Thursday, July 21, 2011

Hairless dingus Rick Scott not all that funny

Florida Gov. Rick Scott might be funny if what he's doing to the state weren't so tragic. After all, how many people end up as governor when they probably belong in prison for defrauding Medicare?

The Beltway Blog Wonkette loves to make fun of Scott, as today's posting demonstrates:
Oh, don’t we just love to pick on hairless dingus Rick Scott, because he is officially America’s most disliked governor, his constituents are constantly suing him for passing laws no one likes, he’s kind of “eh” about keeping track of his filings to the Ethics Commission, and he’s using state money to sexually harass Florida ears with creepy unsolicited robocalls talking about his accomplishments. That is sort of an “accomplishment” we guess, inventing the most annoying way on Earth of trying to reach constituents: calling them at home during dinner to deliver a taped lecture about all the laws he is passing to make their lives worse.
This also seems to be taking up so much of his time that neither he nor any of his staff have yet stopped to read the ethics rulebook. Journalists asked him why he hadn’t bothered to follow laws requiring him to report corporate gifts of air travel, to which he heroically responded, “I don’t know."
Scott is not just passing laws to make Floridians' lives worse, he's cutting funds for essential services and firing government workers who uncover bank fraud.

Scott's budget cuts (which paid for tax breaks for corporations) may have meant no medical staff was on duty at the Palm Beach County juvenile jail on the night 18-year-old Eric Perez. Reports the Miami Herald,
When Eric Perez died Sunday, July10 at the Palm Beach County juvenile jail, there were no doctors or nurses on duty, according to the nurse jailers say they tried in vain to reach.
“Nobody works there at night,” Diana Heras said of lockup medical staff. “There is no state funding for night nurses for any night of the week. They do not have a nurse who works at that ... facility on the night shift, and they do not work weekends.” ...
Palm Beach County’s public defender, Carey Haughwout, suggested Monday that years worth of budget cuts may have contributed to last week’s scandal. One of the guards on duty said he was working a double shift the day Eric, who was being held on a robbery charge, died. And Cathy Craig-Myers, who heads the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, said DJJ’s current spending plan, which took effect July 1, contains $77 million fewer dollars than last year’s budget.
And about those robocalls, tampabay.com reports some complaints:
"Whoever this is STOP!! I don't know who or why, but my mom is elderly and feels she needs to get to the phone with this same number that calls 15-20 times a day. ENOUGH!! I don't care who or what it is … we don't care, we just want it to go away."
And
"I'm on a 'Do Not Call' list, I work out of my house, and I really don't need extra calls,'' said Odessa resident Kathy Winarski, a registered independent who was "a little frightened" the first time she picked up the phone and heard Scott's voice. "Why's he bothering me with this?"