Category — Florida

The Local Puppy Trainer reports that Boat owner of ‘Fuelish Pleasure’ faces thousands in fines after causing firework cancellation

FORT WALTON BEACH — A boater who caused the cancellation of the Billy Bowlegs fireworks show Friday night faces upward of $100,000 in citations and fines.

Coast Guard officials refused to release the boater’s name, citing agency policy. The boat’s captain has a Louisiana driver’s license but docks in Mississippi, according to officials. It is a federally documented boat.
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The 55-foot Marquis yacht named “Fuelish Pleasure” was anchored inside the safety zone of the fireworks display before noon on Friday.

At the time, that area was marked as a safety zone. Announcements were broadcast throughout the day notifying boaters that their vessels had to be removed from the safety zone by early evening.
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You may have heard that the Fraudster, Florida’s effort to rehabilitate the CEO responsible for the largest Medicare/Medicaid fraud in history, and his minions in the legislature are requiring people who apply for public assistance to take a drug test.

What you may not know is that the applicants have to pay for the test, and won’t get reimbursed unless they pass. It’s just too bad if you can’t afford the test. Florida only wants to help people who deserve it, not just any poor person. That would be as unthinkable as allowing poor people to file for bankruptcy. Hey, if you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t have decided to be poor. [/sarcasm]

You may also not know that the new company that the Fraudster created after his “retirement” from the corporation that paid the largest fraud fine in Medicare/Medicaid history, gives drug tests of the type required. Least you think that there might be some “conflict of interest” in this law, or the Fraudster’s requirement that state employees take drug tests, rest assured that the Fraudster turned control of the company over to … his wife. I know it’s unbelievable, but that is all you have to do in Florida to avoid conflict of interest claims.

Pensacola’s Fiesta of Five Flags has started [the real reason for the faux pirate thing in my area]. The first attempt by the Spanish to settle in the area that has become the US was interrupted by a hurricane, which is why St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city [founded by Europeans] in the US.

They still use the wrong flags, but they have gotten better. I did notice that they use the wrong British flag at their Fiesta site, but the correct one on the city’s flag poles. At least Earl Bowden got them to use the proper flag for the Confederate year.

It’s all about celebrating local heritage [selling stuff] and that we are more than the “Redneck Riviera” [but we’ll sell you a T-shirt that says that].

In order to generate “local excitement” [sell stuff] the chamber of commerce is once again annoying people with the Billy Bowlegs Festival. This year the unavoidable part runs from Friday, June 3^rd and finishes up on Monday with a really annoying parade that screws up traffic and sends a lot of noisy people through my neighborhood.

Almost at bad as the Monday traffic jam are the Friday fireworks. I know a lot of people enjoy fireworks, but they probably have not seen what loud noises and flashes of light can do to people and aircraft – I am definitely not a fan.

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The Florida Republicans should just “go Galt” and leave people alone.

The Miami Herald reports that according to a recent Poll: Rick Scott among the least-liked governors in nation

“The data on the perceived fairness of the governor’s budget is crucial. When voters by almost 2-1 say his approach is unfair to them, that’s a giant flashing political warning sign for Scott,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a written statement. “When voters don’t think they are being treated fairly, they tend to react negatively.”

As far as Job Approval, 57% say he sucks, and 56% say the legislature sucks.

Only 24% approve of the new budget, while 53% think it sucks. Only 29% think they were treated fairly by the budget, while 53% think they were screwed.

As to the effects of the budget cuts on the economy, 23% think they will help, 31% think the cuts are irrelevant, and 38% think the economy is screwed.

The voters got what a majority of them asked for, so I can’t feel sorry for them. It was well known what Scott was, and people voted for him anyway, so they can stop complaining about the higher telephone and utility bills, the soaring cost of property insurance, and the unemployment above the national average – they voted for it.

The Miami Herald carries the first results of GOP efforts: In Jacksonville mayoral loss, lessons for Florida GOP

Republican leaders said over and over in recent weeks that a race for mayor of Jacksonville amounted to the first big Florida fight in the 2012 presidential race.

“The liberal organizers who want to keep the American people enslaved by wasteful spending and hideous deficits need to know that they have jumped the gun on 2012 and have awakened a sleeping giant,” Duval County Republican Chairman Lenny Curry declared this month before handing a $50,000 check to Republican mayoral candidate Mike Hogan.

“We’re going to send a message that Florida is red.”

Republicans better hope Curry is wrong about the Jacksonville race being a harbinger, because an black Democrat named Alvin Brown this week was elected mayor of Florida’s largest county, which includes the city of Jacksoville. Across Florida and even the country, stunned Republicans are struggling to understand the narrow upset in conservative northeast Florida.

“Jacksonville has always been a conservative stronghold for Republicans, and we’re going to have to really study what happened in this race,” said Florida Senate president and U.S. Senate candidate Mike Haridopolos, who had expected Hogan to win handily.

Here’s a hint for Mike Haridopolos – people saw what you wanted to do, and they don’t like it. For a Democrat to win in Duval County, Republicans had to vote for him. Duval is as “Red” as the Panhandle, and unless there’s only a 10% turnout, you can’t win with just non-Republican voters.

Here’s another hint – a lot of the people who are registered Republicans in Florida are real conservatives, and they don’t like the radical agenda of the current GOP.

The Local Puppy Trainer notes that Local officials angry at some of Don and Matt Gaetz’s proposals

Not to be outdone by his son, state Sen. Don Gaetz sponsored a bill that would have eliminated the Mid-Bay Bridge Authority and two expressway authorities.

The senior Gaetz said he could have gotten the legislation passed — and saved taxpayers about $25 million a year — but the response from local governments, the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce and the county’s Economic Development Council made the effort seem silly.

“There’s a point at where you’ve got to decide not to fight to give people what they don’t want,” Don Gaetz said.
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It has been four years since the incident in Mossy Head revealed that the state of Florida had no law regarding bestiality. For four years the Republicans had been unable to create a law, but they were finally shamed into it … and they have managed to screw up and outlaw all sex because they don’t know how to write.

The options are for the law to be vetoed and wait for a new attempt next year, or to call a special session to fix it.

Instead of fixing the law, the world would be a better place if they “fixed” the legislature to keep them from breeding.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports on the annual homeless survey, and it is up 22%. The report says that the majority of homeless have jobs, and 55% of the group are women.

The problem is perception. The visible homeless are either men looking for work, or the small group of that cause trouble.

You can’t afford to rent anything down here with a minimum wage job. The deposits are a huge barrier, and if you have ever been evicted after losing a job, you choices are even more restricted. Most of the homeless shelters won’t accept you into their programs if you are female, sober, or employed, and there is almost no low-cost housing available. Many of those who qualified for the BP fund checks couldn’t get them because they didn’t have a mailing address. Most of the government programs are the same way.

There is only one program in the county that provides the employed homeless a place to stay and helps them budget and save to amass the money for deposits, to transition into the housing market. It has a dozen slots, which isn’t much help for the over a thousand people who qualify.

The Miami Herald reports that there are No applicants for state’s top education post

With a national reputation as a leader in education reform, and more aggressive changes on the way, Florida should be an easy sell for those seeking a new education commissioner.

But with less than three weeks until the deadline, the position hasn’t generated much attention.

In fact, no one has yet applied.

“We’ve definitely not received any inquiries and the firm has not alerted us to any,” education department spokesman Tom Butler said of the effort to fill the spot being vacated by Eric J. Smith in mid-June.

Actually, after the current legislative session, Florida is becoming known for slicing and dicing education funding, while imposing mandates from Tallahassee. The current education commissioner is unlikely to provide a “glowing report” about the working conditions under the new regime, so I think this will end up with someone’s brother-in-law’s cousin’s nephew on his mother’s side. Someone who cleans up respectable and knows how to agree with the “powers that be”.

The Florida educational system is in the mad rush to the bottom, trying to outdo all of the other states that elected Tea Party whackoes in 2010.

They extended the session of the Florida legislature a day in order to pass the state’s budget. Well, you can imagine how hard it is to pass anything when the Republicans control two-thirds of both houses, and the governor is supposed to be a Republican. 😈

The Miami Herald has documented the atrocities Florida lawmakers end chaotic session with $70 billion budget

The Senate late Friday night voted 31-8 along mostly party lines for the $69.7 billion budget that eliminates 4,492 jobs, cuts state worker salaries by 3 percent, trims taxes by $300 million, privatizes prisons and reduces regulations. The House took up the budget early Saturday, passing it, 79-39, along party lines. The House adjourned at 2:07 a.m.

And they include a List of the Idiocy.

Fred Grimm reviews one of them: They use our money to fight us

Don’t worry. Despite the most brutal budget cuts in state history, the taxpayers of Florida still have millions set aside for their epic battle against the taxpayers of Florida.

Both houses of the Florida Legislature managed to find plenty of money — also known as your money — for the slush funds underwriting their costly lawsuit against the Fair Districts amendments.

The Orlando Sentinel reported this week that the legislative leadership has figured on spending $20 million, and plenty more if necessary, to preserve their sacred right to re-draw state Senate, state representative and congressional districts in whatever squished-out, crazy-map shapes best protect their political self-interest.

You’ll be paying the legal costs to subvert a pair of constitutional amendments approved by 62.6 percent of the voters last fall.

They have taken the case to the Federal courts, hoping for Federal intervention in the affairs of the state. It may come as a shock, but Republicants only believe in “states rights” when it is convenient for their political goals.

They managed to attack women, children, the disabled, the elderly, and especially the poor, while they provided “tax relief” to corporations who aren’t going to do any hiring. They have made it easier to build houses when there is a glut of empty houses in Florida. On the jobs front, they put over 4,000 more people out of work. Amazing the amount of damage they can do in two months.

Update: in a crushing blow to the tourist scene in Mossy Head, Florida, after four years they have finally passed a law making bestiality illegal in Florida. “My Pet Goat” had an entirely different connotation in Mossy Head [nudge, nudge, wink, wink].

The Miami Herald reports that Wasserman Schultz wins DNC job.

There was a time when I would have been a very happy man to have read that. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is from Broward County in South Florida, and I have exchanged messages with her since 2000, starting when she was in the Florida legislature. I was very happy when she ran for Congress and won, because she is an unbelievably hard-working individual who strives to do the right thing.

Then she drank Obamaid, and things have changed. She is a true-blue and totally committed supporter of Zero, and cannot be dissuaded. She is already talking about helping Obama get reelected, when it is up the Democratic Party to select their candidate for the 2012 election. It probably will be Obama, because the Democratic Party is suicidal at the moment, but the chair of the DNC is not supposed to back candidates for any position until after they are officially selected.

The Pensacola News Journal tells me that Santa Rosa gun law in Senate’s sights

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida House on Tuesday passed a bill that likely will force Santa Rosa County officials to repeal an ordinance that silenced a makeshift gun range on Soundside Drive in Gulf Breeze or face fines up to $5,000.

The bill has strained relations between Santa Rosa County commissioners and freshman lawmaker Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton, who sponsored the legislation and represents a portion of the county.

The legislation, which must still pass the Florida Senate, gives teeth to an existing law that prohibits local governments to pass firearm regulations. The Gaetz bill not only mandates $5,000 fines, it also says those “harmed” by local gun regulations can sue local governments and receive up to $100,000.

The officials in Santa Rosa county think that they were being trashed because Gaetz lives in Okaloosa county. They are wrong.

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Scott Hiaasen of the Miami Herald writes that Effort to privatize Florida prisons raises questions of cost

The state agency that oversees these prisons says they will save taxpayers almost $90 million over the next three years. But state financial analysts say they cannot show with any certainty how much money they save over state-run prisons.

At a Senate hearing in February, legislative analyst Byron Brown said differences in how public and private prisons operate and account for expenses “limit the conclusiveness” of any cost comparisons.

“There’s never apples to apples,” Brown told lawmakers.

While the benefits of prison privatization may be hard to see, the problems have been obvious: Over the years, the arrangement has been marred by mismanagement by state monitors , lax contracts, overbilling by prison contractors, a corruption investigation, and a legal loophole that allowed sexual misconduct in private facilities to go unpunished.

I have never seen any reliable facts that privatization has ever saved any jurisdiction a nickel. Medicare Part D was supposed to save money when it was introduced, and after a decade it is 12% more expensive than regular Medicare. School bus service was more expensive beginning the second year after it was privatized, and it eventually had to revert to county control. [There was also the problem of near 12-hour days for some elementary school kids because the private contractor only used half as many buses and drivers.]

The only really reliable facts available are that the people who will probably get the contracts for the prisons are big Republicant political donors, and the whole thing looks like quid pro quo to me.