I Can See Clearly Now
(Illustration: Beach Peanuts)
Last week Gov. Rick Scott announced he was joining domestic security officials to launch an "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign in Florida.
From his press release:
The initiative features a toll-free, statewide hotline and online reporting form for citizens to report suspicious activity.
“As we draw closer to the 10-year anniversary of 9-11, there is no better time to remember the many lives lost that day a decade ago, and to remind citizens of the need to remain vigilant,” said Governor Scott. “This is another tool that citizens and tourists can use to contact authorities when they witness something they know is out of place.”
Wake up and smell the irony, citizens of Florida!
Something was a tad suspicious and out of place just recently, but I can't quite put my finger on it.......oh that's right! The governor's transition e-mails! The ones which he literally can't put his fingers on because they were deleted. I guess that would fall under the "If You Can't See Something, We Must Have Deleted It" department?
Good thing Gov. Scott called for an investigation to find out how those e-mails got deleted during a "chaotic transition run by a largely out-of-state staff still learning Florida law"..........except that those conducting the investigation also happen to work for Scott. Gosh, I wonder how that will turn out? I'm guessing he'll release the "findings" soon, something like: "The e-mails were indeed "mistakenly" deleted, but it won't happen again" or they'll find the company which deleted them entirely at fault as a scapegoat.
The Florida Democratic Party in turn put out their own tongue and cheek press release highlighting several items:
Thursday, August 11th – Said individual lied to Floridians about the state’s credit rating.
Monday, August 16th (sic) - Florida Supreme Court ruled said individual violated the Florida Constitution by exceeding his authority.
Thursday, August 18th – Said individual lied to the Orlando Sentinel about the quality of state workers' health care.
Friday, August 19th – Said individual admits to deleting public record emails belonging to the citizens of the State of Florida.
Sunday, August 28th – Said individual admitted to knowing about public record destruction four months before acknowledging the law had been broken.
We appreciate your attention to this very serious matter.
The ACLU came out to criticize the governor, saying: the program will inevitably result in profiling and spurious tips:
"These turn in your neighbor programs produce unreliable information and are little more than a government sponsored invitation to view everyone as a potential criminal and act on racial and ethnic stereotypes," Simon said in a statement. [Howard Simon, executive director ACLU Florida]
Bailey rejected that. [Gerald Bailey, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner]
"When it comes to suspicious activity, it's not a particular type of person you're going to be looking for, but behavior," Bailey said.
That would be the same Gerald Bailey charged with investigating Rick Scott's missing transition e-mails. Potential conflict of interest anyone?
The head of FDLE, Gerald M. Bailey, is employed at the will of Scott and the Cabinet. That relationship could pose a conflict for the department's investigation, [Alex] Sink said. Sink, a former state CFO, lost the governor's race to Scott in November.
"This is outrageous," Sink said. "Clearly there were laws broken. There should be an independent investigation into why these transition e-mail disappeared into thin air."
If Bailey defends Scott on the new program, will he also defend Scott in the deleted e-mail investigation?
What about the hypocritical behavior we see on an almost daily basis? Here's another revelation too recent to make the "list" from the Democratic Party: Scott will tell you that demands to cut spending means "making the tough choices," which translates to cuts in everything from education to unemployment benefits.
In the latest controversy from the governor's office, you probably won't be surprised to learn that as Scott and the Legislature "tightened your belt" and gave tax cuts to big businesses, he also recently blew nearly $80k on renovations to spruce up his new chief of staff's office and Scott's executive suites, courtesy of the taxpayer. This "makeover" was for a new chief of staff who Scott values to the tune of $189k a year. Rather than taking a 3 percent cut in salary like other state workers, Steve MacNamara gets a 26 percent raise over the last guy. Scott's known for generous salaries for his staff, and MacNamara's even tops those in states like Texas, New York and even California. (Almost brings to mind another scandolous adventure in high-end decorating: the Taj Mahal courthouse in Tallahassee.)
So many other examples are so well known and egregious there's no need to "say something." He's just getting started on his four years of austerity fame: Medicare Fraud, health care cuts, high-speed rail. Drug testing welfare recipients, blocking food stamps from a blind woman, cutting unemployment benefits. Killing jobs, slashing education, cutting insurance regulations.
Scott gets state health care at a discount, thanks to taxpayers.
While you sit in traffic for hours on end, Scott breezes over head in his own private plane, avoiding both gridlock on the highway AND the Commision Of Ethics.
In the event of a catastrophic hurricane, Scott has a back up roof stashed away in storage. Don't you?
One almost wonders if he got the idea for "If you see something, say something" from one of several groups out there who already do so, like Awake The State, Pink Slip Rick, and It Gets Worse, just to name a few.
Why stop with the governor's office? There's plenty of "suspicious behavior" to scrutinize elsewhere in Florida government. There's an almost endless supply of "see something, say something" to go around.
How about the Florida Legislature's redistricting roadshow? There are town hall meetings where you can certainly "say something," but Legislators won't, and you'll see no maps.
The Legislature? Where do we start? Just try and name a Republican that has no scandal attached to their name.
There are so many chapters from the Adventures Of Mike Haridopolos that you could write a book! In fact, just to keep them all straight, Progress Florida has devoted an entire website, DirtyHari.org, to documenting them all.
Don't forget BondiGate, the foreclosure investigations and firings by the Florida Attorney General.
The list goes on and on. So much to say, so much to see, and probably so much more we aren't even aware of. Yet.
Three years to go in the Rick Scott Administration and counting....