Beach Peanuts

Gov. Rick Scott Kept Official State Email Account Off Public Records Site

Propaganda Machine?

Because Florida Gov. Rick Scott began his term by deleting his transition emails due to "an error," his announcement last May that he was making his emails public on a website called "Project Sunburst" all in the name of "transparency," the news was met with a certain amount of skepticism.

As it turns out, there was good reason to be skeptical.

If you've ever spent any time perusing those emails as I have, you noticed a couple of things. The emails tended to be random and spotty at best, and there was rarely much in the way of follow ups. Now, that last one isn't really that surprising. Most news accounts involving the governor end with "Scott was not available for comment" or "calls to the governor's office were not returned." The other thing you notice about the emails is how overwhelmingly positive they are. Page after page are filled with subject headings like "Stand Strong," or "We Support You!" and "Thank You!" Normally that might not seem too unusual, but with a governor as unpopular as Rick Scott you would expect more than a little "negative feedback."

And what subject was most notable among the emails of support? An overwhelming amount of encouragement favoring Scott's recent new-found interest in "voter roll integrity."

Who knew Scott's voter purge was so popular?

On Monday, reporters from The Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times questioned the "unrealistically high percentage of favorable emails on the public database." The governor's office subsequently issued a statement, admitting to the use of two separate email accounts. Email from Scott's official state account weren't posted on the public records site. Instead they posted mail from another email account, this one for an email address given mostly to Scott's "conservative supporters:"

It also announced that it would phase out the address which Scott solely used to respond to email. That email address — which was not on any official state website — appears on many Tea Party websites across the state, under the heading “Governor Rick Scott’s email.”

“Effective this week, emails sent or received using the official website contact form will also be added to the Sunburst system,” said Scott spokesman Brian Burgess, who emphasized that the governor’s emails are always available through a public records request.

Other "supportive emails" from the website were over the current controversy involving Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll who also has a secondary account that’s not listed on state websites. According to the Bradenton Herald, the dual-email strategy has already impacted media coverage for both Scott and Carroll:

Reporters—acting at the urging of Scott—have relied on the Sunburst database rather than filing a public records request for official emails. Several reporters have used those emails to gauge public sentiment on a host of issues, and the informal reviews have returned skewed results in favor of the governor.

Several people who were present when the initiative was announced by Scott’s former chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, said they had no idea that it only included the governor’s unpublished account. That was never mentioned during the press conference.

“It was always my understanding that all of the governor’s email accounts were going to be listed,” said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation. “I find it very odd and misleading that we’re only getting the [positive] stuff.”

Scott and his staff have also used other measures to "promote" the voter purge, using the public to do so through Facebook and Twitter. Earlier this month the Republican Party of Florida used party funds to promote the purge in emails from Scott to his supporters, asking "Will you help me share this victory for Florida voters?"

Still, Scott's office is defending the Project Sunburst website, saying:

It's “most transparent public records system in Florida state government,” and they say Scott’s official state account was not displayed because of concern for the privacy of people who include personal information in their emails to the governor.

Dan Krassner, director of Integrity Florida, a good governance organization, criticized the failure to put all emails on Project Sunburst.

“Project Sunburst should not be used as a propaganda machine,” said Krassner. “When you leave transparency in the hands of officials to pick and choose what they want to share with the public, problems arise.”

Will this mean more transparency from Scott's office in the future though? Probably not.

As usual:

Scott was not available for comment.

Connie Mack IV Bites The Hand That Endorses Him

After spending the majority of his time recently attacking the Tampa Bay Times for pointing out facts and having the audacity to endorse someone other than himself, Connie Mack IV did manage to score somewhat of an endorsement from The Tampa Tribune over the weekend.

The Tribune found that, as conservative Republicans go, Mack is indeed a conservative Republican who votes consistently Republican, when he's in Washington that is.

Their endorsement: "But no candidate is flawless."

What can you say other than "you go with the candidate you have, not the candidate you want?"

One of the positive things they had to say for Mack was to call him "quick-witted." Quick-witted? Really? The Tampa Tribune may want to re-think that:

When you've lashed out at one Bay area newspaper, calling them "Left Wing" and "the National Enquirer of Florida politics," just because they didn't bow at the altar of Mack, the least you can do for the one that threw you a bone of an endorsement is to get their name right.

Oh No, He Didn't!*

*Oh yeah, he did....and did....and did........

 

To be continued, I'm sure......

Report: ALEC Exerts Unprecedented Influence Over Florida

Today Progress Florida, Florida Watch Action, People for the American Way Foundation, Common Cause and ALEC Exposed released a new report detailing the influence of the corporate front group ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council) has over Florida’s policy makers. The report, entitled ALEC in Florida, documents the growing footprint that ALEC has in Florida, including its unprecedented access to elected officials and the drafting of ‘model’ legislation which compliant lawmakers then push into law.

The release of the report coincides with ALEC’s 39th annual meeting being held in Salt Lake City.

It also comes amid the news that two more coporations, General Motors and Walgreens have just cut ties with ALEC, bringing the total to 30 corporations and four non-profits, 34 total private sector members that have cut ties to the right-wing corporate bill mill. (You can see the entire list here.)

ALEC has a huge influence over Florida's legislators who have passed significant "cookie-cutter" legislation in the state, most notably and recently in the news, the Stand Your Ground gun law being used in the Trayvon Martin case.

ALEC's influence also made news when Republican Rep. Rachel Burgin introduced a bill in November of 2011 calling on the federal government to reduce taxes for corporations. She had received the bill from the ALEC, which was written by the Tax Foundation, corporate members of ALEC’s ‘Tax and Fiscal Policy task force” and a group founded and funded by major corporate interests, including the billionaire Koch brothers. She introduced a bill that was the same as the model word-for-word, forgetting to remove the paragraph naming ALEC and describing its principles. Burgin is now involved in an ugly race for the state Senate against Tom Lee.

Some of the key findings from the ALEC in Florida report:

• ALEC model bills introduced across the country have devastating impacts upon public education, consumer protections, environmental protections, workers’ rights, equitable healthcare systems, just tax policy, and voting rights.
• ALEC has a strong and growing presence in Florida. Out of Florida’s 160 state legislators, 60 have had ties with ALEC since 2010. Florida lawmakers’ attendance at ALEC’s 2011 annual conference held in New Orleans was “one of the strongest delegations in years.”
• ALEC’s corporate-funded scholarship fund contained, as of January 1, 2011, $46,467. This fund is used to sponsor ALEC members to attend ALEC conferences, and is also spent – as documented in the report – to wine and dine ALEC Florida members alongside corporate lobbyists. Corporations’ expenditures for the fund can be written off as 501(c)(3) charitable donations on their tax returns.
• ALEC provides Florida members with “issue alerts,” “talking points,” and “press release templates” expressing support or opposition to state legislation, despite its claims that “ALEC does not lobby in any state.” The organization also tracks the status of its model bills in legislatures and bills it does not like, and sends its employees to testify in support of its bills in state houses across the country. ALEC model legislation has been introduced in Florida’s legislature, at times word for word, with devastating results. Last year, ALEC member Rep. Rachel Burgin (R-56) made an embarrassing and revealing mistake when she introduced HM 685 – she forgot to remove ALEC’s insignia on the bill, leaving the ALEC’s footprint fully intact.
• After Florida lawmakers passed the NRA-sponsored Stand Your Ground law in 2005, ALEC took it and ran with it. The dangerous law was made notorious in Florida by the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Today, due to the influence of ALEC and the gun lobby, Stand Your Ground laws are on the books in 32 states.
• In response to ALEC’s extreme agenda, 26 for-profit corporations – including Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and Kraft – four non-profit groups and over 50 lawmakers have dropped ALEC in recent months. This report concludes that Florida-based corporations and Florida ALEC members should do the same.

While ALEC prefers to operate in secret, last year several Florida members admitted to participation with ALEC, one saying she was there to meet with lobbyists and fund-raise while charging her expenses to her campaign.

Dennis Baxley, the man behind the Stand Your Ground law at the time said this:

"It's a great place to share model legislation and a great place to learn what's going on in other parts of the country," said Baxley, who sponsored a major rewrite of Florida's election laws that's under challenge in court.

 The report highlights Florida members:

Out of Florida’s 160 state legislators, 60 have had known ties to ALEC since 2010. In the House, 46 representatives have been affiliated with ALEC; in the Senate, 14 Senators. And ALEC’s presence in Florida is on the rise – according to released documents from Representative Jimmy Patronis’ office, Florida lawmakers’ attendance at ALEC’s 2011 annual conference held in New Orleans was “one of the strongest delegations in years.

In keeping with its secretive nature, ALEC does not publicize its membership, thus making complete and accurate membership rolls nearly impossible to obtain. However, we know the following Florida lawmakers paid membership dues or attended at least one ALEC conference since 2010 (lawmakers believed to have been dues paying members at least once from 2010‐12 are denoted with an asterisk):

*Sen. Michael Bennett (R‐21) *Sen. Larcenia J. Bullard (D‐39) Sen. Lee Constantine (R‐22) *Sen. Nancy C. Detert (R‐23) *Sen. Mike Fasano (R‐11)

*Sen. Anitere Flores (R‐38) *Sen. Rene Garcia (R‐40)
Sen. Mike Haridopolos (R‐26) *Sen. Alan Hays (R‐25)

*Sen. Dennis Jones (R‐13) *Sen. Garrett Richter (R‐37) *Sen. David Simmons (R‐22) *Sen. Ronda Storms (R‐10) Rep. Larry Ahern (R‐51) *Rep. Ben Albritton (R‐66) *Rep. Frank Artiles (R‐119) *Rep. Dennis Baxley (R‐24) Rep. Michael Bileca (R‐117) Rep. Jeff Brandes (R‐52) *Rep. Jason Brodeur (R‐33)

*Rep. Rachel Burgin (R‐56) *Rep. Matt Caldwell (R‐73) *Rep. Dean Cannon (R‐35) Rep. Richard Corcoran (R‐45) Rep. Fred Costello (R‐26) Rep. Steve Crisafulli (R‐32) Rep. Daniel Davis (R‐13) *Rep. Jose Diaz (R‐115)

*Rep. Chris Dorworth (R‐34) *Rep. Brad Drake (R‐5) *Rep. Anitere Flores (R‐114) *Rep. Clay Ford (R‐3)

*Rep. James C. Frishe (R‐54) *Rep. Rich Glorioso (R‐62)
Rep. Eduardo Gonzalez (R‐102) *Rep. Denise Grimsley (R‐77) Rep. Gayle Harrell (R‐81)

*Rep. Doug Holder (R‐70) *Rep. Mike Horner (R‐79) *Rep. Matt Hudson (R‐101)

Rep. Clay Ingram (R‐2)
*Rep. Paige Kreegel (R‐72)
*Rep. John Legg (R‐46)
*Rep. Ana Rivas Logan (R‐114) *Rep. Debbie Mayfield (R‐80) Rep. Charles McBurney (R‐16) Rep. Peter Nehr (R‐48)
Rep. Bryan Nelson (R‐38)
*Rep. Jeanette Nunez (R‐112) *Rep. Jimmy T. Patronis, Jr. (R‐6) *Rep. Ray Pilon (R‐69)
*Rep. Scott Plakon (R‐37)
*Rep. Stephen L. Precourt (R‐41) Rep. Lake Ray (R‐17)
*Rep. Ron Saunders (D‐120) *Rep. Kelli Stargel (R‐64)
Rep. John Tobia (R‐31)
Rep. Carlos Trujillo (R‐116)
Rep. Will Weatherford (R‐61) *Rep. John Wood (R‐65)
Rep. Dana Young (R‐57)

You can read the entire report here.

GOP Held Meetings On Black Voter Suppression Says Former RPOF Chair

Whack-A-Doodle-Do: Former Right-Wing Crazies Chairman

As he awaits a criminal trial that was recently postponed until after the general election, former Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer has been answering lots of questions from the lawyers of RPOF members he's suing to collect money they promised him when he resigned.

In depositions, Greer says members of the party were "whack-a-do, right-wing crazies'' and that they held meetings to discuss voter suppression, specifically black voters:

In a wide-ranging deposition that spanned two days in late May, former Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer denounced some party officials as liars and "whack-a-do, right-wing crazies'' as he described turmoil in the months before his resignation...

...Greer's testimony offers a window into the level of animosity that exists between Greer and the party he once ran.

• Greer said "the party was in turmoil" as officials wanted to get rid of him and former Gov. Charlie Crist because they disagreed with some of Crist's decisions, including the appointment of a liberal African-American judge to the Florida Supreme Court, Crist's endorsement of John McCain for president in 2008 and the hug Crist gave President Barack Obama in 2009. "My phone lit up with people wanting me to censure the governor,'' Greer said. "The tea party came into existence. There was a feeling within the party that the tea party was just a bunch of whack-a-dos."

• After the party's budget and audit committee started asking questions about House and Senate spending, including legislators who used party credit cards for personal expenses, Greer said he wanted to open the books and credit card records, but party officials and legislative leaders vetoed the idea.

• Greer said he warned others at the party that the budget committee was made up of "whack-a-do, right-wing crazies'' who were trying to take over because of continuing disagreements with Crist and legislative leaders. House and Senate leaders insisted that no one at the party could control their campaign finances. "We eat what we kill,'' Greer said the leaders told him. "Legislative leaders were using their party credit cards like drunken sailors and they made it clear to me I was not to interfere with their spending,'' Greer said.

Thrasher, who succeeded Greer as party chairman, called Greer's suggestion of voter suppression and other accusations "absurd, absolutely absurd'' and said Greer is making "baseless accusations on other people in an effort to divert attention from himself.''

Absurd? Actually it seems perfectly plausible considering the massive voter purge currently being conducted by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Plus, Greer would know. This isn't the first time he's made racist accusations against his party. In fact he participated right along with them back in 2010:

Before Greer was arrested for those things, he became famous for trying to scare parents and their children by claiming that a speech President Obama would be giving in schools would “use taxpayer dollars to spread his socialist ideology,” and that Obama would be “indoctrinating” children. His claims so alarmed parents that many of them kept their children home from school that day, rather than being forced to watch the speech. What was the scary socialist speech about, you might ask? It was about the importance of education, attending school, and inspiring children to be good students.

Greer later had a change of heart, and said he wanted to "set the record straight:"

“In the year since I issued a prepared statement regarding President Obama speaking to the nation’s schoolchildren, I have learned a great deal about the party I so deeply loved and served,” Greer said in a written statement. “Unfortunately, I found that many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the President for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our party today. My children and I look forward to the president speech.”

As for his claims that members of the GOP are "whack-a-do, right-wing crazies,'' well that goes without saying. Since the Tea Party wing of the GOP came along, it's been an all out race to the bottom, from racist views, charges of "big government intrusion," (except for taking away their Medicare, of course) their stance against evolution and global warming, and of course, wanting to "take their country back" to the days when people of color and women "knew their place," just to name a few.

It's probably no wonder they got Greer's criminal trial was postponed until after the general election. One can just imagine what other secrets of the Republican Party of Florida will come out during the trial that we aren't already aware of.

How An ALEC Bill Becomes A Law

Just in time for the 39th annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that's getting underway in Utah this week, (waving at all the legislators from Florida in attendance, by the way!) Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist Mark Fiore has a new video that updates the old Schoolhouse Rock style lesson on how a bill becomes a law, but with a twist.

This is how a bill becomes a law, ALEC style:

 

(h/t: The Center for Media and Democracy)

Mitt Romney's Policies Would Lead To An Economic Crisis

Really.

 

Connie Mack Attacks Reporter (Again) For Stating Facts

If you were already somewhat safely employed but had bigger ambitions and wanted to look for another job, would you do things like spend company money sending emails from work with copies of your resume on your employer's dime? Would you find a way to charge new suits for your interviews to your employer? Would you take off weeks at a time from your current job to go to those interviews and think nobody would notice?

Say you did all those things, and someone caught you doing them, and that person went and told your employer about it. Would you attack the messenger for pointing it out, belittle and insult them for doing so while invading their personal space, and then go on your merry way because after all, your Daddy once worked for the company, and for that reason alone you should just get away with it? Do you think your employer would ignore your actions and just say "No matter! Carry on?"

Probably not.

But say you were a member of Congress with bigger ambitions like running for the U.S. Senate?

Would you send out taxpayer funded emails to residents in districts you don't reside in and charge clothing from Brooks Brothers to your campaign, both of which are violations, attack a reporter by writing angry complaint letters because his paper was "mean to you" when it endorsed another candidate, and spend the majority of the time you had left over from that going to fundraisers?

Or would you do your job by showing up in Washington and actually voting once in a while?

If you thought to yourself, "Why, of course I would be in Washington voting, after all that's what I was elected to do," then you would not be Connie Mack IV.

Connie Mack has chosen to take the juvenile route on the low road described above rather than doing the job he already holds, hoping the taxpayers he represents won't notice. When a reporter calls him out on it, he attacks the reporter, no doubt hoping that if he plays the "evil liberal media" card from the sad and tired Republican playbook, said reporter will be intimidated and back off. Maybe bend entirely in the other direction toward the right no matter what the facts are in the hopes of no further attacks.

If that's what Mack is trying to do, it doesn't seem to be working for him, (although he's doing a really good job of making a fool of himself) and let's hope it stays that way, because facts are facts no matter how foreign facts may be to the Mack campaign:

Graphic: GovTrack

When a reporter from the Tampa Bay Times pointed out that Mack has been far from Washington a lot lately and missing a huge amount of votes, Mack doubled down on the juvenile intimidation antics and had his campaign fire off another angry letter, this one more ridiculous than the last:

Adam Smith
The Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Dear Adam, 

Since we recently (and appropriately) criticized you for unfairly attacking Connie while doing everything you can to protect Bill Nelson, your latest attack comes as no surprise. 

I guess you just can’t help yourself. 

You tweeted and reported that Connie missed votes this year.  What you didn’t mention is that when Bill Nelson was in Congress and running statewide for Governor in 1990, he had the absolute worst voting record of anyone in Congress. He missed a whopping 56% of his votes. Surely you must know that.

Once again you are acting like Bill Nelson’s Communications Director doing opposition research on your opponent while ignoring the record of your own candidate. The only thing that surprises me, Adam, is that you would do this so soon after being exposed. 

I’m sure Bill Nelson appreciates all your doing for him. But Adam, there’s still time for your redemption, and the people would appreciate that so much more.

Your friend,

Jeff Cohen

Why yes Rep. Mack, you're just too clever by half!

There's a scandalous headline for you:

"REPORTER "EXPOSED" FOR NOT MENTIONING 22 YEAR OLD VOTING RECORD!"

Seriously Rep. Mack??

Since you've shown so little interest in your current job, maybe it's best to let the grownup stick with the one you're running for.

Republicans And Rick Scott: Wrong On ACA And Medicaid

Republicans in Washington and Mitt Romney have made repealing "ObamaCare" one of their loftiest goals, and part of their reasoning is due to false claims that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will cause the deficit to skyrocket by "trillions and trillions" of dollars. It used to be they boasted that they would "repeal and replace" but that was recently downgraded to merely "repeal" as they have no plan of their own, (beyond killing Medicare of course) so the "replace" part of the equation is a moot point. This would also keep insurance companies and their extremely large wallets very, very happy.

Well, the Republican blowhard balloon has just been pricked with a pin by the Congressional Budget Office:

President Barack Obama's health care overhaul will reduce rather than increase the nation's huge federal deficits over the next decade, Congress' nonpartisan budget scorekeepers said Tuesday, supporting Obama's contention in a major election-year dispute with Republicans...

...The CBO gave no updated estimate for deficit reductions from the law, approved by Congress and signed by Obama in 2010. But it did estimate that Republican legislation to repeal the overhaul — passed recently by the House — would itself increase the deficit by $109 billion from 2013 to 2022.....

...Tuesday's budget projections were the first since the Supreme Court upheld most of the law last month. The CBO said the law's mix of spending cuts and tax increases would more than offset new spending to cover uninsured people....

As for Medicaid expansion:

As expected, the budget office said the law will cover fewer uninsured people because the Supreme Court ruled that states won't have to sign on to a planned expansion of Medicaid for their low-income residents.

Thirty million uninsured people will be covered by 2022, or about 3 million fewer than projected this spring before the court ruling, the report said.

As we know, Gov. Rick Scott refuses to implement Medicaid expansion, using questionable facts and figures to base the rejection on. By not expanding Medicaid, Scott has ensured that all Floridian's health care costs will go up to cover the costs for those who can't afford health care coverage.

Scott has also claimed that the expansion is unnecessary because the needs of those in the state with low incomes are already being met through our current Medicaid program.

Wrong again, according to the Florida Center For Fiscal And Economic Policy:

• In general, only the very poorest are currently eligible for Medicaid in Florida. Furthermore, many Floridians cannot currently qualify for Medicaid even if they have no income whatsoever.
• Very few non-elderly adults are currently eligible for Medicaid in Florida. Additionally, an almost negligible percentage of working-age adults with employment income, all of them underemployed and in low-wage jobs, are currently enrolled in Medicaid.
• Although Medicaid expansion will open the door to coverage for many school-age children and non- elderly adults for the first time, all newly eligible Floridians will nevertheless be very low-income. In fact, even after expansion, many low-income Floridians will have incomes that exceed the Medicaid income limit, and no middle-income Floridians will qualify.
• Expanding Medicaid to include more low-income children and adults will by no means transform Florida Medicaid into a behemoth that bears no resemblance to the current program. Fewer than three in ten recipients enrolled as of the end of the decade will have become eligible as a result of expansion.

Rejecting the opportunity to extend Medicaid coverage to the Floridians who account for much of the cost of uncompensated medical care in the state – for pennies on the dollar – makes little sense in economic terms. Leaders have therefore taken to advancing other arguments in an effort to justify ignoring the law. In particular, longstanding misunderstandings about who is currently covered by Florida Medicaid have been resurrected, while new misrepresentations about who will become eligible for Medicaid as a result of expansion have been formulated.

You can see the facts about those misunderstandings and read the entire brief here.

Republicans in Washington, Mitt Romney, and Rick Scott have run out of excuses in order to prevent Americans from getting good, affordable health care coverage.

Another Day, Another Romney Distortion

Obama for America highlights how Mitt Romney has distorted President Obama’s recent comments on factors necessary to create a good business climate. Independent fact-checkers have said repeatedly that Romney’s attack clearly takes the President’s remarks out of context: