Beach Peanuts

Rick Scott's Fractured Reelection Fairy Tale

"Once Upon A Time In Paradise Lost"

It's hard to say when exactly Rick Scott began his campaign for reelection, as he's been in campaign mode since his election. That's understandable I suppose, given that his approval numbers have barely seen daylight. Still, his reelection sales pitch is up and running......into the ground along with those poll numbers:

Speaking to Republicans in one of Florida’s most heavily Democratic counties, Gov. Rick Scott tonight said the GOP should win every election if Republicans do a better job of telling their story to voters.

Putting aside the fact that Scott was preaching to the choir here, I say go ahead and give us the sales pitch Gov. Scott. Do tell us the Republican story. Give it your best shot.

“I have not met one Floridian that should be anything but a Republican,” said Scott.

Forgive me, but I've got to interrupt the narrative right here for a moment. If Scott has "not met one Floridian that should be anything but a Republican" that's probably because Republicans are the only people he talks to. He simply ignores anyone who isn't, ignores anyone who disagrees with him, and ignores their needs to boot. But please, do go on:

The GOP is the party of job creators, Scott said, and he said it should also be the party of people who rely on government social programs.

“Let’s say that you need a safety net,” Scott said. “Let’s say you need unemployment insurance or you need something to take care of you while times are hard before you get back on your feet, whether that’s health care, whether that’s unemployment insurance, whatever it is. Who pays for it? People that have jobs. So if you need anything from the government, any government, you should absolutely be a Republican because it won’t be there if it wasn’t for people who had jobs and build businesses.”

Wow. OK, let's unpack this, shall we? First, are we really going to continue this "job creator" charade? Because that argument has been debunked so often that no one really buys it anymore. While Scott may feel he has to rely on it because he's busy handing out tax breaks to any big corporation that so much as sneezes in his direction, it's hogwash, pure and simple. (And no, that's not a Disney World "work sick or else" pun, but more on that later.) If this were true, Florida wouldn't have an unemployment problem.

Second, that next comment is the most jarring statement he's made yet. I'm not sure how or why, exactly, Scott claims the GOP could possibly be the party of the voter who relies on a social safety net. Nationally the party favors the Paul Ryan budget, whose only provision for a safety net is scissors to cut it with, cuts that perhaps Ayn Rand herself might have thought were a tad severe, given her own reliance on them.

Beyond that, let's examine how Scott has addressed the other safety nets and social programs in his sales pitch. Unemployment insurance? Scott cut those benefits off early for Floridians. Heath care? Seriously. I don't even have to explain the absurdity of that comment.

To say that none of those things would be there if not for big business "Who pays for it?" Please. Aside from the fact that many employers these days don't offer health insurance benefits or cut hours to avoid having to provide them, what jobs would those be? Rick "Let's-Get-To-Work" Scott hasfallen rather short on his job creation promises, which is why he's no longer using that particular slogan. No matter how many times Scott rolls out the "big businesses create jobs" nonsense, there's little return on those forced tax break investments courtesy of Florida taxpayers. Many of those very beneficiaries took the tax cuts and ran, and yet Scott is still handing them out like Santa Claus at a Koch brothers Christmas Party. 

Scott's little narrative is ridiculous on its face. If his claim that he as a Republican "savior" of the people were serious, there are things he could do to prove it right now.

He could veto HB 655, the ALEC "kill-shot" that would end hopes of paid sick days for employees of Disney World and other employers.

He would call for a special session to expand Medicaid, which he opposed until he was forced to embrace it earlier in the year. The legislature ended this year's session without doing anything towards that end, and yet Gov."Now-I-Loves-Me-Some-Medicaid" has shown he really doesn't. He's been silent ever since he chose to embrace it as a political football. I predicted that he seized it as a chance to have his cake and eat it too: Pretend he favored it while knowing the legislature would never go for it, giving him political cover. He can't pull it off though because he's just as bad an actor as he is a governor.

Sorry Gov. Scott, but this just isn't going to cut it. Your ability to snow the voters reflects in your poll numbers. The notion that Floridians should not be "anything other than a Republican" just because you say so doesn't wash, and that's not going to change even if you do a better job of narrating the Republican fairy tale. Because this is the story you're telling others in the party behind closed doors, which worked so well for Mitt Romney when he tried it:

“It’s in their best interest. There’s nobody that shouldn’t be a Republican. If they’re not, it’s our fault. It’s our fault that we’re not telling our story.”

It's your fault all right, but telling the story better isn't the problem. It's the story itself. Floridians don't have to be told your story, they're living it, and suffering for it. They reject it and the GOP, and they can't wait to prove it to you at the polls in 2014. 

The. End.

"Buycott" Makes Boycotting Koch, ALEC, As Easy As Scanning A Barcode

Last year when I was attending Netroots Nation, Darcy Burner, then a candidate for Congress, spoke of an idea she had that was pretty exciting for anyone who is painfully aware of the Koch brothers far reaching influence over politics and consumers. She had an idea for an app that would make it easier for consumers to avoid buying products with any ties to Koch Industries. Burner, a former programmer for Microsoft, had a mock interface that she hoped to build on.

Now it appears she was unaware there was already a group trying to develop a similar idea, and it's just been introduced.

Called Buycott, the app is pretty amazing in all that it can do. I downloaded it as soon as I heard about it, and it's pretty impressive. (I wasn't the only one who thought so. The developers have had some problems keeping up with demand.)

Not only can you "join" campaigns as per your interests, like sustainable and local food initiatives, those which allow you to avoid plastic bottles, and the big favorites like avoiding products made by Koch Industries, Monsanto, and even any with ties to ALEC. (The American Legislative Exchange Council.)

For instance, say you want to join a campaign that demands GMO (genetically modified organisms)
food labeling. Once you join, you can read more linked details about the campaign. If you touch "focus"
on the app toolbar, it calls up an extensive list of companies to avoid who donated more than $150,000 to oppose GMO labeling in California. Select Cargill, Inc. for instance, and you'll see a "family tree" option at the bottom. Touch that and up pops the company tree. There you'll see that Diamond Crystals and Truvia products, among others, are two of the brands you can refrain from purchasing. You can also use the integrated social media to Tweet or share information on Facebook.

Say you're out shopping for paper products and want to know if a certain brand of paper towels is a product from one of the campaigns you've joined. Choosing the scanner on the bottom allows you to scan the barcode in just seconds, and it will tell you if it's a brand to avoid. Scan a package of Brawny paper towels and it will trace back up the family tree to show you it's made by Georgia Pacific, which is part of Koch Industries.

Since company information is always changing and new products come on the market, the app also lets you add unknown products by scanning them. You can contribute information and contacts that you discover and add them to the Buycott database. 

Of course another great thing about the app, it's free! The only problem that I can see with it so far is that you may have difficulty finding brands you CAN buy, depending on how many campaigns you're following. Between Koch, Monsanto, and ALEC, just to name a few, their industry and product range is vast and encompassing. You'll have to do your homework and shop around to find products to reward companies who share your views, but this app sure makes it a lot easier.

 

 

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While Most Talked, He Took Action Against Oil Drilling

(Note: In May of 2010, not long after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I met and interviewed the founder of Hands Across The Sand, Dave Rauschkolb, in Seaside, FL. I wrote about Rauschkolb and the story behind what inspired his organization on my original blog site. This weekend begins Hands Across The Sand's fourth year holding what are now global events in protest of offshore oil drilling, (Locate a local event near you here.) and in honor of that I'm re-posting my original piece on Rauschkolb below.)

Dave Rauschkolb, Founder of “Hands Across The Sand”

(Photo: Martha Jackovics)

May 21, 2010

It’s been over a month since the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11, injured many others and caused the still gushing oil “spill” that threatens to devastate wildlife, along with the fishing and tourism industry in Florida.

Aside from a lot of political posturing in the past over the issue of oil drilling in the Gulf Of Mexico, not much was done about it beyond talk.

What did it take to get people’s attention? Probably the fact that most recent evidence places the oil plumes in the “loop current” in the Gulf, which will eventually carry the oil into the Florida Keys and then on around South Florida, into the Atlantic where most say it will likely land on beaches in Palm Beach County first.

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to head up to the Florida Panhandle where I met people who live and work where, at the time, most thought the oil was headed next. I talked to people whose entire livelihoods were, and still are at stake.

One of those people I met was a man who didn’t just talk about it. He actually did something about it, and he did it long before the BP disaster unfolded.

Last summer, the Florida House passed bill #1219 which lifted the ban on near shore oil drilling in the Gulf Of Mexico, which allowed drilling to take place as close as ten miles off the coast of Florida. The bill first came to the attention of restaurant owner Dave Rauschkolb in Seaside, FL during a meet and greet at his restaurant with Florida House candidate David Pleat. Rauschkolb said that Pleat explained in layman’s terms what actually was proposed in the bill.

“What they were really asking for was carte blanche to give them a free ticket to drill anywhere they wanted three to ten miles off shore and that would also give the county jurisdiction from the waterline to three miles. The county said they could run pipelines wherever they wanted” Rauschkolb explains. “I was knocked back on my heels.”

At the end of Pleat’s explanation Rauschkolb “got this flash of an idea” that went beyond merely writing to legislators in opposition.

“Earlier I had said “we need to draw a line in the sand over this” and that kept running through my head. I looked at my wife and I said “I know what we can do.” I got this simple idea to have Floridians go to the beaches, join hands and create human lines in the sand to protest this legislation and try to convince legislators to drop this proposal.”

Rauschkolb’s ”flash of an idea” became a now familiar environmental awareness movement in Florida called “Hands Across The Sand.”

Hands Across the Sand is a movement made of people of all walks of life and crosses political affiliations. This movement is not about politics; it is about protection of our shoreline, our waterways, our tourism, our coastal military missions and our valuable properties. Let us share our knowledge, energies and passion for protecting all of the above from the devastating effects of oil drilling.

The idea was simple: Go to an event beach at the appointed time for one hour, rain or shine, join hands for ten minutes forming a “line in the sand” against oil drilling in coastal waters, and leave only footprints behind.

Rauschkolb went to work on the idea and designed a website, a 30 second radio commercial and a newspaper ad. The website was subsequently contributed by CYber SYtes in Panama City Beach, and posters were designed by local artists as well as T-Shirts that were given away free of charge.

Before long e-mails started to come in, and in just two months Rauschkolb says “we had 80 beaches organized from Jacksonville Beach to Miami and from Key West up to Pensacola.” Thousands of Floridians joined hands at he first “Hands Across The Sand” event that took place on February 13, 2010. “The largest group was in the Tampa, St. Petersburg Beach area with around 3,000 people. In Seaside, where Rauschkolb owns and operates his restaurant“Bud & Alley’s” there were 500.

Talking to Rauschkolb just over two weeks after the BP oil spill, he speaks about his frustration over President Obama’s stand on oil drilling. “ I knew the moment (Obama) said the word “Oil” in his State Of the Union address that he was throwing a bone to the Republicans. I counted how many times he said “clean energy,” 12 or 15 times. He mentioned oil once.” A strong signal in Rauschkolb’s mind that “this is something that is not near and dear to his heart.”

“To me after this spill, it’s going to be awfully difficult for those pro-drilling politicians in Florida to wash oil from their hands and I can’t imagine that (Florida Republicans) Dean Cannon and Mike Haridopolos will continue this folly and bring this legislation back to Floridians in the next session after the election. So I’m imploring them to stop it and stop it now. I’m hoping in the near future they will come out and say they’re dropping the legislation for good.”

“So many politicians like Sarah Palin and John Boehner are just drilling themselves a hole into oblivion in my opinion and I hope they stay down there. They can live with the oil as far as I’m concerned. I’ve lived here since 1970 and it’s one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been. I’ve made my life here, I’ve raised my family here and this is a very special place.  It’s the natural beauty of this place and the fact that 30% of our seafood comes from the Gulf.”

Rauschkolb becomes emotional at the thought of what could become of the community where he’s made his home for 24 years.

“Florida beaches are America’s beaches and they should hold them dear. I’m sorry, but drilling should not be occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, period. The Gulf should be a national park. It’s an abomination that our seafood industry is going to be destroyed for a very long time, and that entire coastal economies and ecosystems are about to be devastated. No one industry should have that kind power because of their mistakes.”

“Perhaps destiny will determine through this accident which way our country goes.”

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Hands Across The Sand Protests Begin Their Fourth Year This Weekend

(Photo: Hands Across The Sand)

Hands Across The Sand held it's first protest against offshore oil drilling in Florida on February 13, 2010 when 10,000 Floridians representing 60 towns and cities and over 90 beaches joined hands to protest the efforts by the Florida Legislature and the US Congress to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling. 

Four years later, the organization is still going strong, and this weekend they'll hold their statewide event at beaches all over the state.

In May of 2010, after the BP oil spill, I met and interviewed the founder of Hands Across The Sand, Dave Rauschkolb, in Seaside, FL. I wrote about Rauschkolb and the story behind what inspired his organization on my original blog site, where I later wrote and covered the oil spill on a trip to the Panhandle not long after the disaster began.

In honor of the fourth year of Hands Across The Sand protests, I'll be re-posting that original piece on Dave Rauschkolb here tomorrow.

In the meantime, head over to his site to locate an event near you this weekend.

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