The Penile State: A blog about Florida*

Fight the merger

2009-12-03T12:57:00.002-05:00

Comcast's pack of sleazy wolves are not what this nation needs to rebuild some semblance of open, public, communication. Take action now to stop this disaster - or, if the folks in power have no scruples, then make sure they can't say they allowed this to go forward in blind ignorance of the facts:

"Crist may have just handed the election to Rubio"

2009-10-28T11:49:00.003-04:00

Florida Governor Crist claims he had no idea President Obama was visiting his state

The thunderous crashing sound off in the distance is Crist’s Senate candidacy hitting the ground in a million tiny pieces while his Senate opponent Marco Rubio phones in an order for a ‘Thank You’ basket to send Charlie’s way....

The Problem With Charlie is now one of accountability, credibility, and truthfulness. more...

And if Gov. weren't intent on proving he's a total asshat already:

The public option has Crist riled

You can take the Asshat out of Florida...

2009-10-22T11:08:00.001-04:00

St. Petersburg Times: Newest senator takes low road

Published Wednesday, October 21, 2009

In just six weeks, U.S. Sen. George LeMieux has succumbed to Washington. In his initial floor speech, LeMieux opted for partisan rhetoric over honest debate about the growing federal deficit. Florida's junior senator squandered a golden opportunity to use the bully pulpit he'll command for just 16 months.

In Tallahassee, LeMieux, Gov. Charlie Crist's former chief of staff, was credited with helping the governor's populist appeal. But Wednesday, he sacrificed candor in a predictable play to a partisan constituency. He reasonably equated Congress to a family who recklessly relies on credit cards to pay the bills. But he implied the runaway spending stems from Democratic control, ignoring that it began under President George W. Bush.

LeMieux really lost the high ground when he bragged that Crist and the Florida Legislature have cut spending by nearly 10 percent, or $7 billion, to balance the budget. LeMieux's omission: This year's state budget was balanced only because of $5 billion in federal stimulus dollars and $2.2 billion in new taxes and fees. Florida didn't live within its means. In fact, it was more like the spoiled offspring of a wealthy family who called Mom or Dad for a bailout.

Congress needs to make some hard choices, which would include both reducing spending and raising taxes, to address the deficit. But LeMieux did nothing to advance that cause. He lambasted congressional spending after building a career in Florida accepting its largesse. He bemoaned both the current health care system and Democratic reform plans, but offered no solution of his own. He championed further tax cuts but criticized potential cuts to Medicare, thereby defending an entitlement that is among the main drivers of the deficit. LeMieux can't have it both ways. He can't work for solutions and join the partisan fighting that does neither America nor Florida in particular any good.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1045859.ece

Dented equipment ready to fail in Sarasota

2009-10-19T13:06:00.002-04:00

Via the Brad Blog:

The November 3rd Election Day is nearing, so naturally the words "glitch," "hiccup," "snafu," and "snag" are back in the headlines, instead of the word "failure," which would be the appropriate one to use in such cases.
Today, it's our old friends in Sarasota, under the continuing and now-legendarily failed direction of Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent and her latest failed voting system, this one an optical-scan system made by Diebold, featured in the Charlotte Sun's"Scanning glitch in vote machine test": more...

Yes, but how many were elected representatives?

2009-10-17T15:33:00.001-04:00

Feds: 223 Gang Arrests in Florida

Saturday, October 17, 2009

WASHINGTON — U.S. immigration authorities say 223 gang members and associates were arrested in Florida in the last fiscal year.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says Operation Community Shield led to 1,785 arrests in 89 cities nationwide. The arrests were made between Oct. 1, 2008, and Sept. 30.

The 223 gang members and associates arrested in Florida faced charges of attempted murder, robbery, and various drug and weapons charges.

In Operation Community Shield, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies share information and resources to arrest, prosecute and imprison or deport gang members.

Florida immigration officials say the operation has helped dismantle or disrupt numerous gang and drug trafficking organizations. Link.

Teabaggers Stupify Even Republicans

2009-10-16T12:23:00.005-04:00

In Florida, Republican leaders were elated when popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist agreed to run for the Senate. He has adopted policies such as an aggressive approach to global warming that appeal even to Democrats. Those very policies infuriated conservatives, as did Mr. Crist's decision to campaign with President Barack Obama on behalf of the president's $787 billion stimulus package.
"He was Judas to the Republican Party in the state of Florida and across the country," says Robin Stublen, 53, of Punta Gorda, co-state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, a loose national coalition. "He sold us out for 13 pieces of gold."
A spokesman for Mr. Crist said the governor made sure stimulus dollars went to items important to Florida voters.
Mr. Crist has drawn a primary challenge from Marco Rubio, a former Florida House speaker, who is aggressively seeking tea-party members' support. #

Another distinction for Florida

2009-10-15T06:55:00.004-04:00

A recent string of arrests of public officials in Florida has led Gov. Charlie Crist to ask for a special grand jury. It will examine whether Florida has, as the governor suggests, a "culture of corruption." Link.

"It's obvious to me that something's wrong," said Crist, who noted he has removed 30 officials from their jobs since becoming governor in January 2007. "Fundamental problems within the system ... may be in fact cultivating a culture of corruption."

A similar effort a decade ago by former Gov. Jeb Bush to toughen laws that would make it easier to ferret out public corruption was largely rejected by Florida's Republican-dominated Legislature.

Crist's decision to have the high court impanel a statewide grand jury comes just two weeks after one of his top campaign contributors, Dr. Alan Mendelsohn of Hollywood, surrendered to the FBI on charges he ran a multimillion-dollar fraudulent fund raising and lobbying operation.

Three prominent politicians in Florida's second-most populous county, Democrat-controlled Broward County, were arrested last month on federal corruption charges, accused of accepting thousands of dollars in cash from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking illegal favors.

Crist issued executive orders suspending Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion - who just hours before his arrest voted on the county's annual budget in a late-night meeting - and county school board member Beverly Gallagher from office pending the outcome of the case.

The third person arrested, former Miramar city commissioner Fitzroy Salesman had lost his bid for re-election earlier this year. More...

A case that gathered far more publicity statewide involved former House Speaker Ray Sansom, a Destin Republican who was forced from his post in February after a state grand jury indicted him for perjury and official misconduct. The latter charge was recently dismissed.

Republicans have a Health Care Plan

2009-10-13T08:20:00.004-04:00

The next time you get Vern's frugging "Poll"

2009-10-05T22:07:00.003-04:00

Consider the context in which Vern Buchanan offers his kneejerk questions:

Surveys designed to persuade rather than survey are a common though dirty tactic in the political arena, the text equivalent of telephone push-polls. The sending of polls for fundraising purposes is also widely considered unethical, a practice known as "frugging" -- fundraising under the guise of research. In August, the RNC suggested in a similarly formatted "Future of American Health Care Survey" that "GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system." Following on outcry from Democrats, a Republican Party spokesperson called that survey "inartfully worded."

More context

Another near first-place triumph for Penile State

2009-10-05T11:54:00.002-04:00

Florida has the second-lowest rate of health insurance for people younger than 65 in the country, trailing only Texas, a new U.S. Census survey shows. Excluding Medicare-eligible senior citizens, one in four Floridians lives without any form of medical coverage. Link.

Bye-bye, Charlie

2009-09-30T11:48:00.001-04:00

Watching Charlie on CNN push his Cover Florida health plan was hysterical. In two years, the program has signed up a grand total of 4,000 people. Like everything else, Charlie got it passed in the Legislature, grabbed some headlines, and abandoned it until dusting it off for a political campaign. If this is the answer to the nation's health care woes, it's time to bring on the death panels.
"Cover Florida is an oxymoran,'' says Beckey Cherney, president and CEO of the Central Florida Healthcare Coalition. "If you held it up as a national model, it would be what you would not do.'' link

Now this

2009-09-27T12:56:00.000-04:00

Florida Stars of Tomorrow - make that Yesterday

2009-09-24T10:44:00.001-04:00

Broward County Commissioner and Vice Mayor Josephus Eggelletion, 60, was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiring to help launder more than $900,000 through a Bahamas bank account from what the undercover FBI agents told him was an investment fraud scheme. For his efforts, he was paid more than $23,000.
A county school board member, 51-year-old Beverly Gallagher, is accused of accepting $12,500 - some stuffed in official board of education envelopes - to help steer school business toward FBI agents posing as representatives of glass and construction companies.
The third political figure charged, former Miramar city commissioner Fitzroy Salesman, 52, is accused of taking $3,340 from undercover agents pretending to seek contracts to replace a gymnasium floor and build a park gazebo. Earlier this year, Salesman was convicted of a misdemeanor charge after drawing a pistol in a grocery store during an argument with another shopper.
FBI corruption probe nets 3 Fla. politicians

SW Penile a Ponzi Haven???? Who Knew???

2009-09-20T20:56:00.005-04:00

Someone call Vern Buchanan!

Although, it's not exactly a secret that developers, real estate con artists, lawyers, title co's, health insurers, bankers, builders, home insurers and a whole lot more have run every imaginable con known to man in Southwest Florida -- pretty well known, in fact, except apparently to Pollick at the Herald Tribune who unloads his mega-revelation upon his readers as if we poor innocents had never heard of Mr. Ponzi and his sunshine fans and emulators.

Art Nadel might be bogus, but he was good at it. The Herald Tribune's excited yawp, with its feckless question:

Has the
Gulf Coast become a Ponzi haven?

falls several megatons short of helpful in showing us how Florida become the penile pyramid scheme it is today. Here at the Penile state, we've long had a tag: "Ponzi Capital of the World." Thanks, HT, for nuthin'.

Pricks, Clueless Pricks, and Seriously Stupid Pricks

2009-09-15T19:12:00.010-04:00

I overheard the president call McCain’s plan “a stunt.” Dana Perino said the negotiations were nearly over, and suddenly he was going to swoop in and muck things up? The president’s political adviser, Barry Jackson, was blunt, calling McCain a “stupid prick.”

His audience was a gold curtain next to a large portrait of George Washington.

I suggested that we also apologize to the former Soviet Union and retroactively concede the Cold War.

As events turned more surreal and staff members played the spin game with each other, I asked myself daily, What more can go wrong? The answer, of course, would be practically everything.

More...

Hilarious Horseshit: Wingnuts Need No Reality in their Crowd Estimates

2009-09-15T10:36:00.005-04:00

From Ben Dimero of Media Matters:

Eric Boehlert's latest column tracks the lie that 2 million protesters showed up at the 9/12 protests this weekend. All in all, it is a perfect microcosm of the way the conservative blogosphere functions. Facts? Who needs 'em.

Boehlert: Michelle Malkin and the anatomy of the 2 million protester lie

The exaggerations about crowd size certainly aren't restricted to the blogosphere--

Citing a university he can't remember, Beck now claims 1.7 million attended 9-12 protests

Beck, Limbaugh run wild with estimates on size of 9/12 protests

Interviewing Malkin, Dobbs claims number of 9-12 protesters in Washington "reached well over a million"

If you need anything, feel free to get in touch.

Thanks.

- Ben

Full Column:

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200909140039

Michelle Malkin and the anatomy of the 2 million protester lie

September 14, 2009 7:19 pm ET - by Eric Boehlert

Blame it on a tweet.

It turns out that's what kicked off the right-wing blogosphere's comically inept misinformation campaign last weekend to try to swell the size of Saturday's anti-Obama protest in the nation's capital, to jack the crowd size up to the wildly inflated -- and erroneous -- number of 2 million people.

Nice try.

According to estimates provided by the Washington, D.C., fire department, Malkin and friends were only off by 1,930,000 people. In other words, Malkin, citing fictitious press... more...

Sarasota Wants You, Joey

2009-09-12T16:18:00.005-04:00

Apparently if Addison Graves "Joe" Wilson Sr. lived in Sarasota he'd be making the money, not Rob Miller, his opponent:

Vern Buchanan, who held the "town meeting," doesn't need the money.

Fair question

2009-09-11T11:33:00.002-04:00

If the national Republican hierarchy couldn't keep U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., from blurting out, "You lie!" during President Barack Obama's Wednesday address to Congress, what hope does a lowly county chairman have in maintaining decorum during a protest? Eric Ernst

HEY JOE

2009-09-11T00:15:00.003-04:00

RTFM

2009-09-10T10:36:00.004-04:00

Especially for asshats of the Libertarian Persuasion:

Transcript

Famed Asshat Maneuver

2009-09-09T21:29:00.009-04:00

Update: Joe Wilson is your pre-existing condition.

Congressman Wilson is widely known as the voice who shouted "you lie" during President Obama's address to the joint session of Congress on September 9, 2009 regarding Healthcare reform.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Wilson_(U.S._politician)

Read and kindly apply your f***ing brains

2009-09-09T20:23:00.001-04:00

Text Of President Obama’s Speech To Joint Session Of Congress On Health Care Reform 9/9/09

Sept. 11 Town Meeting with Vern Buchanan

2009-09-08T23:48:00.003-04:00

Date:	09/11/2009, 5:30 - 7 pm
Title:	Vern Buchanan Town Hall Meeting (Sarasota)
Theme/Notes:	To discuss health care, jobs, and the economy in Sarasota
Details:	The Congressman will meet with constituents to discuss health care, jobs and the economy in Sarasota. Please RSVP by calling the Buchanan Sarasota office at 941-951-6643.
Location:	Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall located at 777 N. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota
Cost/Donation:	Free - RSVP at phone below.
Info-Phone:	941-951-6643
Info-URL:	(link supplied by Buchanan did not work)

Treasonable socialist propaganda. Call the Asshat Brigade.

2009-09-08T12:25:00.001-04:00

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Sarasota is like everyplace else: Undereducated

2009-09-08T12:12:00.002-04:00

Health Care Public Option Vigil in Sarasota, Florida Brings Out Hundreds of Supporters

... One anti-reform protester held a sign with the controversial image of Obama depicted as The Joker. Messages against the public option were mixed, ranging from "Give me liberty, not debt" to "Socialism" to "Get a Job" with lots of mentions of "Obamacare" ...