Metro Jacksonville

The SCOTT agenda?

A shift away from ANY social welfare (read Amtrak, JTA, rail transit etc AS WELL AS TRADITIONAL social, family, child and other services) from State Government as well as removing all economic regulatory (like private hospitals) functions under the guise of "Let's get to work..." State functions that refuse to be eliminated outright will be privatized. Government will revert to the role of property "protection" through the use of police and military power. Great for JSO and CAMP BLANDING, not so great for any group that becomes disenfranchised. The terrifying part of this is it's a nearly identical prelude to our own kRYSTALLNACHT.


"Intent on demonstrating their resistance to virtually all of President Obama’s policy objectives, Republicans nationwide have staked out an anti-rail position that they hope will stand out as the fiscally reasonable choice when they present themselves in this fall’s elections. Though the current Democratic administration will remain in power at least until early 2013, shifting control of Congress and potential power changes at the state level could dramatically reduce the ability of the Department of Transportation to advance its plans for the development of intercity rail.

Current polling suggests that Republicans are likely to do well in November across the country. The GOP has been leading the charge against high-speed rail since the program was first announced in February 2009.

Most problematic are the governorships, up for grabs in 37 of 50 states this year. Though the majority of recent spending on new intercity rail projects has originated at the federal government, the U.S. DOT is now requiring that state applicants agree to fund at least 20% of construction costs in order to receive a federal contribution. States will also be responsible for most operations expenses.

If Republican-led state governments are unwilling to commit to spending their own dollars on these projects, they simply will not be built. Since intercity rail projects are long-term investments, even if the federal government has already agreed to sponsor some investments, the takeover of a governor’s mansion by an anti-rail Republican could mean putting a full-stop in infrastructure development."
THE TRANSPORT POLITIC

The judiciary will be stacked in order to enforce the appropriate laws, the executive will become more centralized, remote, aloof and autocratic in a historic комисса́р (Political Officer) sort of way. Meanwhile a complacent legislature will pass the appropriate laws to match the agenda. The executive (GOVERNOR) will become more centralized and autocratic. Any budget surplus, with the exception of show-case projects, will be depressed into endless deficits and passed off to lower and lower government authorities, counties, cities, towns and villages. With the deficits thus disbursed (much of it to Florida communities with anti deficit laws) it will block the opponents ability to mount an effective opposition. The end result could well be an authoritarian state whose main function is repression of all institutionalized (and individual) avenues of resistance, perhaps even of dissent, particularly the labor movement.

Watch for a introduction of a consumption tax. This will be supported by the deluded masses as a way to eliminate capital gains, inheritance, corporate and all other taxes. It will have the effect of wiping out taxation or exempting as much as possible the investing class. Why? Those benevolent investors will then, "create jobs and new income opportunities for the poor." Such radical tax cuts will have the immediate effect of extending or even creating new deficits, again allowing the State government to drive said deficits (in reality hiding them in lower community levels) from the front pages by playing the hero. As the new "flat tax" fails to cover the myriad new budget shortfalls it will slowly be increased but not before a national flat tax based on the Florida model is paraded before the public. The danger of course is that the new tax will place an ever increasing demand on the working families, minorities and the poor. The age old anti-tax feeling in America is turned on the very people it is said to assist. 

Florida could play large into a international shift from multinational industries and elites collaborating in an investment friendly world, to a role as a base for pre-emptive use of US Military might to project a uniquely American form of friendly world. The carrot for Florida is it's position as the jumping off spot for a large part of the world and it's many large and healthy military bases. The stick is simple, on a global scale, paring back industry and farming it out to the lowest bidder. Protesting the new military elite will be condemned as Un-American while the exodus of industry further erodes the countries ability to sustain a prolonged military struggle. Use this historical guideline as a measurement: In 1941 Japan's Navy dwarfed our own Pacific Fleet, even moreover after Pearl Harbor they were in the exact position of projecting power through the agency of military might only, yet in the whole first year of the war, by the end of 1942, in all of Japan, ONLY 10 DESTROYERS were built and launched.

Rick Scott could well be our own personal PEARL HARBOR.


"Intent on demonstrating their resistance to virtually all of President Obama’s policy objectives, Republicans nationwide have staked out an anti-rail position that they hope will stand out as the fiscally reasonable choice when they present themselves in this fall’s elections. Though the current Democratic administration will remain in power at least until early 2013, shifting control of Congress and potential power changes at the state level could dramatically reduce the ability of the Department of Transportation to advance its plans for the development of intercity rail.

Current polling suggests that Republicans are likely to do well in November across the country. The GOP has been leading the charge against high-speed rail since the program was first announced in February 2009.

Most problematic are the governorships, up for grabs in 37 of 50 states this year. Though the majority of recent spending on new intercity rail projects has originated at the federal government, the U.S. DOT is now requiring that state applicants agree to fund at least 20% of construction costs in order to receive a federal contribution. States will also be responsible for most operations expenses.

If Republican-led state governments are unwilling to commit to spending their own dollars on these projects, they simply will not be built. Since intercity rail projects are long-term investments, even if the federal government has already agreed to sponsor some investments, the takeover of a governor’s mansion by an anti-rail Republican could mean putting a full-stop in infrastructure development."
JACKSONVILLE EXAMINER

AMTRAK? LIGHT RAIL? You are dreaming right?

OCKLAWAHA
source: http://www.goiam.org/index.php/tcunion/legislative-outlook/7640-amtrakgop
source: http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2010/09/22/republican-wave-could-spell-trouble-for-high-speed-rail-projects-from-coast-to-coast/
source: http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=989
source: www.commondreams.org/views03/0613-02.htm
source: http://www.ultimatedressage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=194459

I think we need a "pleading the 5th" drinking game!

http://pushingrope.blogspot.com/2010/10/rick-scotts-deposition.html

http://www.youtube.com/v/LIYad3TvY6Q

Have not seen anyone mention that there will be a debate between the two, Alex and Rick, tonight @ 1900 (7 tonight.....sorry!) on CNN! This is for those interested ofcourse!

2400 Zulu

OCKLAWAHA

2300 UTC

QuoteGov.-elect Rick Scott (R-FL) is already facing his first mini-scandal just a week after he beat Democrat Alex Sink in one of the nation's closest and nastiest gubernatorial races. A part-time campaign worker who found the job through an ad on Craigslist is upset that the campaign paid him with an American Express gift card.

Mark Don Givens told Florida's WTSP News that he was expecting a paycheck after he made phone calls and knocked on doors for the Scott campaign, which made jobs a top issue in the election. Givens said he and other workers were upset after they were told by the campaign that they could not offer them a paycheck and given American Express gift cards instead.

"This would violate both tax laws and labor laws," Melanie Sloan, the Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) told TPMmuckraker in an email. "It looks like the newly elected AG will be investigating the newly elected governor.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/rick_scott_campaign_worker_i_was_paid_in_gift_card.php

Starting allready! Well he did say he would generate 700,00 jobs, but don't remember him saying anything about how anyone would be paid!

He failed to mention that most of those jobs will be lawyers to defend him.

DOT,DCA and DEP in one agency. It's going to be the wild wild west again ... but we'll have 700,000 jobs!

QuoteScott transition team recommends combining development, environmental agencies
By Craig Pittman, Times staff writer
Posted: Dec 21, 2010 03:43 PM

Incoming Gov. Rick Scott should fold the three agencies now overseeing environmental protection, growth management and transportation into a single agency called the Department of Growth Leadership, according to a report Monday from a transition team he appointed.

Scott should also abolish some longstanding growth-management rules and block local governments such as Hillsborough County from enforcing their own, more restrictive regulations protecting wetlands from development, according to the report from the committee, which is chaired by a former developer.

Scott's regulatory reform transition team contended that getting the Legislature to approve merging the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Community Affairs next year would reshape how the state deals with development.

Instead of regulations aimed at stopping bad development, the committee said, the "regulatory policy objecting (would be) to help make good development happen."

And that's just the start. Other agencies could be integrated as well, such as the state's regional planning councils, the water management districts, even the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Currently those agencies are mired in "regulatory mistrust, competition, duplication and conflict," the committee warned in a series of slides released Monday by Scott's team. In fact, one slide says the DEP had gone from a mission of "protection" in the 1970s to one of "suppression" in the 2000s -- even though that was during the two terms of business-friendly Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

The result of the current setup, according to the transition team report, was a host of woes including urban sprawl and overbuilding. That argument "doesn't seem to match very well with the actual facts," said Charles Pattison of 1,000 Friends of Florida, a pro-growth management activist group.

The Regulatory Reform Transition Team is chaired by Chris Corr, vice president for planning, design and development the global builder and designer AECOM. In the 1990s Corr helped develop the 5,000-acre town of Celebration for the Walt Disney Corp. He then served until 2008 as vice president of the St. Joe Co., which spent the past decade transforming its Panhandle pine forests into a series of residential and commercial developments.

Two other former St. Joe executives, Peter Rummell and Billy Buzzett, also serve on the committee. The environmental subcommittee is chaired by Doug Manson, a Tampa lawyer who a lawyer who has represented utilities and bottled water companies.

Well the Party of "NO" appears to be hard at work! I am trying to keep an open mind since he has not even taken office yet but allready I have questions. Not really sure just how combining seperate agency's is for the public good.............can see where big business and special interests would be able to get a foot in the door and at a greatly reduced cost to themselves. I am all for reducing cost of government to the taxpaying public, but question if this is the right avenue to pursuit?

To merge FDOT and DEP and thinking that would work is sort of like locking Ben Roethlisberger, Britney Spears and Dennis Rodman in a restroom together and expecting them to keep their gonads off each other.   

correct...much of DCA could easily fit in DEP or DOT....but DEP and DOT are far different animals

Do any of you remember the good old days before the Republicans, I mean Jeb Bush, destroyed Florida's economy? Rick Scott looks like he has gone crazy. And I don't mean that as a joke. Look at his eyes. They are those of a crazy person. That You Tube clip made me sick to my stomach. Tonight is the 2nd time I've seen it and it shocks me that he was not jailed for his despicable lies. You always hear that the voting public is smart. Well I've got news for you. They are as DUMB as rocks. They are deaf, dumb and blind. They don't read. They believe any lie they are told. And the worst part of all, they are deciding, blindly, who will hold office and make law. We are in deep trouble fellow Floridians, just look in the crazed eyes of your new Governor and you will know what I mean. And remember it was the geniuses of North Florida who helped elect this crook. No wonder people from the rest of the country only consider Florida to be from Orlando south.

and now...Scott's pick to lead DEP....

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/scott-picks-shipbuilding-executive-to-head-environmental-protection-agency/1143334

Wait wait wait...let me get this straight...

So to lead the department of environmental protection, Tricky Ricky decided to appoint a guy who ran one of the worst polluting industries? WTF I guess we can just hope the state senate won't confirm the appointment. I still can't believe this crook got elected.

Quote from: tufsu1 on January 04, 2011, 08:58:17 AM
and now...Scott's pick to lead DEP....

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/scott-picks-shipbuilding-executive-to-head-environmental-protection-agency/1143334

I am reminded of a heated conversation between regulator and regulated-an outright argument really-overheard while plying a state resource agency hallway.It struck me that I would not be welcome in this unescorted,on my own mode in a building within the bowels of an Agency I as the public owned.But what the heck-such ruthlessness pays off.

The choice is really quite perfect,simply a reflection of the long established world of "Environmental" law,Planner & Consultant.Lewis,Longman & Walker,Wade Hopping,Sector Plan,ghost Beltway,flawed River Advocacy/Rodman Reservoir/River Alliance/Jim King,Trust for Public Lands politics personified.Mix the agencies indeed!The behind the scenes buzz,unseen and unknown to most,now emerges like a summer Florida sunrise.This scene too shall set.And the 'press' will reference 'environmentalists" which includes a vast grouping of Floridians both inside and outside of government not typically imagined.The real needs and call for stewardship will ultimately always prevail.
Interesting to see the slight twists afforded via the Times Union vs. The Miami Herald.Jacksonville RiverKeepr poised as conciliatory in the FTU piece while the MH piece quoted a more clearly differentiated Riverkeeper.

Is it just me, or does Rick Scott sound like Porky Pig when he speaks?

Sigh... such is the price of apathy...

His Inaugural speech was a thing of beauty...........Porky Pig would more than likely be more presice! Could be just me since I did not vote for him.....but have yet to see anything concrete voiced about the 700K jobs he was talking about and as to streamlining government, when it happens I will believe it but not before!

I do agree CS....but to be fair, his plan is 700,000 new jobs over 7 years...so he has time!

Quote from: tufsu1 on January 06, 2011, 04:08:50 PM
I do agree CS....but to be fair, his plan is 700,000 new jobs over 7 years...so he has time!

and probably hedging his number on the economy turning around a bit on its own.

Oh yea!..............a 'return' to 'normal',where developers and schemers develop raw land,impacting marine resources and buying expensive fishing boats with the profits.Speculative land purchases,used as very temporary hunting preserve in the face of "inevitable" development that the land owners coordinate,hanging around the campfire complaining of 'dem enviro extremists!

Perhaps we can not afford 700,000 new jobs..................

that wasn't normal either, just the other end of the spectrum.

Glad to see the Gov and the legislature want to privatize prisons to save taxpayer money, but apparently they need to get better at it.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/08/unf-prisons-expert-blasts-state-privatization-proposal.html (http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/08/unf-prisons-expert-blasts-state-privatization-proposal.html)

QuoteUNF prisons expert blasts state privatization proposal
posted by khaughney on August, 23 2011 4:34 PM


TALLAHASSEE â€" A University of North Florida criminology expert who specializes in prison privatization issues is blasting the state’s privatization plans for facilities in an 18-county area of South Florida.

Michael Hallett, chair of UNF’s criminology program and author of Private Prisons in America, completed an unsolicited assessment of the state’s call for vendors, which he then sent to Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Appropriations subcommittee and an opponent of privatization.

“There are so many serious problems with this RFP that it is not easy to digest in one document,” he wrote in the memo he sent to Fasano.

Hallett, who has testified before several state Legislatures about privatization, called the state’s plans a “huge rush to judgment,” and said that multiple problems existed, including the possibility that the program could cost the state more money instead of saving it dollars. The biggest problem, he said, is that the the state indicates that it favors awarding the contract for 18 counties to a single vendor.

The request for proposal reads: A contract will be awarded to one proposer. The term of the prospective contract will be five (5) years with one five (5) year renewal available.

Hallett argues that this would favor an industry already dominated by just a few companies, making it difficult to create cost efficiencies.

“It renders the state subject to captivity once the contract is awarded, by giving one corporation so much power and control over such a significant segment of the state budget,” he said. “You can’t turn this around on a moments notice.”

The state’s privatization plans have been in the spotlight for the past several weeks. The Department of Corrections admitted that it was possible the state could lose money in the privatization process. Then Gov. Rick Scott’s office had the DOC pull back calls for proposals to run the prison’s health care system. The authority that ensures that the state is providing adequate medical care to inmates had to close its doors because the Legislature provided it no money in the budget, despite a statutory requirement that the organization exist. And most recently, Scott’s office pressured the Department of Corrections to end a contract with Betty Gondles, who was overseeing the health care privatization because her husband runs the only organization that accredits state prison medical services, and the contracts would have required that the medical service company hired by the state to be evaluated and pay dues to that association.

Private Prisons are a scam:

QuoteAre Florida's Private Prisons Keeping Their Promises? by the Florida Centre for Fiscal and Economic Policy - notes that while there is a difference in headline annual incarceration costs - $17,216 for a private prison vs $18,980 for a public facility - this cost is largely the result of private prisons being newer and handling lower-security inmates. If the government built a new low-security prison, it would receive those "savings" too. Beyond that, it finds that the procurement process means that it is very difficult to determine what, if any, savings are being delivered; there are no actual costs computed for parts of the public system, so they just can't tell if the legally required 7% saving is being delivered or not.

Quote from: finehoe on August 24, 2011, 10:30:45 AM
Private Prisons are a scam:

QuoteAre Florida's Private Prisons Keeping Their Promises? by the Florida Centre for Fiscal and Economic Policy - notes that while there is a difference in headline annual incarceration costs - $17,216 for a private prison vs $18,980 for a public facility - this cost is largely the result of private prisons being newer and handling lower-security inmates. If the government built a new low-security prison, it would receive those "savings" too. Beyond that, it finds that the procurement process means that it is very difficult to determine what, if any, savings are being delivered; there are no actual costs computed for parts of the public system, so they just can't tell if the legally required 7% saving is being delivered or not.

It's worse then that Finehoe, private prisons are an industry. Think about that folks, they want to bust your 15 year old for a can of beer or a joint because it feeds the industry. Making criminals out of law abiding citizens pays big dividends, keep them rotating through the system jail-probabtion-violate-jail-probation etc. pays even more.
IMO - Prisons should be state and federal institutions, ugly places that are rarely used and that house only people with a harmful criminal intent.

OCKLAWAHA

This is just another scam to make a small number of people rich off the taxpayers dime. And we cry about Welfare and food stamps...Just saying

Quote from: avonjax on August 24, 2011, 11:35:17 AM
This is just another scam to make a small number of people rich off the taxpayers dime. And we cry about Welfare and food stamps...Just saying

Yup, corporate welfare!

Penny wise and pound foolish.

Profit driven projects are always trying to get more customers.  Why would a profit driven prison try to rehabilitate a person so they would not come back.  Customer retention is a big deal in my office. I bet a profit driven prison would be more likely to set higher standards of good behavior to keep the parolee level down.

I do not know that any of these practices are happening except as a business owner I know these things are happening.

And how many more days do we have to put up with this republican thief?

Quote from: Garden guy on August 24, 2011, 02:27:48 PM
And how many more days do we have to put up with this republican thief?

OMG! I THINK I FINALLY AGREED WITH YOU ON SOMETHING! Scott should immediately reform Florida's prison system because if justice is ever served he'll be living there.

OCKLAWAHA

Quote from: Ocklawaha on August 24, 2011, 10:55:29 AM

Quote from: finehoe on August 24, 2011, 10:30:45 AM

It's worse then that Finehoe, private prisons are an industry. Think about that folks, they want to bust your 15 year old for a can of beer or a joint because it feeds the industry. Making criminals out of law abiding citizens pays big dividends, keep them rotating through the system jail-probabtion-violate-jail-probation etc. pays even more.
IMO - Prisons should be state and federal institutions, ugly places that are rarely used and that house only people with a harmful criminal intent.

OCKLAWAHA

Our current War on Drugs is doing a good job of feeding Law enforcement, Prisons, and making criminals out of law abiding citizens.

I am not advocating the privatization of prisons, but we are already to a point where our current system "keep them rotating through the system jail-probabtion-violate-jail-probation etc." so it pays even more to the courts etc.

The LEOs love to play dress up to kick doors down, fly around in helicopters, run through the woods pulling up gardens, etc  rather than having to work a normal beat. 

Quote from: Ocklawaha on August 24, 2011, 02:33:26 PM

Quote from: Garden guy on August 24, 2011, 02:27:48 PM
And how many more days do we have to put up with this republican thief?

OMG! I THINK I FINALLY AGREED WITH YOU ON SOMETHING! Scott should immediately reform Florida's prison system because if justice is ever served he'll be living there.

OCKLAWAHA

i would hope that someone out there is going to do something aoout the laws this man has broken...he shuts everything about him down....i'd love to see him do some time...

Quote from: Garden guy on August 24, 2011, 09:38:52 PM

Quote from: Ocklawaha on August 24, 2011, 02:33:26 PM

Quote from: Garden guy on August 24, 2011, 02:27:48 PM
And how many more days do we have to put up with this republican thief?

OMG! I THINK I FINALLY AGREED WITH YOU ON SOMETHING! Scott should immediately reform Florida's prison system because if justice is ever served he'll be living there.

OCKLAWAHA

i would hope that someone out there is going to do something aoout the laws this man has broken...he shuts everything about him down....i'd love to see him do some time...

i'd prefer something like the end ov the people under the stairs:  'what community?  all i see is a couple ov ni--' [cut to entire neighbourhood (or, in this case, state) giving the evil eye and preparing to unload some whoop-ass.]

So there I am, this very day, minding my own business, at five points starbucks, having a pleasant discourse with an internationally renown artist, when in walks a state politician; Governor Rick Scott.

The dilemma: Having been friends with this particular artist of renown, I have a few propaganda type stickers he created.

One in particular, suggests that the viewer "Vote Republican" whilst being adorned with the ever popular Swastika.

I run to my vehicle, grab one, and proceed to ask Governor Scott to autograph the reverse side of the sticker. (Without his knowing what is on the front)

He obliges.

Am I a silly child? A saboteur? A parasitic plebe? A genius?

Whatcha got?

(I find myself feeling like a miscreant for having done it. I think I'll keep it for a reminder to not blindside people.)

Well are you going to give it to the news that would be bad. Otherwise just funny.

The only argument that can be made for the privatization of prisons is that they have the potential, if required, to provide meaningful life change programs. To be specific, if Florida moves to privatize and it is a tidal wave that cannot be stopped, private operators should be required to partner with proven recidivism reduction programs that are integrated into the prison itself.

Quote from: buckethead on August 29, 2011, 07:23:55 PM
So there I am, this very day, minding my own business, at five points starbucks, having a pleasant discourse with an internationally renown artist, when in walks a state politician; Governor Rick Scott.

The dilemma: Having been friends with this particular artist of renown, I have a few propaganda type stickers he created.

One in particular, suggests that the viewer "Vote Republican" whilst being adorned with the ever popular Swastika.

I run to my vehicle, grab one, and proceed to ask Governor Scott to autograph the reverse side of the sticker. (Without his knowing what is on the front)

He obliges.

Am I a silly child? A saboteur? A parasitic plebe? A genius?

Whatcha got?

(I find myself feeling like a miscreant for having done it. I think I'll keep it for a reminder to not blindside people.)

lulz!  i, good sir, am impressed.

Quote from: buckethead on August 29, 2011, 07:23:55 PM
So there I am, this very day, minding my own business, at five points starbucks, having a pleasant discourse with an internationally renown artist, when in walks a state politician; Governor Rick Scott.

The dilemma: Having been friends with this particular artist of renown, I have a few propaganda type stickers he created.

One in particular, suggests that the viewer "Vote Republican" whilst being adorned with the ever popular Swastika.

I run to my vehicle, grab one, and proceed to ask Governor Scott to autograph the reverse side of the sticker. (Without his knowing what is on the front)

He obliges.

Am I a silly child? A saboteur? A parasitic plebe? A genius?

Whatcha got?

(I find myself feeling like a miscreant for having done it. I think I'll keep it for a reminder to not blindside people.)

So you had Lee Harvey together with Rick Scott, and somehow this didn't end with you being kicked out of Starbucks?

Awesome job on getting him to give you that autograph, that's hilarious. I want one, lol...