November 4, 2012

*DESPICABLE* FL GOP mailer portrays teacher-candidate as Sandusky: b/c unions = child rape (pics)

Group financed by incoming Speaker Will Weatherford (R) tries to link Castor Dentel (D) with convicted molestor Jerry Sandusky


http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2012/11/group-financed-by-incoming-speaker-will-weatherford-tries-to-link-castor-dentel-with-convicted-molestor-jerry-sandusky.html

A group supporting Republican state Rep. Scott Plakon’s re-election bid is sending last-minute advertisements that attempt to link Plakon’s opponent, Democrat Karen Castor Dentel, to convicted child sex predator Jerry Sandusky.



Mailers began arriving Friday at homes in House District 30 in Orange and Seminole counties that on one side depict a grainy image of Castor Dentel, an elementary-school teacher in Maitland. And on the other: the image of a jumpsuit- and handcuff-clad Sandusky, the former Penn State University assistant football coach who in June was found guilty of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, convicted of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period.

(snip)

The claim appears to be based on Castor Dentel’s opposition to a measure passed in 2011 by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature that eliminated tenure for public-school teachers. The measure was fiercely opposed by the Florida Education Association, of which Castor Dentel is a member.

(snip)

The mailer was paid for by a committee known only as the “Committee to Protect Florida.” But records show the group is being financed in large part by Republican leaders in the Florida House – chiefly by incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel...Weatherford has raised his money from an array of business interests. One of his largest contributors is health-insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield.


(snip)


more at link:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2012/11/group-financed-by-incoming-speaker-will-weatherford-tries-to-link-castor-dentel-with-convicted-molestor-jerry-sandusky.html

November 3, 2012

Orlando small biz group protests NFIB "I Built My Business" tour: wearing Karl Rove masks! (pic)

If you haven't noticed already this election season, small businesses are the babies that every candidate wants to kiss. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) exploits this trope with reckless abandon on their "I Built My Business" bus tour through swing states where they campaign exclusively for Republicans like "Taliban" Daniel Webster (who defeated Alan Grayson in 2010). As a matter of fact, when it comes to Republicans, no one is too far right for the NFIB, as they also endorse and donate to Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin and Richard "Rape is God's Gift" Mourdock.

What's important to know though, is that the NFIB is engaging in identity theft, claiming that they represent small business when in reality they're advocating for policy that isn't in the interest of the vast majority of small business owners. Instead they represent the interests of big money donors like Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS.


The real face of NFIB

And so, Community Business Association of Florida held a counter-event at the NFIB campaign stop in Orlando today with throngs of rowdy protesters holding Karl Rove masks chanting "Who fibs? N-FIB!" And, "when the workers who built this are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!"

Here's a pic from the protest -- Orlando stepped up to the plate in a big way with the ONLY counter-protest so far along the whole NFIB tour.




Community Business Association came to tell NFIB that Halloween is over, and it's time to take off the mask. The NFIB calls itself “the voice of small business.” But the facts run counter to this claim. As documented by the Center for Media and Democracy at NFIBexposed.org, NFIB is intensely partisan, takes millions in hidden donations and is under a congressional investigation and an IRS inquiry.

• NFIB is a partisan political group: A 2009 survey of small business owners found that “33 percent of the respondents identified themselves as Republicans and 32 percent called themselves Democrats. Twenty-nine percent said they were independent or claimed no party affiliation.” However, OpenSecrets.org data shows that in the 2012 election cycle, 98 percent of NFIB’s PAC contributions have gone to Republican candidates.

• NFIB is a conduit for big secret donors: In 2010, Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS made a $3.7 million grant to NFIB. That same year, NFIB reported spending $3.1 million on ads through Crossroads Media, LLC (Crossroads GPS’s main media firm). In early 2012, NFIB established a new entity, “NFIB, The Voice of Free Enterprise,” to accept donations from people and groups who are not small business owners. Of NFIB’s $3.3 million in outside spending in the 2012 cycle so far, $1.9 million is through this new entity funded by non-small business owners.

• NFIB has come under congressional investigation: Earlier this year, NFIB came under scrutiny from Congress for the millions of dollars in hidden money it was receiving. Leaders in Congress demanded that NFIB disclose its donors and membership size, which had been inflated in years past. NFIB refused and Congressman Raul Grijalva sent a letter to the IRS questioning the group’s tax-exempt status.

• NFIB endorses Todd Akin while touting support for women small business owners: NFIB’s website highlights its “PowHER” campaign to recruit women business owners to join the organization, advertising that a portion of their dues will support breast cancer awareness. However, a portion of these dues also support the election of Todd “legitimate rape” Akin in the Missouri Senate race. NFIB endorsed Akin on October 22, even as many mainstream GOP groups continue to stay out of the race after his remarks about rape.


Learn more at http://nfibexposed.org/

August 6, 2012

How long before RW extremists shoot people in your city? Or, is "now not the time" to discuss this..

The culture war has been threatening to turn violent for many years. Hate radio has manufactured thousands of sad nutters who want "to water the tree of Liberty" with the blood of people like us; people not like them.

The act of domestic terrorism at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin today, along with the Unitarian murders in Knoxville, the attack on Gabby Giffords (actually 2 attacks if you count the one to her office), the guy who tried to bomb the MLK parade in Spokane, and the American Front skinheads arrested here in Florida planning to start a "race war," were all acts intended to terrorize...us.



Following Facebook and Twitter today I see no one is terrified by these acts. We're repulsed and saddened that these people who are enabled by the Michele Bachmanns and the Sharon Angles who're calling out "foreigners" and screeching for "second amendment remedies."

We're not terrified. Instead we're sickened that our leaders have been so cowed and corrupted by the NRA that our communities are now supplied with enough arms and ammunition to sustain a violent revolution. We're tired of the excuses for not reigning in this madness.

And we're likely to see more of it, closer to home, because nothing...ever...changes. Because "now's not the time" to have the talk about guns. Because "now's not the time" to reflect on the political dimensions of these killings.


Because "now" is just too damn inconvenient...

August 5, 2012

PAY ATTENTION: a billionaire opines about the 99%, 'You're the prisoners, we're the guards'

I'm supporting our local Earned Sick Time campaign here in Orlando, and I'm being asked a lot about why I think employers would oppose such a common sense measure. Ostensibly it makes sense to allow workers to earn 1 hour of sick time for every 37 hours worked (up to 56 hours a year). Who wants to be served food by someone with the flu?

In talking to elected officials who're campaigning for re-election, the talking point I'm hearing a lot is "no one should butt-in on the employer-employee relationship." As if your employer is a priest or doctor (while they've got no problem with telling your gynecologist how to practice her business).

By and large big business wants you to be threatened, insecure and unable to do anything about it. They want indentured servants -- prisoners, in effect. And as you'll see below in this blog post from Tiny Revolution, they aren't even ashamed to say so.

More here -- including how Siegel says he "won the election for George W. Bush"
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/003634.html

July 25, 2012

PAID SICK DAYS: food handlers shouldn't have to work while contagious

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169036/women-paid-sick-days#

Women for Paid Sick Days
Katrina vanden Heuvel on July 24, 2012 - 12:42 PM ET

Some policy questions are difficult. Here are a few easy ones: Should people who handle food for a living have to work while contagious? Should sick kids be stuck at school because their parents are stuck at work? Should coming down with something cost you your job?

Most Americans say: No, no and no. Politicians are catching up with them, but not fast enough.

As I noted last winter, 2011 was the biggest year yet for paid sick leave, a common sense reform requiring employers to provide a minimum number of sick days, so low-wage workers can stay home sick without losing their pay or their jobs. After years of savvy, tenacious organizing, last year Seattle joined San Francisco and DC to become the nation’s third paid sick leave city, and Connecticut’s became the nation’s first statewide law (Milwaukee passed a bill in 2009 but Scott Walker has overridden it).

Paid sick leave is the kind of pro-family policy that we should be able to take for granted in a civilized democracy. By averting senseless firings, it reduces unemployment. By letting sick people stay home, it advances public health. In San Francisco, which in 2006 became the first city to mandate paid leave, even critics have changed their tune. In 2010, the executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which had decried the bill as a job killer, told Bloomberg Businessweek that it had turned out to be “the best public policy for the least cost. Do you want your server coughing over your food?”







more on the Paid Sick Days campaign (including tools and resources) here: http://paidsickdays.nationalpartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=psd_index

July 19, 2012

The last time "you people" was deployed in a presidential campaign: contempt and class and race

Nothing illustrates condescension quite like addressing folks as "you people." I believe when this phrase is used by those in power, they betray their own sociopathy. It's not difficult to measure your speech. Normal people who will never breathe the rarified air of a Romney fundraiser are able to do so everyday. Like when we tell our boss that "sure, it's no problem" working late for the umpteenth time this week. Or when there's a heated political discussion in the break room about what a stroke of genius the Laffer Curve was.

We hold our tongue b/c we know that we don't have the power not to.

These elite assholes flaunt their power when they speak down to us as "you people." What they're really saying is that we're too meaningless to matter, and they sure don't have to modify their speech to address with respect. To them, we are merely to be manipulated until they don't even have to refer to us at all...that is, when they have ALL THE POWER (and we are completely objectified for their profit and amusement).

Let's not forget that Ann Romney dropping the "you people" bomb was by way of telling us how little we deserve to know about their business dealings. She wants "us people" to know that their money entitles them to walk all over us. She wants "us people" to know that their money EMPOWERS them to treat us like their servants. And she want "us people" to vote for them.

Well, that's rich.

When Ross Perot addressed the NAACP as "you people," he was revealing exactly what he thought of blacks in America. His language belied a particular form of Southern racism, that "you (black) people" know your place.

Ann Romney's use of this language has a similar goal. She wants "you (non-elite) people" to know your place. She wants "you (non-richy rich) people" to know that her people will crush us people under their pointy Pravda heels the first chance they get. She holds "us people" in contempt...we're out line...and if we don't watch it, someone will be sorry. As CEO of this country Mittens will see to that.

I'm outraged by this comment of hers, but I'm terrified that "those people" hold most of the power in this country. They might not have the White House at the moment, but they run nearly all the businesses, and their toadies who're lower on the corporate totem poles across this country have too much power to make our lives miserable in the form of unfair labor practices, wage suppression, and cronyism.

It's not enough for me to win this election -- we have to run THESE PEOPLE out of our lives for good.






http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/12/us/the-1992-campaign-racial-politics-perot-speech-gets-cool-reception-at-naacp.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

June 26, 2012

The Individual Mandate albatross: Whole packages only as popular as their least popular provision

Percent of people (including Republicans) who support banning insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions: 82%
Percent of people (including Democrats) who strongly oppose the individual mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act: 61%
Viewed as a whole, percent of people who support the Affordable Care Act: 44%
Who oppose: 56%

I don't expect the Supreme Court to strike down the Individual Mandate. It's too big of a bonus to the 1%, and we all know how much the Roberts Court LOVES them some 1%-ers. But, I'm not at all interested in this horse race. I'm much more interested in how we got here, and what we can do differently in the future.

To that end, I think this short article below is valuable. The stats above were lifted from it.

-- brook

What Ballot Initiative Campaigns Teach Us About the Popularity of the ACA
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2012/06/25/what-ballot-initiative-campaigns-teach-us-about-the-popularity-of-the-aca/

If you talk to people who have run a few ballot initiative campaigns, they will tell you that it is very important to get the language perfect. A ballot initiative may contain a lot of popular provisions, but one unpopular provision can easily cause it to be voted down by the people. The electorate can’t separately decide on the individual components; it is forced to accept or reject the whole package. Often initiatives are only as popular as their least popular provision. It’s the weak link that breaks the chain.

We have seen the same basic dynamic at play with the lack of popular support for the Affordable Care Act. Once again a new Reuter-Ipsos poll confirms that there are many provision in the ACA that enjoy broad bipartisan support. For example 82 percent of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, support banning insurers from denying coverage based on pre-exisiting conditions. The problem is that the law doesn’t only contain this popular provision. It also contains highly unpopular ones, like the individual mandate, which this poll found is opposed by 61 percent of Americans.

Voters judge the whole law as a single package, but the unpopular provisions tend to be given more weight in people’s total analysis than the popular ones. As a result of some deeply unpopular provisions dragging down overall support, only 44 back the law as a whole, while 56 percent oppose.

The whole law isn’t unpopular despite containing popular provisions because, as some claim, Republicans brilliantly won the message war. It doesn’t mean people are making blind partisan decisions because of the name “Obamacare.” Obama is after all much more popular than Obamacare. It also doesn’t mean people are against the law because they are ignorant of the “good things” in the law or don’t understand the trade offs. A Washington Post poll found just 42 percent want the Supreme Court to throw out the entire law, but when told throwing out the whole law was the only way to get rid of the mandate, support for complete repeal jumped to 55 percent.

(snip)

May 5, 2012

Obama really could magically make the medical marijuana issue disappear...

...if it became the more politically pragmatic solution to actually do so. And from what we're seeing lately regarding this issue, I believe it actually is becoming the more politically pragmatic solution.

By executive order, the president could reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III or IV, as provided by law in the Controlled Substance Act. Pharmaceutical companies have won the reclassification of controlled substances. It's way past time for The People to also claim victory in the area.

Nothing would be smarter politically if the Democratic party is interested in guaranteeing young voter turnout. Marijuana laws hit young people particularly hard with the threat of incarceration, losing college financial aid, and having to report that you have an arrest record every time you apply for a job, for the rest of your life. There's no underestimating how much young people are aware of the insanity of these laws. And there's no underestimating the solidarity that could be generated by demonstrating good faith on this issue.

Rescheduling would also put an end to the ridiculous state vs federal dispute, allowing patients and dispensaries the freedom to treat pain while engaging in fair trade. It's humane and it's an issue of liberty.

From what I'm observing, people intend to vote Democratic, but they also intend to hold the party's feet to the fire to support us right back with policy decisions that reflect the popular will instead of the monied interest. This goes for many policy disputes beyond marijuana, from women's reproductive freedom to LGBT rights, wage issues and tax fairness.

We've turned a corner. We're seeing past personalities to the issues that impact our lives.

Obama can indeed make things right -- that's why we vote for him. He can make the issue of MMJ/drug war go away. It is within his power and ability. He just needs to do it. It's time.

December 25, 2011

A Kennedy Christmas Story: the gift my mother never forgot

It's Christmas eve and like many folks of a certain age, I miss my mother.

She was really my grandmother. I was adopted. This is important to understand the time span. Born in 1915, she lived in western Palm Beach county with her family until the hurricane in 1928 when she and her sisters were left orphaned by the storm. At 13 she went to live in foster care where the orphans worked as "the help" in the mansions in Palm Beach, and every Christmas the aristocrats gave them presents labeled "boy" or "girl."

Everyone except the Kennedys. Rose Kennedy took the time to learn all the children's names and presented them with a gift addressed specifically to them. So, this year, after losing her family, and feeling quite lost and alone, Rose Kennedy handed my mother a little box with the name "Olivette" on the tag. It was a hairbrush and mirror set.

Mother told this story dozens of times and it never changed. Except, as she got older, and more frail...and, as the world become more difficult and unforgiving for her, her telling of the story changed. Whereas she used to tell the story with a glint in her eye that indicated something like, "and that's how Democrats roll," she came to a point when she could barely finish the story without weeping. It touched her so deeply that someone of such high status -- a Kennedy -- bothered to know her name, at a time when no one else felt it was necessary to pay attention to a dirty little orphan with nothing. No family, no home, no money, no bright shiny future.

But, she had a name. And this, I think, taught her something that she never forgot: that she mattered.

She treasured that memory. It was central to who she was. She had long lost the hairbrush, but the lesson stayed with her for the rest of her life. That, she was a real person with a real name, and she mattered. And conversely, that the smallest acts of kindness and dignity can echo for a lifetime. Merry Christmas, ya'll. You matter. Each and every one.

February 17, 2012

BREAKING: FLA on track to SLASH minimum wage from $4.65 to **$2.13** for tipped-income workers

Apologies if this has already been posted. I feel very strongly about this.

Waitressing is the hardest work I've ever done, and for every $100 night I had 3 nights that my hourly wage was the lion's share of my earning. But understand, this bill affect all tipped-income workers including salon, valet and car wash workers, whose tipping etiquette doesn't come close to dictating 15-20% on the dollar.

Speaking of tipping etiquette, how could it not evolve upwards to cover this loss, shifting cost to the consumer as well as the worker. For the so-called fiscal conservatives proposing this -- what sense does it make to create an inflationary spiral on the consumer end of the economy, which is supposedly our last best hope for easing out of the Great Recession.

It's worth mentioning that we, the normal people of the 99%, wear both the hats of consumer and worker, so we're getting hit twice here, and all indications are that this is an just opening shot in a full-spectrum class war being fought by Rick Scott against working Floridians.

Florida is also debating a bill to provide huge tax cuts to any NON-UNIONIZED companies moving to Florida. The message: Florida lawmakers are selling off Floridians as slave labor to all comers.



(please leave a comment at the story on the Orlando Sentinel link below and let Floridians know you support them. A group of workers' rights organizations and Occupy Orlando are protesting in front of The Outback Steakhouse on Sand Lake Road near the Florida Mall at 2pm tomorrow -- we are taking this very seriously and we need your help. We need this to go beyond Florida, b/c this sort of ALEC legislation is cropping up everywhere. Please also spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, etc.)


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-florida-tipped-minimum-wage-20120215,0,397929.story


Senate panel OKs slashing hourly pay for servers, bartenders, others
By Sandra Pedicini, Orlando Sentinel
6:03 p.m. EST, February 16, 2012

(snip)

The bill (SB 2106), approved by a Senate committee Thursday, would allow restaurants and other employers to pay their staffs the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour instead of Florida's minimum of $4.65. To qualify, companies would have to guarantee that employees would make at least $9.98 an hour, when tips are included.

Opponents say it would cut the pay for people like Charles Spencer, who's working his way through school by waiting tables at Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant in Downtown Disney. He said his wage of $11 to $12 an hour pays the bills — but barely.

"It's a lot of canned vegetables and grilled chicken and ramen noodles," said Spencer, 25, adding, "I was rather appalled by the fact they're going to try to cut a wage standard in this economy."

(snip)

"That base pay is actually really important," said Wolford, 39, whose budget is so tight she cannot afford health insurance.