A group that is intent on destroying our bears, panthers, manatees and every piece of green we have in our state. It’s also quite obvious that RIck is ruled by the Koch brothers because his agenda is their agenda. Not ours.
Last year we saw an incredible dysfunctional Florida legislature and the will of the people even for little things was just totally ignored. Like we didn’t exist.
They really don’t care. Not Rick Scott nor the people who represent you.
“AFP is extremely disappointed in leaders in Florida suggesting that the Sunshine State should create a health insurance exchange” said Slade O’Brien, AFP’s Florida State Director. “An exchange will increase insurance premiums on consumers and taxes on hardworking families. Florida’s best intentions will be masked by the federal government’s onerous requirements.”
“Americans for Prosperity, the free-market advocacy group financed by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, is going on the attack.
The group sent mail ads Monday to the districts of Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and 24 other senators over their support for a plan to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
“The Florida Senate continues to move forward on a plan to give good people bad coverage,” the mailer states.
AFP sent the mailers to the districts of senators who voted for the Medicaid expansion plan in committee. Gardiner, who is vice president of external affairs at Orlando Health, doesn’t sit on any committee as Senate President, but pushed expansion from the onset of the legislative session.”
“The heated race for governor in the Sunshine State is just around the corner, and after throwing his tantrum on national television, Rick Scott needs something of a miracle to win reelection. Luckily for Scott, he’s got the support of the billionaire Koch brothers and their extensive political network: Koch Industries has made large contributions to Scott’s campaign, and the Kochs’ primary political arm, Americans For Prosperity, has put more than 40 paid staffers on the ground in the Sunshine State.
Scott’s ties to the Koch brothers go back a ways. In 2013, Scott spoke at Americans For Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream Summit” in Orlando the very same week that he skipped his own three-day education summit, a stark juxtaposition of priorities that drew this rebuke from Tampa Bay Times:
“Unless he’s worried about his base or the lingering threat of a primary challenge, it baffles us that Scott – who couldn’t find time to attend any of a three-day education summit he called himself – would find the time to speak at the AFP “Defending the American Dream Summit”… Maybe he hopes the Koch brothers, who founded AFP, will show some love to Scott’s Let’s Get to Work Committee.”
“This year, AFP’s annual summit was hosted in Texas, and Scott’s fellow Republican governor and friend Rick Perry joked about razzing him because the Texas summit was better attended than Scott’s Orlando event. Perry recalled, “Rick Scott always tries to one-up me, so you know, he was the first to call me and say ‘Hey, we got Americans for Prosperity, what’d you get?’”
Of course Scott called Perry to brag about his support from the Koch brothers. And of course the Koch brothers support Rick Scott, they share the same agenda – opposition to raising the minimum wage, denying the science of climate change, refusing to expand Medicaid. It’s a match made in heaven.
When Floridians go to the polls on Tuesday, they should bear this in mind. Rick Scott is the special interests governor. The Koch brothers are just one of his many interests.”
Steve Crisafulli says it’s amazing “anything” gets passed in GOP-led Legislature
“The intense divide between the Florida House and Senate this year was so intense that House Speaker Steve Crisafulli led his members out of the chambers three days prematurely this past April, leading for the first of a series of special sessions in 2015.
His other top issue is tackling water policy, where he invoked the drought in California as a reason why the Legislature must act this year. When the House broke early from session in April, they failed to pass a water bill, though the Senate companion was approved on a 39-1 vote.”
Amazing how hindsight is BS and this guy has no problem spending money on special sessions while people have no food.
I think for everyone special session we have a portion of the money spent should be donated to our local food banks. An idea so horrid if it really did happen the GOP would make sure they agreed rather than make sure there was food.
Humane Society Florida director Kate McFall called the name exemptions “fishy,” but said it makes sense considering the widespread opposition.
“One hundred and three is a lot. It sounds strange,” McFall said. “(The hunt) is being painted as a small group of trophy hunters, so it makes sense for them to not want their names out there. It has hit a nerve with a lot of people.”
“And even though it may seem counter-intuitive, anti-intellectualism has little to do with intelligence. We know little about the raw intellectual abilities of Dylann Roof, but we do know that he is an ignorant racist who willfully allowed irrational hatred of an entire demographic to dictate his actions. Whatever his IQ, to some extent he is a product of a culture driven by fear and emotion, not rational thinking, and his actions reflect the paranoid mentality of one who fails to grasp basic notions of what it means to be human.
What Americans rarely acknowledge is that many of their social problems are rooted in the rejection of critical thinking or, conversely, the glorification of the emotional and irrational. What else could explain the hyper-patriotism ) that has many accepting an outlandish notion that America is far superior to the rest of the world? Love of one’s country is fine, but many Americans seem to honestly believe that their country both invented and perfected the idea of freedom, that the quality of life here far surpasses everywhere else in the world.”
So if your frustrated just understand YOU have better critical thinking skills.
One can hardly imagine a better case of inconsistent thinking and misapplied brain power in the public arena today. Carson, a successful brain surgeon and Yale graduate, is obviously intelligent and well educated. Yet he continually says things that any clear-thinking high school kid would cringe at.
He mocks the Big Bang Theory as absurd. (Like all theories, the Big Bang Theory is a work in progress, of course, but it is based on solid scientific evidence.)
A state of Florida website laconically refers to the project known as “Mod Waters” this way: “The Modified Water Deliveries Project project is a federal ecological restoration project in south Florida designed to improve water delivery to Everglades National Park. The completion of Mod Waters is required before the implementation of portions of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Mod Waters is being implemented by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”
Gerrymandering has been going on in Florida for a long time and it truly has been a bipartisan activity. It took the very awesome and very bipartisan League of Woman voters to get the whole mess straightened out.
“In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan advantaged districts.”
“The League of Women Voters (LWV) is an American civic organization that was formed to help women take a larger role in public affairs as they won the right to vote. It was founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote.[3] The League of Women Voters began as a “mighty political experiment” aimed to help newly enfranchised women exercise their responsibilities as voters. Originally, only women could join the league; but in 1973 the charter was modified to include men. LWV operates at the local, state, and national level, with over 1,000 local and 50 state leagues.”
“The League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVF) is a civic organization in the state of Florida. The League’s bylaws mandate that the organization will not support any candidate or party, but the League’s members do advocate on policy issues.
The Florida League got its official start in the state in 1939, when women in Winter Haven, Winter Park and St. Petersburg initiated the Florida League of Women Voters, following some earlier efforts. Its first project was a study of state government with a particular focus on the State’s Constitution. Early advocacy efforts encouraged the Florida Legislature to end the process of gerrymandering.”
A case brought by the League of Women Voters and Democratic-leaning plaintiffs could force the Republican-controlled state legislature to redraw Florida’s “lopsided” election districts before the midterm elections, The Washington Post reported.
Both houses of the Florida legislature are controlled by Republicans as is the governor’s mansion. Republicans had invested heavily in winning the legislature in advance of the once-in-a-decade redrawing process.”
Lawyers for the defendants have told the court that none of the documents sought by the plaintiffs have been “deleted, destroyed, lost, misappropriated, or otherwise became unavailable for production” and that they produced more than 20,000 documents in response to the request.
“The subpoenas were sent April 2 and include Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando; state Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who served as head of the Senate redistricting committee and then Senate president; former state Rep. Dean Cannon, who served as House Speaker when the maps were passed; and state Sen. Jack Latvala, a Clearwater Republican who filed a last minute redistricting amendment that was ultimately passed by the Senate.
Much like the congressional lawsuit, plaintiffs again allege that lawmakers violated anti-gerrymandering provision added to the state Constitution by voters in 2010. The amendments say, in part, that politics cannot play a role in the redistricting process.
The subpoena list is also full of state redistricting staff and outside political consultants, many of whom were also involved in the congressional lawsuit. That includes Gainesville-based GOP consulting firm Data Targeting.
Records released as part of the first lawsuit show the firm drew both congressional and Senate maps and submitted them through third-parties. Firm founder Pat Bainter said the anti-gerrymandering amendments are unfair because it makes it nearly impossible for people who work as political consultants to take part in the map drawing process, which should be their right as a state citizens.”
HAAHAHAH That’s rich!
“One of those is the seat held by state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, which contains parts of Indian River, Martin, Palm Beach and St. Lucie Counties. The lawsuit says Negron’s coastal district was intentionally pushed north into Indian River County to “avoid including Democratic voters to the South.”Pushing the district north opens up a gap in the south between Negron’s district and the seat held by Lake Worth Democrat Jeff Clemens. That gap is filled by a portion of state Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Royal Palm Beach, that “strangely protrudes” into the Palm Beach County, a Democratic stronghold.
“The Legislature intentionally disregarded political and geographic boundaries to favor particular incumbents and the party in power,” read the lawsuit.”
“TALLAHASSEE, Fla., July 9 (Reuters) – The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the redrawing of some of the state’s U.S. congressional districts before the 2016 elections.
The state’s high court found the legislature’s redistricting plan was “constitutionally invalid,” the latest decision in a long-running legal battle over gerrymandering in the state.
The court said two of the state’s 27 congressional districts, currently occupied by Democrat Corrine Brown of Jacksonville and Republican Daniel Webster in the Orlando area, need to be redrawn, as well as adjacent districts.
These districts have been the subject of litigation. A circuit court judge ruled last year that the legislature’s 2012 maps “made a mockery” of anti-gerrymandering provisions in the state’s constitution.
“The court has made it abundantly clear that partisan gerrymandering will not be tolerated,” said attorney David King, representing a group of plaintiffs led by the League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause. (Reporting by Bill Cotterell and Letitia Stein; Editing by Bill Trott and Mohammad Zargham)”
GOP continues to fight tooth and nail for its gerrymandered district maps, despite ruling by Florida Supreme Court firmly against its Congressional district gerrymandering … by gimleteye.
You can read the entire decision from the Supreme Court of Florida there.
“Supreme Court of Florida
____________ No. SC14-1905 ____________
THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF FLORIDA, etc., et al.,
Appellants/Cross–Appellees, vs.
KEN DETZNER, et al.,
Appellees/Cross–Appellants. [July 9, 2015] PARIENTE, J. In this appeal involving legal issues of first impression, we review a trial court’s finding that the 2012 “redistricting process” and the “resulting map” apportioning Florida’s twenty-seven congressional districts were “taint[ed]” by unconstitutional intent to favor the Republican Party and incumbent lawmakers.”
Remember them. The same folks who wouldn’t listen, carried on in the shadows, think we are their personal property. If you think about it we are the employees of FLORIDA INC. (I’d like raise please and some health insurance for the same price you guys get!)
“– 18 – proposed maps in their names to the Legislature, which were drawn by the consultants. What is clear to me from the evidence, as described in more detail below, is that this group of Republican political consultants or operatives did in fact conspire to manipulate and influence the redistricting process. They accomplished this by writing scripts for and organizing groups of people to attend the public hearings to advocate for adoption of certain components or characteristics in the maps, and by submitting maps and partial maps through the public process, all with the intention of obtaining enacted maps for the State House and Senate and for Congress that would favor the Republican Party. They made a mockery of the Legislature’s proclaimed transparent and open process of redistricting by doing all of this in the shadow of that process, utilizing the access it gave them to the decision makers, but going to great lengths to conceal from the public their plan and their participation in it. They were successful in their efforts to influence the redistricting process and the congressional plan under review here. And they might have successfully concealed their scheme and their actions from the public had it not been for the [challengers’] determined efforts to uncover it in this case.The closer question is whether the Legislature in general, or the leadership and staff principally involved in drawing the maps, knowingly joined in this plan, or were duped by the operatives in the same way as the general public.”
“Kenneth W. Detzner (b. 1952 in Chicago, IL) is the current RepublicanFlorida Secretary of State. He was appointed on January 18, 2012, by GovernorRick Scott, and confirmed by the Florida State Senate in late February.[1]Detzner previously occupied the secretary of state’s office for a short period in under then-Gov. Jeb Bush, during its transition from an elective cabinet post to a gubernatorial appointed post. Bush named Detzner his chief of staff until appointing him to serve as interim secretary of state.”
The Florida Legislature Gags Health Care Workers. How not to save a life.
Just file this under “Kick me in the head.”
As well as others, like people who don’t want their houses to float away in Miami, or their drinking water to be all salty, or just us folks here in Stuart/Jensen Beach that don’t want to have to worry about pollution, trains with bombs, and getting flesh eating bacteria when we go to the beach only to be eaten by horny sharks.
When does this endless intrusion end?
Honestly. I’d rather be some sharks dinner than have to figure out how to deal with this garbage.
The people who couldn’t even pass half the credentialing that’s needed to work in the health care field passed a terrible law again to punish all of us that are trying to do our jobs.
This whole mess started when a woman took her child to the pediatrician in Ocala. Pediatricians go to meetings with other pediatricians. and in those meeting they come up with a list of things to “educate” their clients. Just like us nurses do. Especially now that everything is computerized we can’t upload our admission unless all the questions are answered. Many of our safety questions are mandated. That’s just for regular medical people. I’m not even talking about psych.
Let me repeat that one more time. WE CAN’T UPLOAD OUR PAPERWORK UNLESS THE ALL THE QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED.
At any rate, the pediatrician is doing his job and this girl totally goes off on him and she gets in touch with her state rep who lives in Sanford. The Florida NRA gets a hold of all this and they just run with it. I’d have to go back and look it up but I think the pediatrician refused to see the patient not because of the gun. Because she went off. Doctor’s have the right to tell patients they don’t want to come back. It happens all the time.
Guess what. One of those questions is “Do you have a gun?” or “Do you have any weapons?” or “Do you have any fire arms? ” We ask this question, honestly ,with the same tone in our voices as did you poop today? It’s just one more question in a zillion questions when you are doing an assessment of a patient. It’s just one little bit of education. We talk about all kinds of things: scatter rugs, seat belts, steps. Anything that is about the safety of patient is OUR business. Because that’s our job. Our first priority is to make sure our patients are safe and if they are not we have a legal/moral/ethical responsibility to make sure we fixed the situation so the patient is safe.
I’ve have never in all my years as a nurse had anyone who was upset about this question. I’ve had some great discussions about safety especially when children are involved.
I’m not antigun. We had Dad’s army guns in the house and we had guns in Maine at our camp. I was a sharpshooter at summer camp in New Hampshire and I carried a rifle on my back in the field of the kibbutz I lived on in Israel. I was taught to be responsible.
There are some cases that I do need to know if someone has gun. Because if I don’t ask and the person hurts them self or someone else its malpractice. It beyond malpractice. It’s immoral. It’s beyond reason. Just the thought that I could after all my hard work be responsible for the death of someone because my legislators are idiots just slays me.
“Several years ago, the American Medical Association advised doctors to ask their patients about firearms and “educate patients to the dangers of firearms to children” in the name of public health. But doctors in Florida may be suppressed from giving this medical advice, now that a federal appeals court upheld a Florida law that became known as the “physician gag rule” because it punishes doctors for talking about guns.”
Except it not just about physicians. It’s about all health care workers. We are all gagged and we are all open to disciplinary action.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics likens counseling on gun safety to counseling on lead paint avoidance or seat belt use. Pediatricians, the group’s recent policy statement reads, are “urged to counsel parents about the dangers of allowing children and adolescents to have access to guns inside and outside the home.” Doctors are encouraged to promote trigger locks, lock boxes, and gun safes. Some distribute cable locks. The American College of Physicians is similarly proactive, calling gun violence a public health issue “requiring immediate attention.” The group, of which most practicing internal-medicine doctors are members, declared in its recent position statement: “Physicians must become more active in counseling patients about firearm safety.” The college implores doctors to open that conversation by asking patients (with and without children in their homes) about gun ownership.”
790.338 Medical privacy concerning firearms; prohibitions; penalties; exceptions.—
(1) A health care practitioner licensed under chapter 456 or a health care facility licensed under chapter 395 may not intentionally enter any disclosed information concerning firearm ownership into the patient’s medical record if the practitioner knows that such information is not relevant to the patient’s medical care or safety, or the safety of others.
(2) A health care practitioner licensed under chapter 456 or a health care facility licensed under chapter 395 shall respect a patient’s right to privacy and should refrain from making a written inquiry or asking questions concerning the ownership of a firearm or ammunition by the patient or by a family member of the patient, or the presence of a firearm in a private home or other domicile of the patient or a family member of the patient. Notwithstanding this provision, a health care practitioner or health care facility that in good faith believes that this information is relevant to the patient’s medical care or safety, or the safety of others, may make such a verbal or written inquiry.
(3) Any emergency medical technician or paramedic acting under the supervision of an emergency medical services medical director under chapter 401 may make an inquiry concerning the possession or presence of a firearm if he or she, in good faith, believes that information regarding the possession of a firearm by the patient or the presence of a firearm in the home or domicile of a patient or a patient’s family member is necessary to treat a patient during the course and scope of a medical emergency or that the presence or possession of a firearm would pose an imminent danger or threat to the patient or others.
(Because EMT’s have nothing better to do while they are saving the life of your family member.)
(4) A patient may decline to answer or provide any information regarding ownership of a firearm by the patient or a family member of the patient, or the presence of a firearm in the domicile of the patient or a family member of the patient. A patient’s decision not to answer a question relating to the presence or ownership of a firearm does not alter existing law regarding a physician’s authorization to choose his or her patients.
(5) A health care practitioner licensed under chapter 456 or a health care facility licensed under chapter 395 may not discriminate against a patient based solely upon the patient’s exercise of the constitutional right to own and possess firearms or ammunition.
(Who does this anyway? How do you people come up with this garbage? We’re health care workers. It’s our job NOT to judge anyone. Just because your judgmental doesn’t mean we are. A case of pure projection.)
(6) A health care practitioner licensed under chapter 456 or a health care facility licensed under chapter 395 shall respect a patient’s legal right to own or possess a firearm and should refrain from unnecessarily harassing a patient about firearm ownership during an examination.
(7) An insurer issuing any type of insurance policy pursuant to chapter 627 may not deny coverage, increase any premium, or otherwise discriminate against any insured or applicant for insurance on the basis of or upon reliance upon the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition or the lawful use or storage of a firearm or ammunition. Nothing herein shall prevent an insurer from considering the fair market value of firearms or ammunition in the setting of premiums for scheduled personal property coverage.
Another care of guilty until proven innocent.
(8) Violations of the provisions of subsections (1)-(4) constitute grounds for disciplinary action under ss. 456.072(2) and 395.1055.
History.—s. 1, ch. 2011-112.
If violated we get to go in front of disciplinary board.
How would you suggest we not ask this question since it required? I’m pretty sure we all similar computer programs which ask basically the same question.
Almost 20,000 people committed suicide in the United States with firearms in 2011. More than 11,000 were killed by firearms that year, and more than 200 were killed in accidents with guns. In 2009, almost 7,400 children were hospitalized because of injuries related to guns.
Doctors who ask about guns aren’t doing so because they’re nosy. They’re doing so because the vast majority of those deaths and injuries are preventable.
It’s entirely possible to keep a gun in your home safely. But studies show that the majority of people who keep guns in their homes do so in an unlocked space. Few have any kind of trigger locks. More than 10 percent report keeping their guns loaded or near ammunition, in an unlocked area.
That’s often how children get hurt. Few people argue that young children should have access to guns or ammunition. But that’s what’s happening in far too many homes in the United States. Research shows that guns kept in the home are more likely to be involved in accidents, crimes, or suicides than in self-defense.
The gag law, nicknamed the Docs vs. Glocks law by its detractors, was passed by an overwhelmingly Republican Legislature brimming over with money from NRA lobbyists. It would seem to be an obvious First Amendment violation: For asking a patient a question that could save his child’s life, a doctor in Florida could lose her medical license or be fined $10,000. The state has no rational—let alone compelling—interest in censoring doctors from asking this basic question, much less preventing doctors from making evidence-based recommendations about public health and safety. And the law is so broad and vague that even an indirect inquiry could potentially qualify as illegal “harassment of a patient regarding firearm ownership.”
I can’t wait for next year! I bet we won’t be able to ask people if they pooped.
cyndi lenz 