Let’s imagine that the state of Florida paid two thousand people over a hundred thousand dollars each to dig holes and then fill them in. That sounds irresponsible, right? Rick Scott’s job creation record is worse.
And yet Governor Scott seems strangely unconcerned that rich people took his state’s money and then did next to nothing with it. You almost get the impression that throwing tax money at rich people was the point, and he just dangled the promise of jobs for Floridians because he does not have a doomsday bomb to threaten them with.
jayboat
There is no more useless bag of crap on this planet than this creep. diaf
Hunter Gathers
So does Charlie Crist fuck up just a little and lose a winnable election, or does he royally screw up and give Scott a double digit win? I’ve got 5 on the latter.
Feudalism Now!
Wait, Lex Luthor, who made his money defrauding Medicare/Medicaid, is now lobbing tax dollars at private businesses, that are not providing jobs? I am flummoxed.
Villago Delenda Est
Hey, this is Lex Luthor we’re talking about. Of course the entire point is to give tax money to rich people who will in return do nothing. The important thing is to keep that money out of the hands of the poors, lest they become less so.
Sly
It needs to be a formal rule of political science that electing someone who wants to kill Harry Potter will not end well.
pamelabrown53
@Hunter Gathers: What makes you think that Charlie Crist will fuck it up? As a Floridian and far to the left of Crist, I will crawl over broken glass to get him elected over skeletor. I know I’m not alone in my promise.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Doomsday bombs are so yesterday’s super villain. Today’s up and coming super villains form a Third Way political party or we will destroy The Future.
Chris
Ah, the history of America since about 1980.
::throw money at the rich::
“Now could you create jobs please?”
“Yes, but I need a little more money.”
::throw money at the rich::
“Now could you create jobs, please?”
“Yes, but I need a little more money.”
::throw money at the rich::
“Now could you create jobs, please?”
“Yes, but I need a little more money.”
Are we sure we’re a sentient species? Fucking lab rats will figure out in half a minute which piece of cheese gives them the electric shocks when they bite into it and that it’s not a good idea to bite into it anymore, but we’re going on thirty years and apparently we still haven’t grasped the concept.
Belafon
@Hunter Gathers: Kind of like how McAuliffe (auto correct wants to make him cauliflower) failed to get elected in Virginia.
SFAW
@Belafon:
Dean Chambers said Coochiecoochie won, that’s good enough for me.
mainmata
I have a retired Mom and younger sister in FL and know other people that are pretty normal but they appear to be far drowned out by the rednecks, weirdoes and rich Conservatives who regularly elect some of the most awful state legislators in the country as well as Gov. Voldemart. Crist is a possibility but it will take a truly massive GOTV effort.
Betty Cracker
@pamelabrown53: Damn straight. I was talking to two Republicans and a Democrat this weekend (all Florida voters) who said the same thing. Still, since this state was dumb enough to elect that obvious crook the first time, I won’t rest easy until we see Scott jetting back to Naples.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but today’s Noisemax ROFL headline of the day:
Trump: Obamacare’s Problem ‘Gross Incompetence’
This from the guy who somehow managed to bankrupt his own ca$ino.
Hunter Gathers
@pamelabrown53: @Belafon: Crist is running as a Democrat. The Florida branch of the Democratic Party could fuck up a cup of coffee. So you’ll forgive if I don’t have confidence that the Dems will prevail in a close Florida election.
ranchandsyrup
Campaign promises don’t matter. Unless the other guy gets elected. Then they are of the utmost importance.
PaulW
As of right now, Crist is leading Scott in the polls. Scott is about as popular as a 94-year-old retiree driving a Crown Victoria at 5 MPH down I-95 in South Florida in the left-hand lane.
Although I do agree that even with Crist’s popularity well above that of Scott’s, the local state Dem group is pretty disorganized and currently divided between the true believers who are backing Nan Rich (as they view Crist as an opportunist RINO) and the practical Dem moderates who simply want Rick “Medicare Fraud” Scott out of office before he does more damage.
What’s killed the Democrats in this state has been the terrible voter turnout for midterms. As a national group, the national-level Democratic Party needs to get back to Howard Dean’s 50-State system and get more involved in getting state legislative candidates backed and running in every district (because a good number of the gerrymandered districts are more purple than they realize).
pamelabrown53
@Hunter Gathers: Many state Dem. parties are dysfunctional. It won’t be a cake walk but maybe entertain the notion of grassroots efficacy as a counterbalance.
The Ancient Randonneur
So we have Florida’s version of Ms. Palin, eh? Doesn’t his wife have an interest of some sort in the company that does the mandatory drug testing of all those shiftless, lazy bums on welfare?
Belafon
@PaulW: I would love for the national Democratic party to go after Florida and Texas at the midterms, especially next year. That would have serious national implications.
OmerosPeanut
Perhaps the worst part in all this is that these methods do not even create jobs. Rather, on those rare occasions when they work they transfer jobs from one state to another. An expensive fruitless zero sum game.
jayboat
@Betty Cracker:
Tanks for the little reminder, Betty.
The mere thought of being within 10 miles of him makes me wanna do bad things.
ericblair
@Belafon:
Even worse, he failed to fail at getting elected in Virginia. How stupid is that?
Kinda glad me and the missus dragged our asses out that day to vote for him and Herring, although I would have preferred cod.
Ash Can
Yeah, so? Are you saying that’s a problem, you commie pinko?
pamelabrown53
@ericblair: Good on ya, eric. If Virginians can elect Terry McAulliffe then we Floridians can certainly triumph over our current teabagger.
Another Holocene Human
@PaulW: Yeah, you’re right, even now I have insiders telling me about Nan Rich. I think she sucks. I think the whole Fl Dem Party sucks and needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up. You can’t win the state without turnout in the blue cities in the Northern half of the state but Nan Rich doesn’t deign to show her face up here. You know what I say? Fuck. Off.
The dems are MUCH too comfortable being the minority party, never having the answer to voters because the Gop didit. Lots of bounders and grifters in there. It SUCKS. The only reason the legislature is flipping is because the GOP has been busy proving that they’re a bunch of cold, spineless lizard people who want to cut off Mommy’s chemo because AT&T didn’t get enough tax breaks this year, and who think a child who has been raped by her father or stepfather should have to carry the child to term because that’s what Jesus would do.
Another Holocene Human
@OmerosPeanut:
Mayhap they could use all that tax money to hire people to provide better government services which, in turn, would lure in the kind of companies they want to attract (profitable going concerns, not bloated welfare seekers), but that would be too much like right.
For one thing, profitable going concerns would have well paid middle management who might start displacing the landed gentry socially and we can’t have that.
No, better that the roads go back to dirt, the poor starve, and the town square look like boarded up shit with a lonely little “Florida Heritage Byway” sign announcing that there once was a place here.
fuckwit
@Chris: Basic economics. You make a profit by CUTTING jobs, not by creating them. Corporations are in business to make a profit. Ergo, they are in the business of cutting jobs. I am astounded that America fell for this scam for 30 years. It’s clear they have not even the most basic understanding of microeconomics.
Betty Cracker
@Another Holocene Human:
Can’t disagree. It’s been a train wreck pretty much as far back as I can remember on the state level. OFA built a good organization here in 2008 and 2012, and I hoped some of that energy would carry over, but I don’t see any signs of it.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Ancient Randonneur:
Prezactly. The entire thing is a scam to enrich the Luthor household, but it does serve the important function of punishing the poor for being poor.
TriassicSands
Funny, in 2013 one has to add “true” to modify “fact.” In ancient times (<Fox News?) the word fact was sufficient on its own. A "fact" was true by definition. Now, in the era of Fox, we all have our own facts according to my right wing neighbor, who gets his facts from Rupert, Roger, and Fox.
Naively, Merriam-Webster still considers a fact true by definition. Silly people.