Why Rick Scott Is A Joke & Florida has become The Jerry
Springer Show of American Politics
 
By David A. Franklin, Jr.
 
And it came to pass in those trying economic times, when political madness ensued in our beloved Sunshine State of Florida! Hardships there are but Florida is where beaches are beautiful, the gorgeous women make guys suffer debilitating whiplash and the weather is hot 24/7--- as is the case with politics in America today. 
 
States with Republican Governors, with the help of their State Legislatures, SUPER PACs and other big money “outside” donors, go through extreme lengths to see to it that voter’s lists are scoured and certain groups
of people disenfranchised because of the following: 
  
a)   Having a past criminal record and/or prior arrest/incarceration although they have paid  their debt to society as   
      society dictates
b)   Have a history of voting for the Democratic Party
c)   They belong to a Minority Group (i.e. Black, Hispanic, Woman, Disabled, Legal Immigrant able to vote, and they 
      incude the poor of all ethnic groups)
d)   Unable to show what Republicans have determined to be “proper” I.D. to vote
e)   Don’t speak English fluently
 
How low and despicable can the actions of one person be? Rick Scott rode into the Governor’s Mansion because some careless voters took it for granted that populist progressive Democrat, Alex Sink, was able to defeat him – so they did not turn out to vote. Scott was coming off that Medicare scandal investigation that exposed a scam of Healthcare providers who shafted the system of billions of dollars. Any educated voter would push for a criminal trial for the guilty to be charged and put in prison for a long time. Instead with the veil of impropriety hanging over the head of Scott, he ran successfully for Governor of Florida. It is Florida after all what can we say?

Everything that is supposed to be in the playbook fundamentals in basic human decency spiraled out of control making the people of the State look foolish, backward and ill-informed. Sometimes one wonders if an uncomfortable number in America who vote aren’t in this category of persons. We witnessed this in the recent recall attempt in Wisconsin and the continued efforts by at least twelve (12) States using intimidating guerilla tactics to disenfranchise some of their citizens. Nazi Germany would have been proud of today’s current Republican leadership in using scare tactics, outright intimidation and the use of fraud to win by any means necessary. It is their way or no way at all! In the good old days of Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neal there was the art of compromise. There wasn’t blind political ideology or greedy corporate vampires like the Koch Brothers who try to control everything because they threw money around recklessly. It was always about putting America first and how we can move to the next level where the country, on a whole, benefits. Not the few in the 1% but the whole.
 
The Occupy Wall Street Movement (OWS) has turned out to be a bust. My suggestion is that they organize by getting
people registered to vote for more progressive candidates who share their ideals and common political goals. The Tea Party was able to do that brilliantly. The results saw their fringe (i.e. crazy) candidates being elected to Congress in droves as well as in State Legislatures and Governorships across the country. Sitting idly by in public parks, communicating through Social Media and chanting kumbahya has failed miserably. Bill Maher was correct in mocking OWS ever so elegantly when he made the point that the Tea Party mobilized and were both effective and successful. That is what the OWS must do if they want real change and be taken seriously. Maher was right! Meaningful change will not come from hippies, and other socially progressive movements, sitting around on their butts in public parks “protesting”. If that shouting mentality isn’t changed to actual mobilization then America is screwed! It’ll only lead to more frustration and nothing being done to make effective change. 
  
Florida puts the “fun” in  dysfunctional:
Can the State get anymore screwed up than it already is? Florida leads the way in being dysfunctional. In fact, Florida puts the “fun” in dysfunctional. The State brings it to new heights starting back to the 2000 presidential snafu. Then till
now, Florida has been in the public eye. As it stands now, I boldly predict that it may come down to Florida and/or Ohio in the Electoral College vote. Rick Scott is doing his part to rid Florida of some 182,000+ registered voters. The Federal Government is counter-suing Florida as a result. A great majority of residents in Florida “dislike” Governor Rick Scott. Even people in his own Republican Party not a fan of his. I guess they are having buyer’s remorse and are unable to do jack about it. Why? Because, before demitting office, Jeb Bush signed a bill into law stating that no Florida Governor can ever be challenged in a recall election. The typical response in Florida was to go along with that and do nothing. When will Florida ever learn? 
 
Florida is fast taking over as the poster child of everything backward. Fast and surely Florida has become the next Jerry Springer Show of American politics. Thanks in large part to Rick Scott and Republican demagogues who so successfully appeal to the people’s prejudices and are so efficient in their manipulative and dangerous actions. They put ideology above practicality/pragmatism. The madness must end Floridians! Stop Rick Scott by electing progressive people come August 14th, 2012. From County and Citywide Judgeships, Commissions and School Boards to Local City Councils, the State House and State Senate. This is the only way to curb Governor Scott’s crazy enthusiasm and bring back some semblance of order and respect to the great State of Florida. Failure to do so would be detrimental and have epic negative ramifications come election-day this November. 
 
Stop being the laughing stock of America and do the right thing Florida. The entire nation - the World, is watching! Take your Democratic rights back from rapacious Corporatists and SUPER PACs.  
 
Return true power to the people.

By: David A. Franklin,  Jr.

The assault on the middle class will escalate. Congratulations especially to those 36% of union members who voted for the assault (Walker) they have indeed formed their own suicide pact.

I will not say much, but to ask, “Are these people incapable of formulating a decision based on the facts – what they see, what they experience and what they and others are feeling? Why are they still locked in their pre-pubescent mental
state, the period where human beings are at their most impressionable?”  It is apparent they are cooked in that state of mind.

I will adopt from an article, and especially the statistics collated by Gavin Aronsen in his June 5th, 2012 article entitled:  The Dark Money Behind the Wisconsin Recall 
70 percent: How much more expensive the governor's recall election is than the state's second-most expensive race (the 2010  gubernatorial campaign)  $30.5 million: Amount raised by Walker to fight off the recall effort

$3.9 million: Amount raised by his challenger, Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee

About 2/3: Proportion of Walker's donations that have come from donors outside Wisconsin

About 1/4: Proportion of Barrett's donations that have come from donors outside Wisconsin
 
Unlimited: Maximum individual donation Walker may accept under state law $10,000: Maximum individual donation Barrett may accept under state law

$16.3 million: A mount spent by pro-Walker independent expenditure groups, which have invested $22 million in the Wisconsin recall

Some of the biggest contributions and expenditures in support of Walker:

•  $510,000 to Walker from Diane Hendricks, Wisconsin's richest businesswoman and a member of Charles and David Koch's million-dollar donor club

•  $490,000 to Walker from Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder who with his wife has spent more than $8 million on the 
   2012 elections

• $260,000 to Walker from David Humphreys, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club

• $250,000 to Walker from Amway founder Dick DeVos of Michigan, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club

•  $250,000 to Walker from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who with his wife has spent
    more than $25   million on the 2012elections

•  $100,000 to Walker from Wyoming investor Foster Friess, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club

•  $100,000 to Walker from New York billionaire Louis Bacon, a media-shy hedge-fund trader

•  $100,000 to Walker from Dallas oil and gas billionaire Trevor Rees-Jones

•  $6.5 million on ads spent by Americans for Prosperity, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and the anti-labor
   Center for Union Facts

• $4 million on ads spent by the Republican Governors Association's Right Direction Wisconsin PAC; only about $7,000 
   was raised in-state. The RGA got $1 million from David Koch in February. It's also received $500,000from the
   US Chamber of Commerce

Dark Money is just another tool in the Republican’s arsenal which is plunging America back into the dark days before
universal suffrage where citizens of countries were first allowed to vote regardless of ethnicity, or importantly regardless of property requirements or other measures of wealth. It is also worthy of note that although the concept of universal suffrage was born in the early 1800’s and that countries like the Pitcairn Island , Iceland, Franceville, New Zealand and
Australia started to implement universal suffrage.  Some of these countries virtually unknown and would be classified as ‘backward’ by their “first world” giants.  Further, US’s tiny neighbors in the Caribbean beginning in 1944 implemented
FULL suffrage where all adults vote.  US only jumped on board in 1965 in any meaningful way although – 
         “.. in 1870 the 15th Amendment granted suffrage to African Americans, and in 1920 the 19th Amendment
          extended the franchise to women many Southern States pro-actively disenfranchised black voters through
         poll taxation, literacy tests and bureaucratic loopholes. The Further enfranchisement was realized in 1965 with 
         the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the ratification of the
         24th Amendment in 1964.[18][19]  The 26th Amendment set the voting age to 18.”
             ~Wikipedia.

Still, after 127 years of other countries in the civilized world have implemented, Universal adult suffrage is still not established in the United States of America.  Currently in 2012 some categories of felons in 48 of 50 states are still excluded from voting although they have fully paid their debts as dictated by society. And the tug-o-war of the 1870’s, the 1920’s and the 1960’s is fresh today as it was way back then:
 
-    The poor of all ethnic groups targeted by virtue of social and economic inequalities which render some incapable of  "coughing up" the small amounts of money to apply for birth certificates to get their voter ID

-      Bureaucratic road blocks being implemented in many states with equivalent ramifications of the
        poll taxation,literacy tests of the 1920’s

-       Dis-enfranchisement of the Michigan electorate by the appointment of a State Manager whose terms of reference render duly elected commissioners, (representatives elected by the people to manage their affairs) powerless and useless. Those elected by the people in a democratic process hold no authority to make decisions to the  smallest
detail even to fix potholes in the State’s roads and highways.
 
 The final nail in the coffin of democracy and citizens rights is the infusion of DARK MONEY into the electoral system
where ONE MAN ONE VOTE is substituted for ONE DOLLAR ONE VOTE.

Americans will have to regain their consciousness and stop this before the Republicans plunge the country fully into the dark abyss of the 1700’s and erode and erase all the gains that civilization has defined as DEMOCRACY. 

By: David A. Franklin, Jr.

Walker is deceptive. He is in the pocket of that small group of greedy corporate Lords who together govern the
nation, for their own purposes. Walker joins them to force the working class to its knees.

It’s going to be a long day on Tuesday, June 5, 2012 for the good people of Wisconsin. Election fever is high with both sides jockeying for an advantageous position going into the election to recall their disgraceful Republican Governor Scott Walker.

To boot or not to boot---that is the $65,000 question?

Governor Walker has outspent his opponent, Mayor Tom Barrett, 25 to 1. Super PACs and billionaires, like Charles and David Koch, have contributed millions of dollars to retain the services of their less than incompetent stooge, Scott Walker. The lines are clearly drawn as venomous ads and scurrilous accusations fly freely from the Walker camp. They will stop at nothing to win this recall even if it means lying and manipulating the narrative. Have they no shame? Of course not!

These are some of the many reasons why Governor Scott Walker is dangerous for Wisconsin and must be recalled:

1) Wisconsin a right to work state: He single handedly, through Executive Order, signed into law that Wisconsin 
   should become a right to work State. The majority Republican State Legislature rammed through his Bill
   by proxy/voice vote. Tried to strip workers of Collective Bargaining Rights. Without that, Corporations have free reign
   to do whatever they want and workers would have to suck it up and live with it.

2) Slash Education Budget: He is ensuring that most Wisconsinites cannot compete for jobs or be employable
    by gutting Public Education funding to pay for tax breaks for corporations. This system ensures an uneducated job
    corps so he and his corporate bosses can pay below subsistence wages and only the top echelons who can afford
    to pay for education will be eligible for the top notch jobs. Another bullet point in his “Divide and conquer” plan.

3) Union Busting: He has openly trampled upon Worker’s Rights by Union busting. Walker ruthlessly-callously 
     attacked labor unions and collective bargaining at the behest of his puppeteers the Koch brothers. In March 2011 he 
    signed a bill that ended most union rights. His expressed thinking on the matter? The law would grow popular over 
    time!  He was caught taking the subservient bow to big campaign donor Dian Hendricks promising to turn Wisconsin 
    into a right to work state with his “Divide and conquer” plan.

4) Disenfranchised Poor Children: Cut half a billion dollars from Medicaid leaving some 30,000 poor kids without 
    Health Care coverage and at least another 65,000+ people would be adversely affected by these deep cuts in the 
    Health Budget.

5) Record Job Loss: Walker peddled his policies as a blueprint for job creation but his record is the opposite. The 
    Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Wisconsin losing far more jobs over the year April 2011 to April 2012 than any of 
    the other 49 States.  Rhode Island that experienced the second-largest amount of jobs lost , saw only 4,300 jobs lost 
    in the same time. For the full report go to http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/laus.pdf.

6) Killed High-Speed Rail Jobs in the GOP’s pledge to Kill America’s Future: He returned $800 million in federal   
     assistance to build high-speed train that would go between Milwaukee and Madison. This cost Wisconsinites 
    thousands of jobs and supported his oil rich puppeteers who are against green energy alternatives because of their 
    interest and need to keep America oil dependent

7) One of Grover Norquist’s Stooges: Scott Walker joined the band of comic losers in the  GOP who hook line and 
     sinker signed on to be stooges to the Norquist dictate against raising taxes under any circumstances. He and his     
     GOP colleagues have sold out the American electorate who voted them in to manage the nation’s affairs. They bow 
    to a buffoon (Norquist) who was not elected.  Even if the financial health of the nation is threatened - and it is.  
    Prevent any compromise. Cut spending but under no circumstance raise taxes on the wealthy which would ease 
    national debt.

8)  Voter Suppression: These Laws are enacted to be used during every election. But for the court ruling, they would 
     have been in play during the recall election. 
 
9) Most of Scott Walker’s Campaign Cash is from Out-Of-State Corporate Donors: These again include who can 
    guess?  The Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity.  He outspends his Democratic opponent by hundreds of 
    percentage points – some sources say as much as 25 to 1.

10) Support for Arizona’s draconian Immigration Law:  “I am disappointed by the federal judge’s ruling   
      to block Arizona’s right to enforce the rule of law without interference from the Federal government. As governor, I 
      will sign similar legislation to the Arizona Law to ensure the taxpayers of Wisconsin are not paying for benefits like 
     Badger Care and in state college tuition for people who are here illegally.” ~Scott Walker

It is make or break time in Wisconsin!
The Democratic National Committee is seen to have dropped the ball yet again, by entering into the fray with only days to go before the election. What does it take for the DNC to learn that if they don’t listen to the people, there will be a backlash against them and there will be hell to pay? It is good that they have come to their senses and are doing the best they can to see to it that Mayor Tom Barrett wins. Are the Democrats again snatching defeat from the jaws of certain victory? 

The majority in Wisconsin is sick and tired of being sick and tired. Although it will be close, it is my opinion that Walker’s Democratic opponent, Mayor Tom Barrett, will win. The voters will remember how humiliating it is with Walker as Governor.  How deceptive he is and will continue to be, and that he is in the pocket of that small group of greedy corporate Lords who together govern the nation, for their own purposes with whom Walker is joining
to force the working class to its knees.

The people need total transparency. Scott Walker, your time is up. Pack your bags and go! He is no good for Wisconsin. Power to the People every time! 
 
Scott Walker, I am listening for the words  ---YOU’RE FIRED!

By: David A. Franklin, Jr

Governor Mitt Romney has brought into question President Barack Obama’s character and integrity. This is a joke of a
man – Romney is.  He, more than anyone in the history of American presidential politics, does not have the moral authority to question anyone’s judgment on anything. His flip-flops are no longer a hobby but have become his
full-time occupation. He is the circus seal doing silly tricks and distracting the electorate with non-important issues that nobody cares about.

Jon Chait a writer for New Yorker magazine tries to defend and legitimize Romney’s propensity to lie and ends up talking Chait (sh*t).  He argues “He (Romney) says a lot of things that are obviously false and that he clearly knows to be false – particularly, but not exclusively, about his own record. But it’s not clear that this tells us anything about Romney’s character”. Isn’t that a load of Chait? Even his most avid defenders can’t dredge
up any explanation for this man’s sick personality that cannot be classified as convoluted stupidity!!

Mr. Chait continues to postulate that “It’s Romney’s bad luck that fate has dictated his only path to the presidency lies in being a huge liar. First, he was a Republican running in a heavily Democratic state, which forced him to shade his abortion views rightward, and present himself generally as moderate to progressive, ideologically. After having had to shade his views as far left as he could get away with to win in Massachusetts, he had to obtain the Republican nomination in 2008, making himself acceptable to a dramatically more conservative electorate. And then, four years later, he has had to make himself  acceptable to a Republican electorate that has moved further right still.”   Are we seeing the irony in this? In Mr. Sh*t’s (sorry Mr. Chait’s) effort to justify and show Romney as a good human being driven only by the insignificant desire to win at all or any cost he has effectively highlighted the man’s flaws with such meticulous detail. I truly believe his real intent is a parody, a satire to make fun of this ignoble man.

His own Republican cohorts themselves very depraved are saturated with Romney’s righteous indignation. On the one hand he heralds his exemplary family life, simultaneously he unabashedly lies.  His lack of care for anybody but himself
and humans of his choice or his callousness to other families whom he fires the bread winners without blinking, for people whom he likes to fire, for the poor he doesn’t care about.  A dead-beat dad is much better than this man! At
least the dead-beat dad is not around to show this type of example to his kids to unleash other uncaring bigots on society.

-   Newt Gingrich who is no paragon of virtue himself was forced to say Romney is a liar.  In one of Newt’s  
    campaign ad entitled “What kind of Man” he boldly states the man is “an untrustworthy, flip-flopping politician”. 
    “What kind of man would mislead, distort, and deceive just to win an election?” “This man would be Mitt 
     Romney”.

-   Rick Perry after the Michigan straw polls said “Mitt Romney has an integrity problem”

-   Mike Huckabee in the 2008 Presidential Primaries hit the nail on the head!  “If a man’s dishonest to get a job, he’ll 
    be dishonest on the job”

-   Mitch Daniels who has secured his place as co-captain of  the same boat as Mitt Romney as a liar (or maybe I am 
    being too harsh on Mitch - he might be just plain dumb, with all the lies (or inaccuracies?) he spouted in his rebuttal 
    to the President’s State of the Union address in January of 2012). Daniels claimed "Obama is interfering with 
    Americans’ lives” by dictating what light bulbs to use when the fact is this was passed under George W. Bush in 
    Congress in December 2007. Daniels presented misleading job statistics and more.. being either too dumb to
    occupy the position he holds or too lie to spurn a fellow liar, said to a question about being Mitt Romney’s running 
    mate -  “If I thought that call was coming, I would disconnect the phone”. Which is more charred---the pot or the 
    kettle?

And then there is the “Rev. Jeremiah Wright threat”.  Had the campaign materialize, that would be the Super PAC’s fault Romney would claim, (as he has done on previous occasions earlier in the Primaries) that he can do nothing about it. But watch it Mr. Integrity Romney, there are Super PACs on both side of the fence and had you gone there, you could not cry “foul” if something is aired concentrating on one of the things you are so scared to even mention, yes – your religion! Mormonism which your own conservatives call a Cult.  I would say “If you dare, bring it on sir”.    
 
Mitt Romney has urged Iowa voters to choose the candidate they can “trust to do the right thing”.  He went on to say “I think people have to look at their leader and say, ‘This is a person who I have confidence in and will tell me the truth, who will care for me and not just care for him or herself,’”.  “If a person is living by the things they are saying, it shows a degree of integrity – a unity between what one says and what one does. If leaders are saying one thing and doing another, their leadership is badly damaged.” From your lips to the voters’ ears you are on the campaign trial for President Obama because your lack of integrity, your pathological lying persona says your leadership in your own words is “badly damaged”. That is if you had any leadership quality in the first place.

I rest my case with a quote from an article “On Romney, Bain and Keeping Your  Integrity” by Dan McLaughlin, January 10, 2012: 

“But Mitt Romney’s record is just one endless sheet of thin ice as far as the eye can see – there’s no way to have any kind of confidence that we can tell people he stands for something today without being made fools of tomorrow. We who have laughed along with Jim Geraghty’s prescient point that every Obama promise comes with an expiration date will be the ones laughed at, and worse yet we will know the critics are right. Every time I try to talk myself into thinking we can live with him, I run into this problem.It’s one that particularly bedeviled Republicans during the Nixon years – many partisan Republicans loved Nixon because he made the right enemies and fought them without cease or mercy, but the man’s actual policies compromised so many of our principles that the party was crippled in the process even before Watergate. We can stand for Romney, but we’ll find soon enough that that’s all we stand for”.

Mitt Romney, do you remember the battle of Waterloo where Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated? You might not be facing your Watergate but you are certainly facing your Waterloo.

Look at the icon of integrity – Barak Obama. He is the example of a good father, a great family man, who says what he means and means what he says. Mitt Romney, you have neither character nor integrity. What is integrity? It means you have to be absolutely honest to yourself! So far, you have not been and you and your Republican Party will pay dearly come Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Contrary to popular belief, voting Americans, for the most part, are not
stupid.