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Dread Scott Decision-Florida Governor Caves On Obamacare

February 22, 2013/4 Comments/in Featured, Opinion /by Ed Farnan

Photo Credit: Irish CentralLongtime foe of Obamacare, Florida Governor Rick Scott, did an about face and agreed to implement the first step of it yesterday. The Governors decision shocked many republican leaders around the country as many of them jostle with the unpopular health care program.

Many republicans and conservatives derided the governor for his decision. The conservative group, Americans For Prosperity released this statement:

“Governor Scott’s announcement today is extremely disappointing. Governor Scott had been a national leader in the fight against President Obama’s health care takeover. He was elected because of his principled conservative leadership against ObamaCare’s overreach, and led the charge, with Attorney General Pam Bondi, to take Obamacare to the Supreme Court. But today he came out in support of the Medicaid expansion he vowed to oppose.”

But Fox News contributor, Dr. Charles Krauthammer said that Governor Scott sees this as the best decision for his state. Dr. Krauthammer said it was “an honorable decision to make.”

Perhaps it was the promise of no cost to Florida for the first three years and then only a 10% payment for it in the 4th year.

Perhaps it was the realization he has lost every battle to overturn Obamacare since its unpopular inception and he might as well accept that it has been mandated the law of the land.

Losing the battle in the Supreme Court struck a huge blow against opponents of Obamacare, but Mitt Romney’s loss to Obama in the election basically guaranteed Obamacare was the law of the land.

Although Obamacare is the law of the land and is being heralded as such, there is much doubt the country can actually afford to pay for it.

The nation is already 16 trillion in debt and piling on billions more debt on a daily basis, without adding all of the upcoming expense of Obamacare.

Governor Scott is a pragmatist and no one thinks his motives are anything but for the best interests of his state. So perhaps his decision is based on a belief that Obamacare will eventually collapse upon itself and he might as well get as much of the free benefits that he can before they are gone.

Governor Scott is only the seventh republican governor to accept the Obamacare mandate, but this might edge the other Governors to follow his lead and add more burdens on the federal government to cover states Obamacare expenses. This will further strain the already out of control deficit and perhaps hasten a showdown with an economic reality the Obama administration has refused to face for the past four years.

Perhaps the Obama administration will dread the Scott decision. Time will tell.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gen. John Allen To Retire, Won’t Seek NATO Post

February 20, 2013/2 Comments/in Featured, News /by Susan Crabtree

Photo Credit: APGen. John Allen is retiring from the military instead of enduring what likely would have been a messy Senate confirmation process to be NATO supreme commander.

The general, who previously served as top commander in Afghanistan, was on track for the prestigious NATO post until his name surfaced in the adultery scandal that toppled former CIA chief David Petraeus.

Gen. Allen was officially cleared of misconduct by the Pentagon in January after a probe into his exchange of e-mails with a socialite in Tampa, Fla., who had clashed with Paula Broadwell, Mr. Petraeus’s biographer and mistress. But it was likely the incident would be revived in any congressional confirmation hearing.

In a statement Tuesday, President Obama said Gen. Allen cited health issues within his family in making his decision to take his name out of consideration for the role of supreme allied commander in Europe.

Read more from this story HERE.

Voter Fraud Group Sues Over Allen West Recount (+video)

February 5, 2013/6 Comments/in Featured, News /by Becket Adams

Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesTrue the Vote, a watchdog group dedicated to protecting against voter fraud, on Monday filed suit against the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections in Florida, demanding the release of “all records pertaining to the recent 18th Congressional District election and subsequent recounts between Rep. Allen West and Patrick Murphy be reviewed in order to perform a comprehensive third-party audit.”

Here’s True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht explaining what the group hopes to accomplish from the lawsuit:

As Engelbrecht notes in the video, the group does not expect to overturn Rep. Murphy’s narrow victory over Allen West. Rather, True the Vote wants the election board’s recount process to be made public so that similar debacles can be avoided in the future.

“This dramatic recount was an extraordinary example of how our elections can suffer systematic failure,” said Engelbrecht.

“We run the risk seeing episodes like this becoming ordinary if citizens do not demand answers and hold election officials accountable. The American people own the voting system — we have the right to ask tough questions when we witness the failure of one of America’s core functions,” she adds.

Read more from this story HERE.

Florida Spends $45K on ‘Incredibly Offensive and Invasive’ Survey of Women’s Sex Lives

November 26, 2012/1 Comment/in Featured, News /by Erica Ritz

The state of Florida has spent roughly $45,000 on a study of the sex lives of its residents, offering the participants $10 CVS gift cards in return for their answers.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Sunday that the Department of Health sent surveys to 4,100 women between the target ages of 18 and 24, which officials say will help them understand women’s need for family-planning services.

The 12-page questionnaire, sent out in September and October, reportedly had 46 questions. They included, according to the Sun Sentinel:

• How did you feel emotionally when you had unprotected sex — were you trying to get pregnant, were you in the “heat of the moment and just went with the flow,” or did you find the man attractive and “thought it would be nice to have a baby with him?” Did you feel “powerless”? Or was it that you “felt emotionally connected with your partner during sex”?

• How old were you when you first had sex? Last time you had sex with a man, did you do anything to keep from getting pregnant? If not, why not?

Read more from this story HERE.

State Forcibly Takes Disabled Child From Mother, Child Dies Next Day

November 13, 2012/12 Comments/in Featured, Kathleen's Korner /by RACHEL QUIGLEY

For 14 years, Marie Freye, who is severely disabled, was lovingly cared for by her mother at home living a happy life, despite her disabilities.

On April 26, 2011, the state ordered the 14-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy and seizures, be taken into care. She died screaming 24 hours later at a $506-per-day nursing home. Records show that on the evening Marie arrived, nurses did not give her life-sustaining medications, fed her only applesauce and neglected to tell a doctor she wasn’t breathing, it emerged today.

Florida social workers ordered that Marie be taken into the Florida Club Care Center against her mother’s wishes, insisting that it was the safest place for her because of her disabilities, according to the Miami Herald.

Marie’s mother Doris pleaded with the ambulance men not to take her daughter away, which was done despite a judge’s order that she remain under the care of her family. ‘When they took Marie out of my hands, it destroyed our family forever,’ Doris said.

But records show that on the evening Marie arrived nurses did not give her life-sustaining medications and allegedly fed her only applesauce, according to the Miami Herald. She arrived screaming on a stretcher at 5:30 pm, records show. At 9 pm she was given apple sauce and ‘comfort measures’. At 11 pm and 2 am it was recorded that she was screaming again. At 5:40 am, Marie’s breathing was described as labored. Five minutes later she was ‘unresponsive’. At 6:54 am, the 14-year-old died of a heart attack at the Jackson North Medical Center.

Read more from this story HERE.

Florida Adopts Racist Educational Standards Even Though Race Classifications are “Nonsense”

October 12, 2012/0 Comments/in Featured, News /by News Editor

Florida sets education standards based on race, ethnicity

By Caroline May. New education standards approved this week in Florida set goals for public school student performance based on race and ethnicity — with lower benchmarks for African-American, Native American, and Hispanic students, and higher ones for white and Asian-American students.

“We need a strong plan to support our dynamic education system,” State Board Chairman Gary Chartrand said in a statement announcing the approval of the state’s strategic plan for public schools and state colleges through 2018, which includes the new race-based benchmarks.

“I am confident that these strategies and goals will put Florida on a path toward raising student achievement, improving educator quality, and expanding school choice,” he added.

According to the plan, Pre-K through grade 12 students will be assessed with their racial subgroups in mind “to reduce the achievement gap.”

By 2018, 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanic students, 82 percent of Native American students and 74 percent of African-American students are expected to be at-or-above grade level reading standards. Read more from this story HERE.

Race: the Single Most Overrated Scientific Myth

By Gregory Oatis. Look, isn’t it time we dispensed with all the “race” nonsense, once and for all?

The fact is, categorizing humanity by “race” as has been happening for all these centuries is simply not a scientifically valid proposition. There is just one race of people on this planet, the human race.

Skin color defines a person about as much as hair color, eye color, or the length of the second toe on the right foot.

It’s a scientific fact that skin color cannot be discerned through DNA testing. If you doubt me, check it out.

And skin color is not even useful as a predictor of chromosomal similarity.

For example, if you pick 50 Americans at random and analyze their DNA, the two most similar sets are as likely to be those of a Ukrainian-American and an African-American as they are two African-Americans. Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Netanyahu Ads Being Run by Conservative Group in Florida

September 20, 2012/8 Comments/in Featured, Video /by News Editor

Watch the anti-Obama ad that’s being run by a conservative group in Florida. In it, Netanyahu confronts Obama’s failure to address the Iranian threat.