, just as they always have.

Among other things, if the Republican Party can’t find an honest contractor for something as simple as voter registration with their own money, how can they be trusted to hire contractors for government services with public money?

The Local Puppy Trainer ran a piece on all of the amendments on the November ballot: EDITORIAL: Florida’s amendment jumble

People who picked up our Monday newspaper probably noticed the proposed Florida constitutional amendments that covered pages A6 and A7. The ballot title, ballot summary and full text of each amendment were printed in huge, gray expanses of near-microscopic type. It made for tough reading.

Sorry, but the secretary of state purchased that ad space and that’s how he wanted the amendments to look.
…

None of the amendments that made it to the ballot were championed primarily by citizens groups. All originated in, or were sponsored by, the Legislature. Some were promoted along party lines, usually with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed; others enjoyed bipartisan support.

The GOP doesn’t want you to know what is actually in the amendments or you might not like them. The solution is to vote NO on all of them so you don’t have to worry about the real purpose behind them.

To vote in the November election you need to be registered a month [30 days] before the day of the election. If you want to vote, you are running out of time to do it.

Even if you don’t want to vote for any of the people running, there are initiatives and amendments on the ballot that need to be voted on [voted against to my way of thinking, but YMMV]. This is how the legislature gets crappy laws passed without having to record a vote on the bills when people figure out how they got screwed.

The Miami Herald tells me that the Fraudster-in-chief has his knickers in a twist over the FEMA rejection of his request for money to cover the costs of Issac.

We got rain. He has Okaloosa County on the list, and we didn’t even lose power. We have been getting a lot of rain all summer, and this was some more rain. There was some flooding, but it didn’t even cut US-98 on the barrier island.

FEMA is currently headed by Craig Fugate. The Fraudster is not going to snow him with tales of woe because Craig was the head of Florida’s state emergency operations under Bush and Crist. The guy knows Florida and knows tropical cyclones. You aren’t going to sell him a sob story about how hard up the state is over heavy rains.

The Fraudster made emergency declarations for South Florida counties before the storm got here. You have to meet the criteria to get the help. They might have been a bit more liberal with cash if the Republicans in the House had provided the cash, but that didn’t happen, and isn’t going to, so the state is going to have to pay its own bills.

Another local official arrested.

The Local Puppy Trainer informs me that Okaloosa County Commissioner James Campbell has been arrested on four counts of official misconduct and four counts of perjury.

While investigating the misconduct in the Tourist Development Council office, the Sheriff discovered a payment involving Mr. Campbell that didn’t look right, so the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was called in to investigate. [In Florida we know better than to trust the county sheriff to investigate other county officials.]

Mr. Campbell’s story was that he wasn’t really hiding the money from the state, he was hiding it from his wife. Since his wife filled out the state mandated financial disclosure form, if he had included it, she would discover how much he was spending on his hunting trips. [There was a time when that would have been a plausible excuse here, but that time is past.]

Fortunately he didn’t run for re-election, so there is a replacement waiting to take over, and we aren’t forced to have an expensive special election.

The Florida legislature has put 11 constitutional amendments on the 2012 ballot, and they all suck.

Once again they are pandering to their base while attacking judges, women, the separation between church and state, and the ability of local governments to fund themselves.

The legislature is trying to cut taxes that they don’t get, while raising the fees that they do get, and holding the sales tax that they get at 6%.

A blogger at the Sun-Sentinel renders his opinion of them, but the most important point made is that the League of Women Voters recommends voting ‘NO’ on all of them.

The most egregious is Florida Religious Freedom, Amendment 8 (2012). This isn’t about ‘Religious Freedom’, this is about giving tax dollars to sectarian schools. It is supported by the ‘Clan of the Red Beanie’ because funding of Catholic schools by the state would free up more money to pay their lawyers and the penalties they owe.

Understand, the state can’t regulate religious schools in any way, so they are free to do whatever they want with the taxpayer funds. I can hardly wait until the first Muslim school receives the money. This is going to get so nasty and cause so many law suits.

They will be Federal law suits because the legislature is trying to stop the state courts from pointing out when they violate the state constitution. They want mob rule, as the Florida legislature has become a mob of angry, ignorant people thanks to the voters and creative redistricting.

This was the rainiest August in local records, and Isaac had almost nothing to do with it.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports that we got 21.05 inches of rain during the month, and even without the 3 inches we picked up during Isaac, it would have still been the rainiest.

This was also the fourth rainiest June, July, and August on record. The July record holder of 1994 will not be broken for a very long time, as it is based on the rain received from Tropical Storm Alberto, which was the heaviest rain anyone I know has ever seen, even worse than the week of Georges in 1998.

It’s to the point that the mushrooms on the lawn are getting mildewed…

So Zero’s minions sent me an e-mail to tell me that they have a ‘great tool’ that will allow people to register to vote on-line. Apparently they believe that the code they want me to embed will work everywhere, and they will get the hits from people using it to boost their numbers.

It doesn’t work that way in Florida, and given the state’s record with IT projects, even if it supposedly did, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone use it.

What you can get on-line is the state’s standard form for registration. They tell you that you can fill it out on-line, but you still have to download and print out the form, because you have to sign it, and you can’t do that on-line. Actually, I wouldn’t fill out anything at a site controlled by our fraudster-in-chief, because they will probably do something stupid with the data that is collected.

If you have a Florida drivers license or ID card, you can fill out the form, sign it, and then take it or mail it to your county supervisor of elections. You must register at least a month before an election.

When you sign the form you are acknowledging the following:

If the information on the application is not true, the applicant can be convicted of a felony of the third degree and fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 5 years.

I don’t have a problem with that except that it should be applied equally to the information provided by the candidates for public office in the state. When they lie and get caught, they get to ‘correct and amend the form’ or simply ignore the facts and continue to lie.