I've been on vacation this week and in spite of otherwise good intentions, I haven't managed to write a blog post. But then that's what being on vacation is about, right? That being said, I will continue with my vacation next week, and will conclude the week with my annual trip to Netroots Nation in San Jose next weekend. I'll have plenty to catch up and write on when I return, although I will still try to work in a post here and there this week, time and available Wi-Fi permitting.
One post I would have written if I had more time concerned an action by Gov. Rick Scott, which I only learned of late today. He signed two bills that many were urging him to veto: The bill that will allow for faster executions and less time for those convicted to appeal. Given that Florida has a habit of putting the innocent to death, this is unconscionable.
The second bill he signed was a bill banning sick pay. This law was brought to you by ALEC and came at the urging of Disney and Darden Restaurants, and as usual in Florida, when it's the lobbyists and corporations against hard working Floridians, the latter always loses. Add to that a Governor who shows utter contempt for the people of Florida, and the little guy has virtually no chance. Again.
So just before jetting off to Paris on Friday, Scott signed both bills into law. No doubt he signed them while enjoying some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Well, with that, I'm off. If any of you out there will be attending Netroots Nation, feel free to drop me a message on Twitter or Facebook and maybe I'll see you there. I will be back in a week, and let's hope that without Scott being in town, Florida's still in one piece when I return.
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.
Florida Watch Action will be protesting the potential sale of the Orlando Sentinel and other Tribune Company newspapers to the Koch Brothers in Orlando this afternoon.
The “billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch have bought more politicians, think tanks, colleges and universities, and media outlets than you can shake a stick at," the group says in a promotion of the planned protest outside the Sentinel set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
"And their tentacles of influence are spreading further," the group said. "Now they are trying to purchase eight daily newspapers, including the Orlando and Sun Sentinel, to further their libertarian anti-government, anti-union agenda.”
“A sale transaction is only one of our possible strategic options, and there are many others.”
The Koch Brothers caused a similar stir when they began funding at Florida State University, funding that was subject to their approval of chosen professors, even though they claimed they would have no agenda or economics influence over the curriculum. They also fund the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans for Prosperity, Tea Party groups and the Cato Institute.
If they were to buy the newspapers in Florida, it would push much of the news influence far to the right, especially in the I-4 corridor, the more progressive part of the state. As Progress Florida puts it, it would be tantamount to a Tea Party takeover of Florida news:
The Koch Brothers are chief architects and funders of the extreme right wing political machine. They're behind corporate front group "think tanks" like the Heritage Foundation and the CATO Institute. The Kochs are also the largest funders of the Tea Party movement and are notorious peddlers of falsehoods about Medicare, Social Security, worker’s rights, climate change, and more.
It's important that local newspapers like the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel remain unbiased sources of reliable news, not as propaganda outlets for the Koch Brothers' extreme ideological machine. But if the Koch Brothers are allowed to purchase the Tribune Company, that is exactly what will happen.
There's a reason why freedom of the press is mentioned in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The health of our democracy is based on a well-informed citizenry. The Koch Brothers' attempt to subvert local media is a direct attack on this fundamental foundation of our country.
Do you like some of the bills that didn't pass in the Florida legislature this year? How about previous years?
The legislators share credit for bad legislation with ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). After all, ALEC is doing most of the work. Many Florida leaders in turn really "work" for ALEC, not Floridian voters, and they're paid handsomely for it.
You can see examples of much of their model legislation here. If you spend some time there you'll see a lot of bills that will look familiar to you if you've followed the legislature the past few years.
This comes after a long fight between workers who only want what's fair, and "Big Mickey" and other businesses who pocket huge profits at the expense of those workers who already forego benefits.
While legislators pat themselves on the back and claim victory, this was also a victory for ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) who are behind a larger push for “preemption bills,” laws that override any efforts to implement paid sick days, and write the laws that Florida legislators "adopt" as their own. For them it's as easy as "cut and paste." They do little work at all to pass it, and reap rewards from those businesses, while the workers who will suffer from it work long hours in return for very little.
The bill now goes to Gov. Rick Scott's desk for his signature, but he should veto it. For once he should actually "do the right thing" rather than merely using the phrase as a campaign slogan.
Call Gov. Scott and ask him to REALLY "do the right thing" and veto HB655.
Conservative Republicans claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility, and yet Rick Scott threw away taxpayer dollars along with stimulus money and the promise of jobs when he rejected high-speed rail, a project that was years in the making. That money is now in California, where Floridians will have to go if they want to experience a ride on the rails after it's completed.
Republicans in the Florida legislature are also poised to throw away more of those tax dollars when they likely will do nothing about Medicaid after turning down federal dollars to expand it in Florida for those who really need it.
And all because President Obama favored both.
They also profess to hate "big government," and yet one of their latest moves has them wearing their hypocrisy on their sleeves, and they don't seem to care if Floridians who are flailing desperately in this economy know it, simply because they have the power to say "no."
Last Friday the Senate passed a bill that will prevent local governments from enacting their own sick-time policies for workers. Because nothing says "small government" like a bunch of Republicans stepping in to block the will of the locals when big businesses whine over having to give employees paid time off when they're sick.
Now the bill goes back to the House, where they'll have to act on it by May 3.
The sick-time battle in Florida has been a long, drawn out struggle between activists, voters, employees, and big businesses who have fought against them from the get go. When voters finally won the latest battle to get a sick-time measure on the ballot, along came the Republicans in the legislature who stepped in on behalf of large employers who are against it, like Darden Restaurants, the owners of Red Lobster and The Olive Garden, Walt Disney World, and of course, on the behalf of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
"We cannot have a patchwork of local governments trying to impose upon private employers a set of requirements for employee benefits,' said Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, who is carrying the Senate version of the bill. "This is a situation that cries out for uniformity across the state."
Supporters in both chambers have argued the Orange fight has inspired them to at least temporarily preempt the "patchwork" of local government sick- and medical-leave policies in order to provide "certainty" to businesses.
This lends a bit of certainty to employees as well: The certainty that unless they want to lose their jobs, they'll be showing up every day, sick or not.
Representatives for MomsRising.org attempted to deliver the letter, signed by more than 6,000 people demanding Disney stop working to block earned sick time initiatives in Florida to the Disney Team Resources building yesterday. A spokesperson for Walt Disney World informed the moms that they would not be allowed to deliver their letter and asked that they leave the premises.
That's right, the "happiest place on earth" does not extend that emotion to their employees, and just like magic, they want to make that letter disappear.
There's no shortage of villains in this story. Helping the Republicans out in the fight is another group who professes to subscribe to "small government" policies, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), who write the legislation for lawmakers in the first place. ALEC has had an active role in the sick-time fight as well through "preemption bills" like this one, and in addition to Florida, similar model legislation has been "written" in New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Mississippi.
ALEC does the bidding for their funders like the Koch brothers, and for their members. Darden Restaurants was an ALEC board member until this month, when they claimed to have cut ties with ALEC. Disney is not listed as a member. Of course, just because they aren't technically members, it doesn't mean they won't benefit from any ALEC legislation passed by the Florida GOP in the legislature.
The theory behind paid sick-leave is that it would drive up costs for companies who provide it, but studies have shown this not to be true. Forcing employees to work when they're sick, or give up pay if they can't, is bad for business, not only for a decrease in productivity, but time and money spent on turnover, especially when the same companies don't want to pay decent wages or provide benefits. It's also bad for business when you consider the potential to spread an illness to customers.
How many would want to be served a meal by a sick service worker given the choice? How many tourists coming to Disney World would want themselves and their children to be exposed to something easily passed on to them by a hug-friendly life-sized Disney cast member? When it comes to contagious illness, you could say it's a small world, after all.
The Florida GOP can say they're for "small government" all they want, but this is really a big government overreach that's also bad for big business and tourism.
Today Rick Scott boasted that AT&T would be expanding in Florida, and that expansion would bring 350 jobs to the state. To some that may sound like good news.
Utility rates in Florida are regulated by the Public Service Commission. Commissioners are appointed by the governor and then confirmed by the State Senate, which should keep leaders totally independent.
But 9 Investigates found in practice, there's often just one degree of separation between regulators who set the rates you pay and the powerful utilities they regulate.
Other winners: AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies, who saw taxes on communication services slashed anywhere from $35 million to $300 million per year.
AT&T, which has 74 Florida lobbyists, spent $1.68 million on lobbying last year, more than any other company.
AT&T is also a member of ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), which writes model legislation that many in the legislature copy and paste into laws, and SPN (State Policy Network) which then "spins" misinformation to the public about how swell companies like AT&T are. (For a full list of Florida legislators who are ALEC members, click here.)
Oh, the ties that bind and propel Rick Scott and the legislature through that giant revolving door in Tallahassee...
So while AT&T may well be adding jobs that allow Scott to brag, consumers and employees pay the price one way or another. Amazingly, Scott thinks they, and the rest of the voters will reward him for that with a second term in 2014.
And speaking of Carroll: Ex-Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll speaks out again, and claims she had no idea law enforcement was investigating a veterans charity accused of running illegal slot machine-style casinos until two agents walked into her office last month. OK....
Kathy Castor heads to Cuba: With U.S.-Cuba relations on the cusp of potentially significant change, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor arrived in Havana on Wednesday night for meetings she hopes will enhance social ties and business opportunities for the Tampa Bay area.
David Koch, Fleeing The Press At The RNC, Tampa 2012
(Photo: Martha Jackovics)
If you've read the GOP's "autopsy" of their losses in the 2012 election (re-branded as the "Growth and Opportunity Project") but haven't come to the conclusion that it's mostly nonsense just yet, this could do it for you.
One of the things that stood out for me was a small section buried in the Campaign Finance, and State Campaign and Finance Laws and Regulations recommendations. It's just a couple of sentences, but it's in conflict with a majority of the other recommended policies in the report. Or rather, what they would have people believe they want to do to woo voters.
3. Model legislation should be developed by interested organizations and state legislative leaders to improve state campaign finance laws. Organizations such as the RNC, the RSLC, and ALEC may wish to take a leading role. To turn ideas to action nationwide, experts should develop model statutes that can be replicated across states.
The two paragraphs are identical, almost as if they were a cut and paste job from something like, oh, I don't know, an ALEC "model" maybe?
If you're not already familiar with ALEC, that's the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is the corporate funded group who work with lobbyists and conservative politicians to write the "model legislation" that legislators then bring home to their states and pass into law. They get a large amount of their funding from the Koch brothers. (I've written more about them and their involvement in Florida here, here, here, here, here, and here, just to link a few of those posts.) ALEC has brought Florida laws like the Stand Your Ground gun law, election laws, and were behind many of the Amendments on the 2012 ballot. That's just a small sample.
ALEC largely operated in secret, and many elected officials passing off their cut and paste legislation did too. But when ALEC's behind the scenes operations were exposed to a little sunlight, corporations who had quietly worked with them began getting push back from activists, angry consumers and voters. Many of them quit working with ALEC because of it.
But there are plenty of those who still work with ALEC, lawmakers, and work "for" Koch, and not in the best interest of voters and consumers.
According to the GOP's new recommendations, they're practically saying they are fully prepared to hand over governing to ALEC, and the Koch's for a price. No more secret dealings. They're indicating right there in black and white for everyone to see that they're willing to sell out the country. "ALEC may wish to take a leading role?" There's no "may" about it. They want the whole ball game and the GOP knows that. They've already made a big investment as it is.
Shamelessly outsourcing "Democracy." Welcome to the GOP's real model for America.
It's not like many of us weren't already aware that it was really the Koch brothers and corporate America who were pulling our elected officials strings, but this is blatant. It's like the GOP is saying: "Yeah, you actually elected the Koch brothers, corporations and lobbyists, and guess what? From now on we're just going to cut to the chase and hand everything over to them for a price. We're going to let them write any old law they want. Hey, it's not like we work for a living anyway, and we certainly don't know what we're doing. Now excuse us while we jet off for another taxpayer funded vacation." Boom. No pretense about it anymore.
And of course, who is behind a lot of the laws and policies that earned the Republican Party losses in the last few elections? That's right, all of the above.
So while they claim they're going to change their ways and tinker with their policies and their messaging, the biggest "message" of all is really contained in that one little paragraph found on pages 69 and 97. Combined with even more leeway in campaign finance laws, that pretty much cancels out the rest of the report as merely window dressing.
Americans For Prosperity, the Koch funded so-called "grassroots" Tea Party group may have lost Rick Scott on the Medicaid expansion issue last week, but they still had plenty of cards to play in the Florida legislature. By "cards," I of course mean members who have ties to ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, also funded in part by the Koch brothers. ALEC is the group that writes legislation that it passes on to lawmakers in cookie cutter form, which is basically copied, pasted, and passed into law in whatever state it goes to.
Yesterday, AFP got part of their wish when the Florida House Select Committee on PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), led by House Speaker Will Weatherford (R-ALEC), voted to reject the Medicaid expansion before today's legislative session began.
Of the reasons given for the rejection, some sounded extremely familiar in comparison to AFP's objections to Medicaid, as shown on their website. They even penned a press release commending Weatherford and the committee for seeing it their way. In that release, entitled "The Florida House Got It Right: Reject Medicaid Expansion, AFP wrote this:
Today, the Florida House of Representatives’ Select Committee on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act voted to reject Medicaid expansion.
Americans for Prosperity’s Florida State Director Slade O’Brien commented:
“I applaud the Florida House’s decision to reject Medicaid expansion and urge the Florida Senate to follow their lead. The majority of House members agreed that expanding the costly and broken Medicaid system is not the correct way to provide quality healthcare for Floridians, and that the financial risks associated with expansion are far too great to force on the taxpayers.”]
[Mr. O’Brien continued, “Floridians demand opposition to the expansion of the broken Medicaid program and the Florida House of Representatives has agreed. Expanding this costly program would increase costs for everyone and force a million people into a failing system that provides subpar healthcare services. I can’t believe that the Florida Senate would be willing to expand Medicaid now despite the huge financial burden it will create for future generations of Floridians. This is not a decision that can be made in a vacuum — the future costs of expanding Medicaid today will have a devastating impact on the welfare of our state, our children and our grandchildren.”
Weatherford echoed that sentiment in his statement on the rejection, saying:
“I am proud of the thoughtful, thorough and deliberative approach that our Select
Committee took on the important issues related to Medicaid expansion and health
exchanges. I received their recommendations and agree that expanding Medicaid and
setting up a state exchange is not in the best interest of our state. We simply cannot count
on the federal government to pay 100 percent of the cost for expansion. The facts show
that healthcare costs will go up for many Floridians, while access to and quality of
healthcare will go down. The 'all or nothing' approach that the Obama administration is
offering will not work for our state. I know there will be continued discussion about this
matter, and I look forward to exploring better policies for our state.”
Weatherford cites that "the facts show" their reasons for the rejection are correct, but he doesn't say what those facts are, nor where he got them. When the actual legislation comes out, those "facts" will probably look very similar to the ones on this list from the AFP website: The Top Ten Reasons Florida Should Reject Medicaid Expansion. We've already heard several from the Capitol already when Rick Scott and others recited them. AFP also makes the claims that they speak for Floridians who feel the same way, and cite polls from like minded think tanks that show this. They also have ready made letters to send legislators and "facts" to convince followers that accepting Medicaid would be the ultimate power grab, disaster, and things of that nature, because that's what AFP does. You, "grassroots" and all.
Below is the Florida House Select Committee on PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) members who voted on the rejection. The members that we know of with ties to ALEC are in bold:
Corcoran, Richard [R] Chair
Hudson, Matt [R] Vice Chair
Schwartz, Elaine J. [D] Democratic Ranking Member
Cummings, W. Travis [R]
Dudley, Dwight Richard [D]
Harrell, Gayle B. [R]
Jones, Mia L. [D]
Magar, MaryLynn "ML" [R] Nelson, Bryan [R]
Passidomo, Kathleen C. [R]
Pigman, Cary [R]
Roberson, Kenneth L. "Ken" [R]
Rodríguez, José Javier [D]
Stark, Richard [D]
Thurston, Jr., Perry E. [D] Trujillo, Carlos [R]
Wood, John [R]
ALEC is well known for working to undercut health care reform as well as AFP, as seen in this report.
As fast as Republicans moved to vote against the expansion, you can almost bet the bills against it will be written up just as quickly, because after all, for those legislatures that work with ALEC, we know the legislators who push them have little to do with the paperwork beyond cutting and pasting the minor details. Sometimes, if they're lucky, they even remember to remove "American Legislative Exchange Council" before presenting them.
